United Airlines has promised its corporate customers it will beat American and Delta in on-time arrivals or offer service credits for upgrades and fees.
The airline said it’s “so confident” it will deliver the same level of service in 2016 as its rivals, it will compensate “qualified corporate accounts” if it fails to meet that commitment.
The announcement follows a similar move by Delta earlier this year, the key difference being Delta’s credits can be used to pay fares, while United’s can only be used towards seat upgrades and other ancillary costs.
Once a flight is delayed United will credit the corporate account with the relevant compensation, this can then be redeemed from January 1 2017.
The table below shows the amount of credits a corporate can expect to receive.
Number of 2016 delayed flights or cancelled flights experienced by eligible travellers | United Services Funds |
Up to 500 | $1,000 |
501 to 1,000 | $2,500 |
1,001 to 2,500 | $7,500 |
2,501 to 5,000 | $15,000 |
5,001 to 15,000 | $50,000 |
15,001 to 35,000 | $110,000 |
Over 35,000 | $250,000 |
United said businesses will qualify for the service credits if they are a select global, US or Canadian based corporate account with a share agreement and the contract is at least 95 per cent compliant.
United VP and chief revenue officer Jim Compton said the ‘Global Performance Commitment’ shows how important reliability is to its corporate customers.
“United Airlines both in completion and arrival performance will not be beaten by either Delta or American. One of our competitors has a commitment out there [Delta], but it’s domestic and it’s mainline,” said Compton.
“When I say global, I really mean it. It’s domestic, international, mainline and express in completion and arrival performance.
“It shows how important reliability is to our customers, how much we have invested in it and how we are gaining great traction.”
Compton added: “There’s slim to no chance we’re going to pay – that’s how confident we are about our operations. We don’t think we will have to expand that service fund. But if we did have to pay, that’s what we’d do.
“We’re trying to be the carrier that’s easy to do business with. And allowing people more flexibility in the service fund builds on that,” he said.
United are fifth among US carriers in on-time arrivals, according to the latest statistics from the US Department of Transportation. This is an improvement from ninth in the same period last year.