United Airlines' decision to limit bookings through its
PerksPlus small business loyalty program only to those clients booking through
travel management companies is a first step to sunsetting the product and
moving all business customers to the carrier's United for Business platform, United
VP of sales strategy and effectiveness Glenn Hollister told BTN on Monday.
The carrier last
week in a client memo announced that as of Feb. 1, 2024, bookings through
PerksPlus, which allows business customers to accrue and redeem loyalty points
for flights taken, would be "exclusively available to corporate customers
booking through a travel agency."
Hollister, though, said that the move was designed neither
to dissuade direct booking nor promote TMC use, but instead was the beginning
of an effort to move customers off the PerksPlus platform in favor of its
United for Business portal, which he said offered richer, more flexible
functionality.
Calling PerksPlus "quite old, limited in functionality
and inflexible," Hollister said the move was the next step in a years-long
effort by United to overhaul its corporate programs, including the launch and
refinement of United for Business and the debut of the Blueprint
request-for-proposals platform.
"The move is the first step of several that will end up
with us ultimately sunsetting the Perks Plus program and platform entirely and
moving all customers onto United for Business," Hollister said. "We
have started with our direct-only customers because those are the easiest ones
to move."
United for Business requires additional technological
development to "build in the functionality so that agency-supported
customers also have the range of options about program types and rewards, and
being able to earn those through agencies," Hollister said. That process
"probably" would be complete in 2025, he said.
"Eventually everything that a corporate customer or
agency partner would need will be in United for Business," Hollister said.
"It's a multi-year journey to get everything there, but we want to end up
in the place where no matter who you are or what you need, if you have some
kind of a b-to-b relationship, you're going to United for Business."
Adam Keeter, director of United for Business product and
alliance strategy, said he "wouldn't expect any seismic changes" for
the carrier's other business products in 2024.
As for PerksPlus, Keeter said the carrier made
no changes to the program, including point accrual or redemption levels or the included
eligibility of such United partner carriers as Lufthansa and All Nippon
Airways, beyond the requirement for an agency. Though customers booking direct
through PerksPlus will be unable to accrue points beginning Feb. 1, they can
redeem points before they expire Jan. 31, 2026, he said.