Aug 13, 2018, 11:55 am
Last edit by: WineCountryUA
United Airlines Strengthens Commitment to Top Corporate Customers with Launch of United Corporate Preferred
New exclusive program provides multi-level benefits to airline's top business travelers
SAN DIEGO, Aug. 13, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- United Airlines today debuted United Corporate Preferred, the industry's newest corporate travel program designed to offer top travel benefits to the airline's most loyal business customers. United announced the new program this morning at the Global Business Traveler Association (GBTA) Convention in San Diego.
United Corporate Preferred is a new and exclusive benefits program that provides added perks for the airline's top corporate customers. A multi-level program, United Corporate Preferred offers escalating benefits at three levels, including United Corporate Preferred, United Corporate Preferred Plus and United Corporate Preferred Elite. Eligibility for the new program is determined by a corporation's contract status, revenue contribution and loyalty with United. Eligible corporate agreements include United corporate share agreements, United PassPlus and United Meetings.
"Every day thousands of road warriors are jetting off on United to work events and business meetings all over the world," said Jake Cefolia, United's senior vice president of Worldwide Sales. "We designed our United Corporate Preferred program with the customer's entire travel experience in mind, from booking to landing, to identify opportunities to show our appreciation to our loyal business customers with a program that offers extra perks and travel benefits."
Benefits offered to all United Corporate Preferred customers include:
• Preferred upgrades – tie-breaker preferences for upgrades.
• Preferred standby – prioritization when traveling on standby for a different flight and when waitlisting for a seat in a different cabin or booking class.
• Operational adjustment protection – protection during travel interruptions, as well as seat protection to retain the same or similar seat in the event of an aircraft swap.
• Preferred discounts and offers – eligibility to receive exclusive promotions offered by both United and its partners in the near future.
Customers in the airline's new United Corporate Preferred Elite level will also receive the following:
• Additional travel waiver flexibility – when United has a travel waiver in place, customers will receive additional flexibility to adjust their travel beyond restrictions in place on the standard waiver.
• Preferred boarding – later this year, customers will receive priority boarding in group two.
• Preferred seating – later this year, customers will have access to book designated standard economy seats closer to the front of the plane.
To receive these benefits, tickets must be flown on United or United Express flights, reservations must include the customer's corporate account number at the time of booking, and the travel must be for the corporate customer's business. Companies invited to participate in United Corporate Preferred will receive a tailored webpage with information on benefits eligible to their employees. For more information on the program, visit unitedcorporatepreferred.com.
New exclusive program provides multi-level benefits to airline's top business travelers
SAN DIEGO, Aug. 13, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- United Airlines today debuted United Corporate Preferred, the industry's newest corporate travel program designed to offer top travel benefits to the airline's most loyal business customers. United announced the new program this morning at the Global Business Traveler Association (GBTA) Convention in San Diego.
United Corporate Preferred is a new and exclusive benefits program that provides added perks for the airline's top corporate customers. A multi-level program, United Corporate Preferred offers escalating benefits at three levels, including United Corporate Preferred, United Corporate Preferred Plus and United Corporate Preferred Elite. Eligibility for the new program is determined by a corporation's contract status, revenue contribution and loyalty with United. Eligible corporate agreements include United corporate share agreements, United PassPlus and United Meetings.
"Every day thousands of road warriors are jetting off on United to work events and business meetings all over the world," said Jake Cefolia, United's senior vice president of Worldwide Sales. "We designed our United Corporate Preferred program with the customer's entire travel experience in mind, from booking to landing, to identify opportunities to show our appreciation to our loyal business customers with a program that offers extra perks and travel benefits."
Benefits offered to all United Corporate Preferred customers include:
• Preferred upgrades – tie-breaker preferences for upgrades.
• Preferred standby – prioritization when traveling on standby for a different flight and when waitlisting for a seat in a different cabin or booking class.
• Operational adjustment protection – protection during travel interruptions, as well as seat protection to retain the same or similar seat in the event of an aircraft swap.
• Preferred discounts and offers – eligibility to receive exclusive promotions offered by both United and its partners in the near future.
Customers in the airline's new United Corporate Preferred Elite level will also receive the following:
• Additional travel waiver flexibility – when United has a travel waiver in place, customers will receive additional flexibility to adjust their travel beyond restrictions in place on the standard waiver.
• Preferred boarding – later this year, customers will receive priority boarding in group two.
• Preferred seating – later this year, customers will have access to book designated standard economy seats closer to the front of the plane.
To receive these benefits, tickets must be flown on United or United Express flights, reservations must include the customer's corporate account number at the time of booking, and the travel must be for the corporate customer's business. Companies invited to participate in United Corporate Preferred will receive a tailored webpage with information on benefits eligible to their employees. For more information on the program, visit unitedcorporatepreferred.com.
What benefits do United Corporate Preferred travelers receive?
Specific benefits are listed below. Being a multi-level program, within each benefit in tie-breaker scenarios, United Corporate Preferred Elite travelers receive the highest priority, followed by United Corporate Preferred Plus and then United Corporate Preferred.
Specific benefits are listed below. Being a multi-level program, within each benefit in tie-breaker scenarios, United Corporate Preferred Elite travelers receive the highest priority, followed by United Corporate Preferred Plus and then United Corporate Preferred.
Refunds:
UA says
Refunds for preferred seating purchases are processed automatically after scheduled departure in the event of flight cancellation change, when travel is completed in a standard United Economy seat, or when travel is completed in a seat of equal or greater value through the purchase of a premium cabin seating offer.
In the event of a ticket refund or cancellation, preferred seating purchases will be automatically refunded.
...
If you decide to change your flight, your preferred seating purchase will be automatically refunded. If the ticket is partially used at the time of the change, only the value of unused preferred seating will be refunded.
...
If you decide to change your flight, your preferred seating purchase will be automatically refunded. If the ticket is partially used at the time of the change, only the value of unused preferred seating will be refunded.
MileagePlus Premier® members will receive access to preferred seating, where available, at no additional cost.
Preferred seat refunds (changed flights, upgraded, purchased E+, ...)
New Corporate Preferred (upgrade tiebreaker) / new 'preferred' seating section
Aug 13, 2018, 6:55 pm
#46
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Yes, it is.
Aug 13, 2018, 8:12 pm
#47
Join Date: Jan 2016
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My company is far too small to ever qualify for any of these programs, so the big news here is the preferred seating in E-. I suspect Silvers will get access to it at booking.
But what’s the marginal value of a seat near the front if it’s still not E+? I’d say I don’t care if i’m row 24 or 34 on a 739. Loads are heavy virtually all the time now, with >50% of flights being 100% full, so you won’t get a seat open next to you. You save 5 minutes deplaning but is that really worth anything?
Does DL let preferred buyers board earlier?
It’d be more valuable if UA reserves nearly all aisle and half the window seats as preferred instead of a bunch of whole rows. I will never take, say, 22B over 36F. Never.
But what’s the marginal value of a seat near the front if it’s still not E+? I’d say I don’t care if i’m row 24 or 34 on a 739. Loads are heavy virtually all the time now, with >50% of flights being 100% full, so you won’t get a seat open next to you. You save 5 minutes deplaning but is that really worth anything?
Does DL let preferred buyers board earlier?
It’d be more valuable if UA reserves nearly all aisle and half the window seats as preferred instead of a bunch of whole rows. I will never take, say, 22B over 36F. Never.
Aug 13, 2018, 8:13 pm
#48
Join Date: May 2017
Posts: 2,280
Delta then rolled out EC, which those w/o status DON'T have access to. Delta when they did EC did not include the exit rows (unlike UA) as EC. So the result is that on DL (using the A319 as an e.g. since UA gave a seating chart), there are 3 rows of EC, and two "exit rows" which are called "preferred". Difference? You get the extra leg room, but not free food/snacks. DL then has an extra two rows of "preferred" E- seating after the exit rows, and an additional 13 rows of E-. UA? Well 7 rows of E+ (two of which are exit rows), 5 rows of "preferred" (all Y-) and then 8 rows Y-.
Edit: Also UA's preferred seats are not exclusive to corporate flyers. Those with status will also have access to the preferred seats. This move is just giving people who spend more with UA the opportunity to have better seats. As it currently stands, high status and corporate flyers are booking close in, so these good seats are often gone for them. Do you really want to give your most valuable flyers the worst seats on the plane? Alternatively, it can be an additional revenue stream, turning that less frequent flyer, buying my cheaper tickets into another revenue opportunity with the marginal increase in them purchasing a better seat. For non-status flyers, this means you either pay up (consistent with what AA and DL already have) or you learn how to game the system (as it currently stands, waiting longer before checking in to get a better seat).
Last edited by Lux Flyer; Aug 13, 2018 at 8:20 pm
Aug 13, 2018, 8:24 pm
#49
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Aug 13, 2018, 8:29 pm
#50
Join Date: May 2017
Posts: 2,280
Also worth reminding people that the UA seat chart is a mock-up at this point. They say flat out the exact details are yet to be ironed out on preferred seating, and it will likely vary by the time it actually rolls out. My guess is the current chart is a marketing mockup to at least get the release out there, and as to which seats are identified as preferred will change by the time this actually goes live. If they're smart about the roll out they would be adjusting their preferred seating options as they start to get usage data for what people are actually booking/paying for. For DL on example the middles don't tend to be preferred. Depending on the traveler, that 5 minutes saved being 10 rows further up could be valuable. If they are running on a short connection (either scheduled or because they were delayed) it could make the difference b/w getting to their destination and an overnight stay due to a misconnect.
Aug 13, 2018, 8:51 pm
#51
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Scanning the Wiki these seem like pretty vanilla spiffs that folks tagged as Corporate preferred probably already have via status or credit card.
Group 2 is already half the plane. Welcome to the Deuce, Corporate preferred!
Group 2 is already half the plane. Welcome to the Deuce, Corporate preferred!
Aug 13, 2018, 10:31 pm
#52
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My company is far too small to ever qualify for any of these programs, so the big news here is the preferred seating in E-. I suspect Silvers will get access to it at booking.
But what’s the marginal value of a seat near the front if it’s still not E+? I’d say I don’t care if i’m row 24 or 34 on a 739. Loads are heavy virtually all the time now, with >50% of flights being 100% full, so you won’t get a seat open next to you. You save 5 minutes deplaning but is that really worth anything?
Does DL let preferred buyers board earlier?
It’d be more valuable if UA reserves nearly all aisle and half the window seats as preferred instead of a bunch of whole rows. I will never take, say, 22B over 36F. Never.
But what’s the marginal value of a seat near the front if it’s still not E+? I’d say I don’t care if i’m row 24 or 34 on a 739. Loads are heavy virtually all the time now, with >50% of flights being 100% full, so you won’t get a seat open next to you. You save 5 minutes deplaning but is that really worth anything?
Does DL let preferred buyers board earlier?
It’d be more valuable if UA reserves nearly all aisle and half the window seats as preferred instead of a bunch of whole rows. I will never take, say, 22B over 36F. Never.
Aug 14, 2018, 12:20 am
#53
Join Date: Oct 2008
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I look at this as a solid business move. It adds value to corporate contracts and garners additional revenue from customers that are willing to pay for the seat they’d like.
Aug 14, 2018, 11:02 am
#54
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Just wait for it.
David
Aug 15, 2018, 12:24 pm
#55
Join Date: Jan 2018
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UA's New Corporate Preferred Program
"...Much like elite status for individual travelers, the new corporate-centered status will have multiple levels. The business will qualify as either United Corporate Preferred, United Corporate Preferred Plus or United Corporate Preferred Elite. According to the airline, eligibility and status will be determined by the corporate account holder’s “contract status, revenue contribution and loyalty with United...”
Has anyone done the analysis to see how these three tiers align to silver/gold/plat/1K/GS?
Has anyone done the analysis to see how these three tiers align to silver/gold/plat/1K/GS?
Aug 15, 2018, 12:32 pm
#56
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A bit of apples and oranges.
The enhanced benefits will be add to the existing beneit structure. For the most part, elites arleady have most of these benefits but the new program might slightly (very minor) enhance the priority for the UCP traveller. The non-elite UCP will get the most benefit -- it will place them ahead of other non-elities
Aug 21, 2018, 10:03 pm
#57
Join Date: Aug 2004
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USA Today: United Airlines to add fees for economy seats near front of the plane
Didn't see this posted here yet, but USA Today has an article saying that United will start charging extra for seat assignments near the front of Economy: https://www.usatoday.com/story/trave...in/1046963002/
The article states they are referring to the E- rows just behind E+.
The article states they are referring to the E- rows just behind E+.
Last edited by WineCountryUA; Aug 21, 2018 at 11:04 pm Reason: merged into exisiting thread
Aug 21, 2018, 10:05 pm
#58
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I guess they held out as long as they could, but it's too hard to ignore another source of revenue that everyone else is taking advantage of.
Aug 22, 2018, 2:01 pm
#59
Join Date: Feb 2015
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If your entire boarding process is tiered towards money paid, you will board far slower than back-to-front, window-to-aisle. Which means longer turns and a lower on-time number.
Aug 22, 2018, 2:20 pm
#60
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But so we don't go OT here, see numerous discussions of this elsewhere
https://mythresults.com/airplane-boarding
https://informs-sim.org/wsc14papers/.../files/174.pdf
https://www.businessinsider.com/why-...o-front-2015-5
It is a valid question if this change will materially impact the present UA boarding process. My guess is no, because it is not a huge deviation from the present process.
Last edited by WineCountryUA; Aug 23, 2018 at 2:22 pm