• by Tanya Gazdik , June 3, 2012

United Airlines is offering prizes to customers who nominate employees for great service via its mobile app.

The Chicago-based company will award $125,000 in October to the winning employees. Customers can win tickets or MileagePlus miles for nominating winning employees via the Outperform Recognition Program.

Eligible customers who are MileagePlus members may nominate up to five eligible employees for service at the airport, on the phone, on a flight, or at any other point in their experience with United and United Express, using United's mobile app, available for Apple and Android devices.

Any United or United Express employee below the vice president level is eligible, as well as those working for MileagePlus and other corporate affiliates of United.

The initial sweepstakes runs from June 1 through Sept. 30. At the end of this sweepstakes and future quarterly sweepstakes for as long as the program is continued, the company will select 16 winning employees randomly from the pool of customer nominations to receive cash prizes, with the top prize being $50,000 to one employee. Other cash prizes to employees will be for $25,000, $10,000, $5,000 (three prizes) and $2,500 (ten prizes).

The customer whose nomination is drawn as the grand prize winner will win a voucher for two round-trip first-class tickets, valid for U.S. travel, excluding Alaska and Hawaii, or two round-trip economy tickets valid for international travel to anywhere that United flies. Other customer prizes include frequent flyer mileage awards.

The company is promoting United on a dedicated Web site at www.united.com/outperform as well as on its Facebook and Twitter pages.

This is the newest program at United that rewards employees for contributing to the company's success. For 2011, employees earned $265 million in profit sharing, more than $40 million for on-time performance, and 11 employees received brand new cars for perfect attendance.

“I actually like this type of participatory recognition program better than the old ‘Going the Extra Mile’ certs, which were questionable whether or not they truly did anything for the employee,” writes travel blogger Darren Booth on Frequently Flying. “It also makes it easy for United to track. What I don’t like is that it’s restricted to the mobile app. I’d like to see an online web entry process, too, as not everyone uses the app.”