Carlson Wagonlit Breaks Up With United -- It's Official

(MoneyWatch)  After months of rumors, a global travel agency admitted that it's steering its customers away from United Airlines.

Douglas Anderson, Carlson Wagonlit Travel president and CEO, told reporters earlier this week that United has yet to come to terms with his agency following a break-up in July. At the time, it was rumored that United pulled its contract to negotiate new terms to save $80 million in agency commissions, a senior CWT official told Business Travel News. Neither United nor Carlson Wagonlit publicly confirmed the report.

Stefanie Tschida, a spokeswoman for Carlson Wagonlit, sent an e-mail to BNET saying, "Douglas Anderson was clear in stating that CWT and United continue to engage in discussions to come to a resolution."

Yesterday, Anderson said the agency had "shifted a substantial amount of traffic away from United" in July primarily to "one of the four big U.S. carriers."

"What we have not done is shifted traffic at the expense of our clients. Clients that have negotiated rates with United that have asked us to move away from de-preferencing United for their business, we have done that with immediate effect. We are still shifting business away from United when all else is equal," he said at a news conference.

The company services two-thirds of the Fortune Global 100 and surpassed American Express Business Travel to take the No.1 spot in business travel management, the Financial Times reported . CWT has a sales volume that totaled $25.5 billion in 2007 and recently acquired Piedmont Travel, Traveltime Services and Viajes Mapfre in Spain. It also took control of its joint ventures in India and Argentina, according to a company news release.
Personally, I think a lot of their consumers are quite happy to be steered away from an airline that is charging them $50 for a second checked bag. Asking CWT to eat millions wasn't a bargain, either. When they broke up I hope CWT kept all their stuff, too.