ORLANDO -- Sabre
is making its new dynamic-packaging engine, TripTailor, available
to all travel agents regardless of what GDS they use, starting in
November.
Sabre subscribers
have had access to the system since mid-August.
When agents
create a package with the tool, Sabre pays a commission: 10% on
hotel, car and other nonair components and 5% on air (through the
end of the year, users will earn 10% on air). Agents can also mark
up the package price.
Dan Westbrook,
general manager of TripTailor, said the system offers thousands of
net-rate hotels worldwide, bulk air, net-rate car rentals and more
than 1,700 travel extras such as transfers, event admissions,
sightseeing excursions, dining experiences and ski lift
tickets.
Sabre, which made
its announcement at ASTA's TheTradeShow, also rolled out components
of its new leisure portal, available through the MySabre desktop
and designed to give agents one-stop access leisure travel
tools.
Besides
TripTailor, the portal leads to or soon will fully integrate
Agent59 (last-minute packages), Sabre Vacations, Sabre Cruises,
Sabre Consolidator, the Trams ClientBase Plus database manager,
marketing programs, training and support opportunities and Sabre
Rewards Plus, a point-based loyalty program for frontline
agents.
Sabre also
announced improvements to its Sabre Air suite, including the
addition of a fare management system called Sabre MyFares. The
effect for agents, said Sabre spokeswoman Kathryn Hayden, will be a
system that works faster and offers more choices, in part by better
managing agencies' negotiated air fares.
Chris Kroeger,
Sabre's senior vice president for North America, said the leisure
portal and MyFares are among the enhancements to which the company
alluded this summer when Sabre was involved in content negotiations
with airlines.
With the content
agreements completed, Kroeger said, Sabre and its customers can now
focus on things like enhancements, as the GDS is now assured of
some stability.
Every Sabre
subscriber also is still assured of at least a 20-cent incentive
per flight segment.
Kroeger said that
retaining some amount of incentives was one of Sabre's key goals
when negotiating new contracts with major U.S. carriers.
"There was a lot
of discussion of zero [incentives] or of agents paying the vendors,
but we wanted to keep some control," Kroeger said.
Twenty cents has
long been Sabre's lowest incentive level for its smallest
producers, which means that, for the smallest agencies, the latest
GDS-airline contracts will have no financial impact.
To contact the reporter who wrote this article, send e-mail
to Nadine Godwin at [email protected].