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 22, 2018, 4:01 pm
#61
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: CLE, DCA, and 30k feet
Programs: Honors LT Diamond; United 1K; Hertz PC
Posts: 4,156
UA has never used back-to-front and it has been shown many times that back-to-front is not a particular efficient manner to board -- so that should not be the target to measure against.
[...]
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.
[...]
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.
1) If it does materially impact boarding times, UA can just pad schedules further to account for it = long term net impact on OTP is inconsequential
2) I wonder what % of travelers fall into the side of the venn diagram of "works for a Corporate Preferred company, traveling on company business [with the tour code, etc applied], and doesn't already have status" -- my guess is not a great unwashed mass.
3) In my completely subjective experience (and relatively limited) experience in intracontinental Europe, domestic Australia, and Asia (China to Mongolia) "scrum"/survival of the fittest boarding definitely works well... it's also not something I'd want to do every day but it does solve the preboarding problem...
Dec 10, 2018, 9:13 pm
#62
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: San Francisco/Sydney
Programs: UA 1K/MM, Hilton Diamond, Marriott Something, IHG Gold, Hertz PC, Avis PC
Posts: 8,151
Looks like the "Preferred seats" part of this is about to occur - https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unit...ng-credit.html
I suspect probably more than you'd expect. We are "Preferred Elite" level. Whilst we have a lot of people who are frequent travelers, we also have a LOT of people who travel a handful of times a year - not enough to get status (or at best, Silver). Whilst the number of trips per person there isn't high, the number of people is, so you still end up with a large number of flights. Plus of course there's all of the travel on non-personally-preferred airlines - people who have status of DL/AA/etc, but take several flights a year on UA either for price of convenience.
I suspect probably more than you'd expect. We are "Preferred Elite" level. Whilst we have a lot of people who are frequent travelers, we also have a LOT of people who travel a handful of times a year - not enough to get status (or at best, Silver). Whilst the number of trips per person there isn't high, the number of people is, so you still end up with a large number of flights. Plus of course there's all of the travel on non-personally-preferred airlines - people who have status of DL/AA/etc, but take several flights a year on UA either for price of convenience.
Dec 10, 2018, 9:30 pm
#63
Join Date: Aug 2011
Location: IAH / HOU
Programs: UA GS, DL-Plat, Hilton Gold, IHG Platinum, Hyatt Somethingist, Marriott Titanium Lifetime
Posts: 2,853
Looks like the "Preferred seats" part of this is about to occur - https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unit...ng-credit.html
I suspect probably more than you'd expect. We are "Preferred Elite" level. Whilst we have a lot of people who are frequent travelers, we also have a LOT of people who travel a handful of times a year - not enough to get status (or at best, Silver). Whilst the number of trips per person there isn't high, the number of people is, so you still end up with a large number of flights. Plus of course there's all of the travel on non-personally-preferred airlines - people who have status of DL/AA/etc, but take several flights a year on UA either for price of convenience.
I suspect probably more than you'd expect. We are "Preferred Elite" level. Whilst we have a lot of people who are frequent travelers, we also have a LOT of people who travel a handful of times a year - not enough to get status (or at best, Silver). Whilst the number of trips per person there isn't high, the number of people is, so you still end up with a large number of flights. Plus of course there's all of the travel on non-personally-preferred airlines - people who have status of DL/AA/etc, but take several flights a year on UA either for price of convenience.
Dec 13, 2018, 11:34 pm
#65
Join Date: Nov 2018
Location: SNA
Programs: Mileageplus
Posts: 15
(I wasn't bumped off them).It was charging for my domestic itineraries but if I had an international destination but a domestic segment, there was no charge. I am not flying corporate.
Dec 14, 2018, 12:27 am
#66
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: San Francisco/Sydney
Programs: UA 1K/MM, Hilton Diamond, Marriott Something, IHG Gold, Hertz PC, Avis PC
Posts: 8,151
Yeah, looks like the seat maps have been updated. Here an upcoming p.s. flight :
From mousing-over the seats, all windows back to row 32 are Preferred, and middles back to row 29. They are listed as "Standard legroom", "Favorable location in Economy"
As a 1K there was no charge for selecting one (this is for a non-company booking so it was due to my status, not the companies in this case), although I think I'll stick with 21F (and continue to sweat the Polaris waitlist!)
From mousing-over the seats, all windows back to row 32 are Preferred, and middles back to row 29. They are listed as "Standard legroom", "Favorable location in Economy"
As a 1K there was no charge for selecting one (this is for a non-company booking so it was due to my status, not the companies in this case), although I think I'll stick with 21F (and continue to sweat the Polaris waitlist!)
Dec 14, 2018, 1:48 am
#67
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: DSM, BKK or anywhere with an airport
Programs: UA 2P, HH Gold
Posts: 1,018
Preferred Seats?
I noticed on UAs seat-maps that there are now E- seats that are notated as 'preferred'. Anyone know what's special about these ? It looks like they are a lot of E- middles, I dont know what would be preferred about those.
Dec 14, 2018, 3:09 am
#70
Join Date: May 2009
Location: Washington, DC
Programs: UA 1K 1MM, AA, DL
Posts: 7,418
Must be a rollout glitch. I would expect the middles not to be preferred but the aisle/window seats just behind E+. These will be free to corporate preferred customers but a charge otherwise.
Dec 14, 2018, 7:49 am
#72
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: CLE, DCA, and 30k feet
Programs: Honors LT Diamond; United 1K; Hertz PC
Posts: 4,156
Labeling 2-5 as preferred is laughable. At best they're "quickest escape" or possibly "less awful"
Dec 14, 2018, 8:14 am
#73
Join Date: Nov 2012
Programs: BA Bronze, United 1K, HH Gold, SPG Platinum, Marriott Platinum
Posts: 3,477
Row 1 is the only row in a CR2 that's even remotely tolerable. As far as I can tell the CR2 is the only aircraft I've been on where the exit row has no real perceivable space advantage over any other seat in that torture tube.
Labeling 2-5 as preferred is laughable. At best they're "quickest escape" or possibly "less awful"
Labeling 2-5 as preferred is laughable. At best they're "quickest escape" or possibly "less awful"
Going back to the "preferred" seating subject, what will happen on my route (home to ORD, ORD to home) is that it's the Basic Economy passengers and the standbys that will get those "preferred' seats. There are not many corporate preferred passengers. Most times, there's only one 1K (myself) and next year there will be two (my wife just joined the club). And there never seem to be many passengers with status that could choose rows 2 and 3 (those were the rows that previously you needed status). One time, in two years and a half of traveling, there was one GS.
Dec 14, 2018, 8:52 am
#74
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Oct 2001
Location: Austin, TX
Posts: 21,386
They've marked a lot of seats as "preferred" -- not just windows and aisles behind E+, but also some middles. I expect they'll play with the designations as they get a feel for how many people are willing to pay to be closer to the front of the plane.