GDS users next month will temporarily lose the ability to book United Airlines’ premium economy seating when the carrier transfers its reservations system to a new platform as part of its merger with Continental.
Currently, Sabre and Travelport provide their subscribers with access to United’s Economy Plus seating via the GDS.
In March, United will convert its reservations system to Hewlett-Packard’s Shares, which is currently used by Continental. United’s current reservation system is provided by Travelport’s Apollo.
Post-merger, United and Continental plan to operate a single passenger-services system and one website.
Sabre said that the suspension in booking United’s premium economy seats begins March 3 and that no date has been set for its restoration.
“We are working closely with United to return Economy Plus seats to the Sabre GDS as quickly as possible,” Sabre said in a statement. “There will be no impact to Economy Plus seats booked through Sabre prior to March 3.”
Scott Hemphill, Travelport’s regional product support manager, said both sides hoped that the ability to book the seats would be reinstated by the end of March.
“Both United’s and Travelport’s development staff are engaged to complete that work, hopefully by the end of March,” he said. “That’s our current time frame.”
Sabre said the temporary suspension was necessary because the solution Sabre built four years ago to enable the sale of premium seats was specifically designed to work with United’s current reservations system.
“Once they switch to a new system, technology adjustments will need to be made by both of us to get their product back in the GDS,” a Sabre spokeswoman said.
A United spokesman said that enabling Economy Plus sales after the cut-over to its new reservations system would require a “technology change.” The shift will not affect customers who book Economy Plus seats directly with the carrier, he said.
Sabre used the temporary loss of its ability to book Economy Plus as an opportunity to push for industrywide standards when it comes to such technology.
“This is a good example of why having industry technology standards are important and benefit travel suppliers and buyers,” Sabre said in a statement. “Products built using technology standards lay the foundation for quick adaptation to other technology changes airlines may make.”
Amadeus has an agreement with United to make Economy Plus bookings available to its customers in mid-2012. The GDS said last week that it had received no indication that the time frame would change.
Industry experts said they believed that the volume of Economy Plus seats was small and that the suspension would have little impact on agents’ bottom lines.
However, the ability to book United’s premium seats via Sabre’s GDS, and the agreements in place to bring that ability to other GDSs, have been an important symbol of cooperation between the GDSs and a major U.S. airline, a relationship more often defined by acrimony than alliance.
United’s Economy Plus seats offer as many as five more inches of legroom than standard economy seats. Economy Plus seats are located at the front of the economy cabin.
In announcing its agreement with United to make the seats available to Travelport GDS users, Dan Westbrook, Travelport’s vice president of supplier development, said last summer, “Our launch with United is more proof positive that Travelport is ready, willing and able to deliver technology to market and merchandise ancillary products and services to and through the travel agency channel.”
Sabre was the first GDS to offer agents the ability to sell premium economy seats four years ago with United’s Economy Plus seating.
But industry analysts are taking note of what appears to be more chatter about airlines and GDSs working together.
“It may be a temporary setback,” PhoCusWright analyst Douglas Quinby said of the upcoming suspension. “But it has been reported that many airlines are in various stages of filing ancillary services and implementing with the GDSs. Everyone is learning to ride a new bike, and there are always bumps in the road.”
A recent report from The Beat, a Travel Weekly sister publication focusing on corporate and business travel, noted that 49 carriers are filing ancillary fee content with the Airline Tariff Publishing Co., and several are in various stages of implementation with Sabre and other GDSs.
An ATPCO official told The Beat that while few carriers are currently selling Optional Services content via GDSs, more airlines are “beginning to test that with ATPCO and their GDS of choice, so they know how it will work and how it will be displayed to the travel agency.”
Both Sabre and Travelport recently confirmed that they have been working with several airlines to introduce more ancillary content into their GDSs.
In January, Travelport CEO Gordon Wilson told Travel Weekly, “We are having increasing traction with other airlines who are putting their merchandise into our GDS.”
And in November, Shelly Terry, Sabre’s senior director of airline merchandising, said that Sabre was talking with many airlines, including Delta, about distribution of their ancillary products through the Sabre GDS.
“Most [airlines] are by and large very excited to embrace these capabilities,” Terry said. “They want to get their product into as many channels as possible and on as many shelves as possible.”
Perhaps the group most eager for this increased level of cooperation to bear fruit are travel agents, a group that has long voiced a desire to have the ability to book ancillaries for clients.
“It would be so much easier to just assign a booking inventory to select seating,” said Tim Sharp, an independent contractor with Advantage Travel in Columbia, S.C.
“Some airlines like Delta and Continental already do this for full-fare paying customers. If they insist on keeping these fees as separate transactions, then let customers in all fare inventories pay an extra fee for those seats, and let us confirm them with an SSR entry similar to the way we already request wheelchairs, special meals, etc.”
Follow Johanna Jainchill on Twitter @jjainchilltw.