Travel Agency Celebrates With United Airlines

The media and the traveling public have often expressed their dissatisfaction with United Airlines this year, as the country’s third-largest carrier found itself in the middle of a few customer service firestorms.

But Executive Travel last month celebrated “United Airlines Appreciation Week,” offering its customers bonus MileagePlus Award Miles for bookings made through the agency.

Executive Travel founder, chairman and CEO Steve Glenn said the Lincoln, NE, travel agency created United Appreciation Week “to celebrate 30 years of partnership” and “to thank the mutual clients we have together. We have been blessed to have had 30 great years in this industry, and wanted to share our good fortune with our clients.”

Clients who booked a United flight through Executive Travel between July 10 and July 14 were awarded up to 25,000 Bonus Award Miles, depending on their trip. The agency saw an increase in United Airlines sales of more than 25% over its average for a week in July, and gave away millions of Bonus Award Miles, Glenn said.

Executive Travel created the promotion (and a similar one with American Airlines) to help celebrate its 30th year in business this year. “We were trying to find an outside-the-box way to thank our clients and prospects for being a part of our history,” Glenn said.

“This year has been unprecedented in the amount of negative publicity that airlines have received. When beginning this promotion, the thought of a negative customer service issue reflecting poorly on Executive Travel had crossed our mind, but our concerns were relieved quickly” as ideas about the promotion were discussed throughout the organization, Glenn said.

According to Glenn, the agency received no negative feedback or concerns about the United promotion.

The company, well known for its corporate travel management business, has never held an appreciation week for any airline prior to the one for United, though this month, it also celebrated American airlines.

Glenn said that this was the first time United has worked with a corporate travel agency to directly deposit Bonus MileagePlus Award Miles into an individual’s account. “That is usually only done through United or credit card companies,” Glenn said.

The company celebrated American Airlines, with its “Buy AAmerican Week,” Aug. 14-18, 2017.