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Posted Dec 2, 2011
December 1, 2011 Dear Sabre:
We read with interest the November 29 article in The Beat where [Sabre Travel Network president] Greg Webb stated, "Corporations and agencies have told me it's a must-have to be able to display all content from all carriers flying a certain route in an easily understandable way." He continued, "I can't show Air Canada one way, WestJet another way and United a third way because it becomes an unusable user experience."
With all due respect, if it was ever true that it was an unusable user experience it is certainly no longer the case.
Posted Nov 30, 2011
It’s no secret that I am often quite critical of the general state of GDS innovation--specifically, the lack of it. And, not surprisingly, believe I am correct in that general assessment. However, when I see something that stands out from the crowd, it's worth sending out kudos, and the mobile team at Sabre deserves one.
Posted Nov 17, 2011
" Rearden Aims to Limit Choice." Whoa. When I read that Beat headline, it sounded like a bad thing. Don't take away my choice! But it’s kind of like saying Amazon limits choice because it offers me recommendations when I log in. This "limited choice" is actually just personalization, which I think is a very good thing!
Posted Jul 29, 2011
Okay, okay. The last thing I wanted to do today was to write a blog post. I’ve been in 5 different cities, eaten at least 5 meals on airplanes, lost my iPhone in NYC this week, and now I’ve got a leak in my house. I was ready for some R&R. Then I read this blog post at The Beat.travel. Just fantastic. Look, I know I’m sounding like a broken record here, but I’m always in favor of honest, open debate, but it’s got to be honest. For the reasons stated above, clearly I’m not it the best of moods, and maybe that’s why it’s really sticking in my craw, but I just really feel the need to respond to this one.
Posted May 24, 2011
You just gotta check this out. Over the past couple of days I have read a few Beat articles on which--for as much as I would like to just relax on a beautiful Sunday morning with my Metamucil, or Muesli, or whatever it is us "experienced" guys are supposed to take to keep us feeling spry--I simply must comment.
Posted May 17, 2011
I just returned from the Travel Distribution Summit Europe 2011, which was attended by some of the biggest, coolest companies—Google, Facebook, Foursquare and… Farelogix (insert wry smiley face emoticon here).
Posted Apr 22, 2011
The Department of Transportation is delaying any decision to force airlines to utilize the GDS-mandated methodology for selling and displaying ancillary services. They are delaying their decision because they "lack additional information about costs, benefits and consequences" of requiring carriers to provide that information to the GDSs. It's easy to understand why DOT has more questions than answers. We can just look at some of the recent comments by industry brass. Airlines now support a standardized XML for their direct connect whereby the airline can, in a fully transparent way, offer its best and most relevant product. What is standing in the way of the GDS simply connecting to those airlines? The GDS clearly express it is not a technology or "XML" issue, as recently stated by a Sabre official in The Beat.
Posted Apr 7, 2011
Dear Sabre,
I know many people pit us as enemies. But I consider us more like longstanding colleagues who often disagree, but still show up the next day for a game of checkers. OK maybe we’re unlikely to sit and play checkers… but my point is, and I hope you’d agree that, throughout our ups and downs, we have managed to handle our disagreements with professionalism and respect as relates to publicized debates. We have even ended up as compadres on some industry issues!
Posted Apr 5, 2011
Remember the good ol' days of air travel? You know, back in 1995 when things were easy. We didn't have to deal with all these ancillary fees - we could just check our bag and get a delicious Saran-wrapped piece of "chicken," and all for "free." Everything was included and CHEAPER! Remember that?
Posted Mar 10, 2011
The unintended consequences of airline direct connect adoption for the travel agency: improved productivity, reduced cost of operations and greater control of their destiny.
What? That can't be true. Direct connect is supposed to increase costs for all and cause massive loss of agency productivity. That's what we've been hearing, right?
But what if that isn't true? What if, with adoption of some of the direct connects, the travel agency is instead the biggest beneficiary? How can this be?
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