Though United Airlines retained its third-place ranking, the carrier also had declining scores in all but two categories—"networks, partnerships and frequencies," which was its highest-rated category at 4.08, and "distribution channels." The biggest declines were for "flexibility in meeting pricing and contract negotiation," "quality of client communications," "complaint/problem resolution" and "quality of data and reporting tools."
"They've been investing in their product and their service, but they've been stricter when it comes to pricing and agreements," reducing discounts for some corporate clients, Partnership Travel Consulting chief strategy officer Bob Brindley said.
Brindley added that United has been a "little more flexible lately, however, from a published fare perspective, I think they've been a little bit more aggressive in their pricing their product compared to the competition, so that could have a little bit of play in this as well," he said.
United declined an interview for this report, but provided answers to some questions via email.
The carrier gets a lot of attention each year for its new international destinations, and BTN asked how the sales team works with the network team to make sure business routes are added or remain intact.
"United looks at a variety of factors when determining new routes: customer demand, market characteristics, partner carrier connectivity and more," according to the airline. "The United sales division has an active and impactful voice in the overarching commercial conversation, and we work closely with our network planning team to provide a holistic view of each route and the impact for our sales customers,"
United also shared details on the sunsetting of the United PerksPlus program, initially announced nearly three years ago. The program will end for U.S.-based customers at the end of 2026 and the remaining PerksPlus customers in 2027, according to the carrier. "We plan to invite United PerksPlus customers to transition to the United for Business portal and a new rewards program later this month. They have been informed of this transition and receive updates regularly via email."
Though asked about upcoming investments and changes to the UATP process, United did not answer that question. However, in a viewed recording of part of United's customer event in late August, VP of sales strategy and effectiveness Glenn Hollister said that the UATP process would be changing from how it works today. The carrier would move to UATP DataMine sometime in the next year. Once complete, it will greatly improve the process for moving tickets to UATP, he said.