UAL To Hawk ITN Booking

<B> UAL To Hawk ITN Booking</B>

By Mary Ann McNulty

United Airlines sales reps are beginning to pitch corporate clients on Internet Travel Network's Global Manager, which is not a UAL-branded corporate booking tool.

Researching the needs of its corporate clients over the past 18 months, UAL has determined that companies are looking for products that bring them efficiencies, not for a branded product, said director of distribution planning Sue Fullman. Consequently, United scrapped plans to create a custom version of ITN.

The research emphasized the importance of offering corporations a neutral online booking system that is unencumbered by other issues in the market. Many corporations today are looking at short-term deals or how much the product will cost them upfront. But the savings over the long term with a player like ITN--that doesn't subsidize with credit card or CRS fees--will be much greater, Fullman said. Since 1996, UAL has tested two branded corporate booking products developed by Galileo. Neither met corporate expectations and were scrapped.

United's sales force will receive a nominal commission for signing up corporate customers on ITN, she said.