United Airlines Group Booking

All you need to know about United Airlines Group Booking

Traveling is best enjoyed with a group. The group may consist of your family members, colleagues or friends. The group may even consist of students, sportsmen and corporate delegates. But what sets group travels apart from regular solo or couple trips is the amplified dose of fun and excitement they bring along. The energy and vibe each person brings to the group, the enthusiasm added to the trip by each and every group member and the bonding developed between individuals, make group traveling a truly unmissable experience. And the fun gets even more magnified if such group trips include domestic or international air travel. The purposes behind group travels could be many. It could be a family holiday, a reunion between old friends or a relaxing weekend getaway with office colleagues. It could even be a sporting event, a business meet or a college excursion. Whatever it is, there is no denying the fact that group travels are a hundred times more exciting than monotonous solo trips. No wonder, large airline companies recognize this as a great business opportunity and often make various kinds of offers including reduced airfares, lenient baggage norms and dedicated executives to woo group travelers. And United Airlines is too not an exception. The 90-year-old American airline, which has introduced many firsts in the aviation industry like the first female flight attendant and an on-board airborne kitchen, has a well-articulated United Airlines Group Booking policy that attracts group travelers of all kinds and provides them with a seamless travel experience. Excerpts from the United group booking policy along with the terms and conditions are given below.

The United Airlines Group Reservations policy

Group bookings are very much different from individual flight ticket bookings. As the name suggests, group bookings in air travel are bulk bookings of air tickets made by a group of individuals, an organization, a corporate entity or a government or non-government body. Due to the good amount of money involved in such deals, group bookings are seen as great revenue boosters by airlines and travel agencies. And like other airlines, United Airlines too offers various lucrative deals to such groups and entities to grab the bulk businesses. It has a brief but well-written group reservation policy that lays down all the terms and conditions for group bookings perfectly. These are as follows.

The terms & Conditions for United Airlines Group Reservations

1. i. The United Airlines Group Reservations policy mandates that there need to be at least 10 members in a group to be eligible to apply for tickets under the group booking scheme of United Airlines. This doesn’t mean that any group of individuals or corporate or government entity with fewer members can’t make group ticket purchases, but such bookings would not enjoy the special price and services offered by the airline under the group booking scheme. In short, you need at least 10 people in your group to get all the benefits associated with the United Airlines group booking policy.
2. ii. United Airlines Group Booking norms clarify that certain entitlements and privileges associated with group bookings such as the presence of a group coordinator for reception of guests at the airports are not available at all locations.
3. iii. In case of group bookings made by educational institutions for educational trips or school excursions that include children of 14 years of age or less, post-October 21, 2019, United Airlines allows one adult to accompany only up to 15 children on a flight at a time. So, if the group has 25 children aged up to 14 years or less, 2 adults must accompany them on the journey.
4. iv. The United Airlines Group Reservations policy makes it mandatory for every group intending to benefit from the airline’s attractive group booking scheme to first fill up and submit the online bid request form and then wait for a favorable response from the airline. As per norms, United Airlines takes a maximum of 2 business days to respond to the customers’ bids.
5. v. All quotations provided by United Airlines against group booking requests submitted by customers are subject to the availability of seats at the time of booking. Any delay in booking could compromise the quoted offers.
6. vi. United Airlines allows the pooling of baggage for group ticket booking.
7. vii. The Cost of extra baggage and other ancillary costs such as travel insurance are not included in the group ticket price quote. These are subject to additional applicable charges over and above the quoted ticket prices.
8. viii. United Airlines permits part payments for group ticket bookings, but the complete payment should be made and all dues cleared at least seven days before the scheduled departure.
9. ix. In the case of partial payments for group bookings, passengers are required to deposit 25% of the booking amount if the price quote is provided more than 15 days before the scheduled travel date.
10. x. Passengers must deposit 50% of the booking amount if the price quote is provided by United Airlines between 8 to 14 days before the scheduled date of travel. This deposit is completely non-refundable.
11. xi. The names of all passengers in the group along with their complete details must be provided to United Airlines a minimum of 48 hours before the scheduled date of departure, without which the entire group would be denied permission to board the flight.
12. xii. The group booking amount once paid either in part or in total is non-transferable and non-refundable.
13. xiii. As per the United Airlines Group Reservations policy, any booking amount paid is forfeited in case of a group booking cancellation or if one or more passengers fail to turn up at the airport on the day of travel.
14. xiv. Price quotes provided by United Airlines have to be revised if passengers request a change in United Airlines group travel date and time. Any such change would require additional payments to be made in the form of flight change fees.
15. xv. Additional passengers can be added to the group subject to the availability of seats at the time of booking and payment of applicable fare decided by United Airlines.

United Airlines Group Travel Benefits

United Airlines offers various kinds of benefits to passengers who have booked tickets under the United Airlines group travel scheme. The benefits are as follows,

a. Special Fare: United Airlines provides a guaranteed special fare for all group members if tickets are booked as per the guidelines of the United Airlines Group Reservations policy.

b. Airport Coordinator: A dedicated airport group coordinator is allotted to each group that has booked tickets with United Airlines under the Group Reservation policy for their special receptions at the airports and the group members’ convenience. However, this particular service is not available at all airport locations across the world.

c. Priority Check-in: All group booking passengers are treated as priority customers by United Airlines and they receive special privileges such as a guaranteed priority check-in at the airports.

d. Name change flexibility: United Airlines offers certain relaxations on its name change norms to all group members subject to the terms and conditions of the final ticketing agreement.

e. Payment Flexibility: United Airlines offers flexible payment options to all groups during ticket bookings under the United Airlines Group Reservation Policy. Groups are allowed to deposit payments in part during booking and pay the rest before a specified date.

United Airlines Group Ticket Rates

United Airlines Group Rates depend on several important factors and vary accordingly. Factors such as distance, type of destination, season of travel (peak or off-peak), time and date of travel (early mornings, peak hours and weekends), and fares offered by competitors for the same destination determine the group ticket rates. Moreover, the number of members in the group also carries special weightage in the calculation of the final fare and providing any additional United Airlines Group Discounts if possible. United Airlines doesn’t guarantee the quoted group ticket rates beyond a specified deadline.

How to book group travel tickets with United Airlines?

Booking United Airlines Group Travel tickets is a fairly easy task. There are different ways to do that. Mentioned below are some of the best ways and the complete step-by-step procedure involved for group travel ticket bookingwith United Airlines.

1. Online Method of group travel ticket booking

Logging on to the official website of the airline you wish to travel with and following the instructions is the easiest way to book flight tickets nowadays. However, the same can’t be said about the online group travel ticket booking process of United Airlines, as the official website of the airline is far from what can be termed as user-friendly when it comes to making group reservations. The right links and pages are not only difficult to find, but there is also a complete lack of clarity on how to correctly navigate through the website and land on the right pages. But in this article, we have noted down the entire United Airlines online group booking procedure step-by-step for readers’ convenience. Go through the process below.

1. i. First, log on to the official website of United Airlines, www.united.com . After landing on the homepage, click on the ‘Help’ or ‘Contact Us’ tab. This would direct you to the page named ‘Help Center.’
2. ii. Scroll down on the page and find the search bar where the following line is written, “What else can we help you find?” There is also a search bar right on top. Click on any one of them.
3. iii. Write “United Groups” on any of the search bars. You would get a long list of search results. Click on the topmost search result which reads, “Group Travel Contact Information.”
4. iv. This would direct you to another page called “United Groups Contact Information.” There is an Email option. There is a hyperlink called “online form for bid requests” under that Email option.
5. v. Click on that and it would open the longonline bid request form. Fill up all the details and click on the submit button.

If you find the entire online group booking process to be highly confusing and unfathomable, copy and paste the shortcut link given below on your browser, press enter and directly land on the online bid request form page,

2. Group Booking by phone

If you need immediate assistance regarding group booking and your intended date of travel is pretty close, it’s better to call the dedicated United Group Booking Desk on its toll-free dial-up number 1-800-426-1122 from Monday to Friday every week between 7a.m and 8p.m (central time). This phone number is applicable for only the US and Canadian customers. If you are from any country other than these two, please find your local United Customer Center Contact number from the official website of the airline. Once you connect to a United Airlines representative over the phone, provide him with all the required details and submit the bid request form.

3. Send Group Booking requests by Postal mail

You can also download the United Airlines group booking bid request form, fill up the details and send the hard copy to the below-mentioned postal address.

1. United Airlines, Inc.
2. United Group Department
3. 900 Grand Plaza Dr.
4. Houston, TX 77067

Or you may simply write to the United Group department and ask them to send you a bid request form through your desired mode of contact.

Few things to remember for group booking with United Airlines:

1. i. Once you submit the group booking bid request form by following any of the ways mentioned above, you would receive a prompt response in the form of a price quotation from the United Group Booking Department within the next 2 business days.
2. ii. The price quotation is prepared after considering all possible factors that could impact the price of an air ticket including the prices offered by the competitors for the same ticketing class.
3. iii. The price per ticket quoted by United Airlines is subject to the availability of seats at the time of booking. United Airlines would not be responsible for any change in prices due to unnecessary delay in booking after receiving the price quotation.
4. iv. United Airlines doesn’t guarantee the seats and the quoted special fare until, at least, 25% of the total booking amount based on the price quote is deposited.

How long are the United Airlines price quotes valid?

1. a. A typical United Airlines price quotation is valid only for seven days if the quotation is provided, at least, 15 days or more before departure.
2. b. Validity of the same price quote reduces to only 24 hours if the price quote is provided between 3 to 14 days before the scheduled departure.
3. c. A delay in booking beyond this specified time would make the price quote invalid, resulting in further revision and an increase in ticket prices.

United Airlines group travel cancellation policy

When it comes to cancellation of group ticket bookings, United Airlines has a pretty well-laid group travel cancellation policy. The notable points mentioned in the cancellation policy are as follows,

1. All payment deposits related to United Airlines group travel bookings are non-transferable and non-refundable.
2. ii) The booking deposit is forfeited if the group size reduces due to one or more group members pulling off.
3. iii) As per the United Airlines group travel cancellation policy, there is a 100% penalty for cancellation of group bookings, meaning that the entire booking amount would be forfeited if passengers decide to cancel the group booking.
4. iv) Similarly, there is also a 100% penalty for a no-show.
5. v) Passengers can’t claim any refund under the United Airlines group travel cancellation policy both in case of submission of any cancellation request or a partial or complete no-show.