Is Sabre going away ?

[JF Mezei]

In a Forbes article about HP, I stumbled upon this:

http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2010/0412/technology-hp-mark-hurd-ibm-cisco_2.html

Neither is HP. Last year it bagged quite a few large new accounts ...
; a reservation and booking service, a.k.a. Jetstream, to replace the
Sabre system for AMR (worth $1 billion);


I found this discussion on airlines.net: (circa 2008)
http://www.airliners.net/aviation-forums/general_aviation/read.main/4241954/


Looks like AMR completely sold off SABRE in 2000. (it had been spun off
from AA into a separate AMR subsidiary earlier, in the hopes of getting
contracts from airlines who wouldn't have otherwise done business with
AA directly).




Anyone have some details on what is happening to Sabre ? Is it still a
going business with a future, or will AA's departure result in a mass
exodus from Sabre ?


And now that we are 2 years after the original announcement, any news on
whether this project is moving forwards, or will it end up being
cancelled due to project overruns etc ? From what I read, EDS (now HP)
was to build a new system. Such large projects don't always come to
fruition.
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[JF Mezei]

Found some updates on this:

August 26 2009: HP signs the MOU/Letter of intent with AMR.
http://www.hp.com/hpinfo/newsroom/press/2009/090826b.html?jumpid=reg_R1002_USEN


On Janurary 20th 2010, an article about AA still not having signed the
contract with HP.

http://www.tnooz.com/2010/01/20/news/american-airlines-still-hasnt-signed-jetstream-agreement-with-hp/


Then on March 4th, announcement that contract is finally signed.
http://www.tnooz.com/2010/03/04/news/breaking-news-american-airlines-hp-sign-jetstream-contract/


One has to wonder if they can really implement such a radical change in
just 4 years. It takes some time just to transition from one working
system to another, but here, HP/EDS have to first develop the new system
from scratch.
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[John Levine]

Post by JF Mezei
Anyone have some details on what is happening to Sabre ? Is it still a
going business with a future, or will AA's departure result in a mass
exodus from Sabre ?

Sabre is a lot more than AA's reservation system. It owns
Travelocity, one of the big three online agents, and has a vast array
of services for travel agents, railways, rental cars, and other travel
businesses. They also have a lot of other airline customers, from
Westjet to Air India.

R's,
John
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[JF Mezei]

Post by John Levine
Sabre is a lot more than AA's reservation system. It owns
Travelocity, one of the big three online agents, and has a vast array
of services for travel agents, railways, rental cars, and other travel
businesses. They also have a lot of other airline customers, from
Westjet to Air India.

If AA is moving away from Sabre because "it is old", isn't that
something that other airlines will be doing for similar reasons ?

Travelocity is just a travel agency that uses Sabre as a GDS. Quite
different from an airline using Sabre to run its reservations,
operations, yield management etc.

AA finally signed the contract on march 4th 2010. The original
"handshake agreement" was announced in august 2009. That doesn't leave
much time for HP to re-invent the wheel. Such large projects often go
wrong and are abandonned after many millions had been spent.

I suspect that HP might end up losing money on that at the end of the
day, but to AA, it would just mean either staying on sabre or delaying
implementation of the new system due to delays/bugs.
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[John Levine]

Post by JF Mezei
If AA is moving away from Sabre because "it is old", isn't that
something that other airlines will be doing for similar reasons ?

Maybe, maybe not. Now that Sabre is independent from AA, I expect
that AA said we want you to do all these changes and we'll pay $NN for
them. Sabre said, we'd have to charge you $MM for them. AA says, but
HP will do it for $NN. Fine, says, Sabre, if they want to lose money
on the deal, pay them the $NN.

I can easily believe that HP would do a system for AA as a loss leader,
since a well run GDS should throw off tons of cash once it gets up
and running.

R's,
John
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[DevilsPGD]

Post by JF Mezei

Post by John Levine
Sabre is a lot more than AA's reservation system. It owns
Travelocity, one of the big three online agents, and has a vast array
of services for travel agents, railways, rental cars, and other travel
businesses. They also have a lot of other airline customers, from
Westjet to Air India.

If AA is moving away from Sabre because "it is old", isn't that
something that other airlines will be doing for similar reasons ?

Westjet just switched to Sabre. It's been a nightmare for everyone
involved (Westjet and their customers)
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