Come spring, United Airlines passengers will no longer be able to make complaints over the phone. Customers who dial 1-800-UNITED-1 will be directed to put into writing -- e-mail or letter -- any service concerns, although they still will be able to make reservations, track lost bags or seek refunds via phone. Studies show that customers who communicate with United via e-mails or letters tend to be "most satisfied" with its response, a spokeswoman says. Meanwhile, United is shifting 165 customer-service jobs from India and Mexico to giant call centers outside Chicago and Honolulu.

The Association of Corporate Travel Executives says 71% of its member companies plan to spend less on travel this year than in 2008. Most companies are seeking to spend 10% to 20% less on travel than they were expecting to spend just five months ago, according to its latest survey. The ACTE suggests that the 176 member companies that responded collectively will spend about $880 million less on travel this year than they had planned. If the same method for estimating is applied to the ACTE's full membership - about 2,400 companies - the impact would be more than …

Fifty-three percent of 300 senior marketing executives surveyed for EventView 2009 say event marketing is the discipline that best accelerates and deepens relationships with target audiences. And more than a quarter (26%) of those surveyed say event marketing is the discipline that drives the greatest return-on-investment. Before you bet the marketing bank on an event in Las Vegas that no one has the budget to travel to anymore, however, know that the survey was sponsored by experience marketing agency George P. Johnson, the Meeting Professionals International (MPI) Foundation and the Event Marketing Institute.

Wal-Mart is planning to eliminate as many as 800 positions from its corporate office in Bentonville, Ark., over the next few weeks. Spokesman David Tovar says the move will mainly affect merchandising, real estate, marketing and support staff. Some positions will not be filled, while others will be relocated to offices across the country.

Hilco Consumer Capital, which buys up the rights to defunct retail-store names such as Sharper Image and Linens 'N Things, has invested some $20 million for half of House of Marley LLC, a joint venture with the Marley family. A new push to license Marley's likeness, trademarks and themes to apparel, food and even video games is in the works, Rachel Dodes and Kelly Nolan report. The House of Marley will sell the rights to produce products under the brands Bob Marley, Tuff Gong, Catch A Fire and One Love. One of the company's first priorities is creating Marley Lager, …

Amazon showed off its second iteration of the Kindle electronic reading device yesterday with only its second-ever press conference about the digital reader. Amazon's relative few press events and its silence on expectations for this latest launch did much to dial up anticipation and feed the frenzy, Rita Chang writes. That Kindle has received massive hype without the support of traditional promotions speaks to Amazon's influence as the go-to for everything book-related and its ability to develop a mass market in itself. The only place the company has promoted the product aggressively is on its home page. The …

Walt Disney Co. will put up hundreds of millions of dollars for film print and advertising costs and will share its valuable pay television slots with Steven Spielberg's DreamWorks studio under a deal hammered out between the two Hollywood blockbuster-makers Monday. Disney's $175-million outlay will be a loan rather than an equity investment, sources tell Claudia Eller. DreamWorks needs the cash to get its slate of movies rolling, but it can't access Disney's funds until Spielberg raises $325 million in debt financing, which will trigger a matching equity investment by his Indian partner, Reliance Entertainment. Disney's distribution agreement …

An auto critic once wrote that Bob Lutz was "the auto industry's most quotable and charismatic executive in a town where charisma is scarcer than banana trees." Now the 76-year-old legend, who spent the past 7½ years trying to breathe new life into General Motors at its vice chairman, plans to retire at the end of the year. "I would say that for a person like me who thrives on the challenge of anticipating ... customer desires and has a certain knack for doing vehicles that please people in the marketplace, there's ... unquestionably an environment where the future …

As part of a bid to appeal to shoppers who in the past have turned to high-end stores and boutiques for the latest looks in fashion, JC Penney's spring advertising campaign will focus on its most fashion-forward clothing lines, Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan reports. The ads will highlight five lines that Penney carries exclusively: Kimora Lee Simmons' Fabulosity line, Nicole Miller's nicole line, Bisou Bisou by Michele Bohbot and two new lines that the retailer is introducing this spring, ALLEN B. by Allen Schwartz and I "Heart" Ronson by Charlotte Ronson. TV ads will appear for the first time during …