United Airlines announced it is implementing “enhancements” to its distribution system in response to corporate buyer and travel management company feedback about their lack of visibility into bookings once changes are made on the carrier’s direct channels.

According to a statement, more than 10,000 corporate tour-coded tickets daily are changed through united.com or the United mobile app. It’s well known in the industry, said the statement, that those tickets lose most, or all, negotiated benefits, including discounts, Corporate Preferred considerations, duty of care visibility and more — until now. As part of its omni-channel approach to distribution, said the statement, all contracted corporate customers now have the ability to bring United’s channels into their managed travel program.

This approach complements existing managed travel programs, according to the statement, and extends its benefits in several ways, including:

• Increases savings by ensuring any booking or exchange is inclusive of corporate negotiated discounts;
• Ensures compliance by applying common travel policy and form of payment control;
• Fulfills duty-of-care obligations with data feeds to common duty-of-care providers as directed by the corporation;
• Creates efficient workflows utilizing data feeds to many expense providers;
• Integrates into TMC reporting and more with direct data feeds into top agency mid-office solutions.
  
  

United said its team continues to work closely with each customer and agency partner to determine their best path forward. It said customers should be on the lookout for another round of informational webinars in the coming weeks.