In the Global Distribution System aka Online Travel Agent Wars with American Airlines, SABRE just dropped a bomb and announced that it will discontinue AA listing one month before their contract ends in August and it will list AA different between now and then.

Care to guess who owns Travelocity?  That’s right.  SABRE does. 

So far, AA continues to insist that it is comfortable with booking levels at present while it remains in discussions with both Orbitz and Expedia. 

This really doesn’t feel like something that AA is going to win on its terms.  There may be some adjustments because, after all, Orbitz, Expedia and Travelocity all have something to lose as well.  However, this whole push on the part of AA is beginning to smell a lot like its attempt to “rationalize” fares under CEO Crandall back in the 90’s.  That didn’t work out too well for AA either.

Care to guess who used to own SABRE and who developed the system as a subsidiary company?  That’s right, American Airlines did.

Filed under: Airline News by ajax