UA Adds Corp. Web Bookings

United Airlines has found a way to count bookings made through its Web site toward corporate agreements, a development it said will enhance the utility of its emerging Corporate Solutions initiative. Though most of United's corporate clients won't transition to the carrier's redesigned contracts for months, many already expressed satisfaction and relief regarding the shift to more stabilized and deliverable market share-based goals. While some buyers still may not fully welcome The Prism Group's involvement as the sole data aggregator and processor, most recognize the benefits of sophisticated contract performance monitoring.

Of course, when a supplier the size of United enacts such sweeping changes across its entire client base (BTN, March 25), questions inevitably surface. In this case, a leading inquiry is why customers must feed their data to Prism rather than a third party of their choice, a decision United reached after "doing a great deal of homework." Also, some buyers question how United will determine new share targets and associated corporate discounts. Calling those determinations "arbitrary," one corporate buyer said, "In changing concepts, United's expectations may be too high as they convert from a volume to a share mentality."

Frank Kent, United vice president of North America sales and head of Corporate Solutions, said conversions will be done account by account, rather than with a standardized process. "Each corporate agreement is like a fingerprint, a little different than all the others," he said.

Chicago-based Aon was one of the first companies to begin working with United's new processes and thus far has reported no problems. "We already use Prism and our agency is accustomed to sending the data," said Harriet Washburn, Aon vice president of travel. "Continental and British Airways already do this, so it's hardly an anomaly." Washburn said she'd be surprised if the new system actually changes client behavior. "I would like to think that everyone is monitoring contracts with diligence," she said. "All this does is change the ability for carriers to see it all earlier."

According to another Chicago-area buyer, that means United's salesforce can spend more time in the field. "United in Chicago always was so caught up in the numbers and it hurt them in terms of vendor selection, because the dollar amounts they wanted were ridiculous and never would have been achieved," he said. "Now, their people can engage clients, which is what they should be doing, and United will see more market share shift in a place like Chicago."

"This is definitely a step up for United for their internal purposes in being able to understand who their customers are and better manage programs," said Mark Walton, principal at Consulting Strategies in Rolling Meadow, Ill. "Seemingly, Continental's program is doing what it is supposed to do and there is less concern on data integrity and privacy."

Continental agreed, saying clients willing to share "safeguarded data" will see improved deals. "It answers the question of what both sides can deliver," said Dave Hilfman, Continental vice president of multinational accounts and revenue programs, in applauding United's new approach. "We can't ask for outrageous share goals, but we also want to see travel policy, senior management support and traveler support."

Though data privacy concerns have waned somewhat in the two years since Continental launched its Prism-enabled Corporate Insight program, some in the industry remain cautious. "The data that United wants is the customer's data. There is masking, but on most city pairs it is not hard to figure out what is going on," said Ed Gilligan, group president of global corporate services for American Express, speaking last month during Corporate Travel World in New York. "If you are concerned, express your concern and look at your options."

In response, Kent said United "does not use a Ouija board" to create corporate agreements. "We do not divine to what extent companies travel, what they prefer and what their policies dictate, but we need to know that to move forward," he said.

Danny Hood, president of WorldTravel BTI, echoed with a caveat Gilligan's data-ownership sentiment during the same CTW discussion. "There are not many industries or procurement departments asked to do things this way," Hood said, "but there are not many other industries that use market share requirements." Hood also pointed to the "search for the Holy Grail of flown data," a development on which Prism continues to work. "Hopefully, the airlines will give us flown data instead of messing around with charged data, booked data, etc."

Meanwhile, in recognizing frustrations throughout the corporate travel community, United will enable clients to book Internet fares available at united.com once they transition to the Corporate Solutions framework. "In the past three weeks we have found a technological solution" to this issue, Kent said. "Concurrent with the launch of Corporate Solutions, we are ready, willing and able to track online bookings with our partners and include them in the base for contract calculations."

The added capability is similar to a recent development at US Airways (BTN, March 25), but, Kent said, different in that accounts won't be required to provide United with reports detailing comparable bookings via other airline sites. United officials said corporate online bookings will begin counting toward new market share-based agreements as early as next month.