United Airlines is launching a new platform later this year that will allow corporate customers to customise their travel programme contracts with the airline.
Its new platform, United for Business Blueprint, will be available in late 2022 and will allow corporates to look beyond just discounted fares.
Instead, corporates will have the option to reserve more spacious seats in Economy Plus and get Wi-Fi access, or get incentives like discounts on leisure travel for employees.
They can also request higher status in United’s loyalty programmes, including United Corporate Preferred, the airline’s loyalty programme for corporate customers.
Corporates will be invited to work with a United sales representative to design a programme that best fits their business travel needs.
“The needs of our customers are changing, and it’s the right time to move beyond the one-size-fits-all contracting model that has become standard across the industry,” said Doreen Burse, Senior Vice President of Worldwide Sales for United.
“The voice of our customers played an essential role in how this new platform was built and will continue to shape how it evolves in the future.”
Alongside this new platform, United will begin rolling out a new website in late 2022 that will make it easier for companies who book business travel on united.com or the United app to enrol in and manage their travel programme.
The airline claims the website will have one of the most intuitive sign-up processes in the industry and will allow companies to sign up “with just a few clicks”.
New capabilities will include the ability to easily rebook and exchange travel and view and use future flight credits and view reports on travel activity based on money spent or trips taken, with the option to filter based by date of travel, origin, destination and more.
The site has been designed with small businesses in mind but United says it will also bring great value to larger organisations that book their business travel through united.com or the United app.
