They Are Smoking Things At Sabre Central

A great post by Dennis Schaal of Tnooz today on the GDS Have vs Have Nots.

In case anyone should now doubt the airlines resolve to break down the restrictive and expensive nature of the GDS model - they can see now that AA was the one that pushed the envelope. Now it has its policy if not vindicated then at the very least validated.

So what of the other side of the argument? Sabre put on a brave face and proceeded to rubbish any idea that the AA+EXPE deal was anything but a reaffirmation of the GDS model. The Sabre Peep commented:

“GDSs already have aggregation technology — that’s what we do — aggregate content in one place,” St. Pierre says. ”We already aggregate AA’s content, along with hundreds of other airlines. As such, there is no need for a one-off direct connect.”

And this perhaps underscores the legacy GDS head in the sand approach.

Hello is anyone dealing with reality over there in South Fork (aka Southlake TX).

This is not about the single battle between AA and one GDS. It is about driving innovation in distribution and lowering the cost by reducing or better eliminating the hidden tax that the GDS fees impose on the consumer. It is about giving the consumer choice.

I find it hard to believe that Sabre doesn't get this. However I do believe they are actually harming their credibility long term by not coming to the market with pragmatic and more honest approach to providing the value to the intermediaries and the airlines.

Let's hope they try and treat the marketplace with a little more deference and give the travel distribution community some acknowledgement for having a brain.

Cheers