Sabre has earned IATA certification as One Order-capable for
flight transactions, making its passenger service system (PSS) the first to
reach that designation.
One Order is an IATA-backed IT initiative under which
airlines will consolidate a passenger's personal information and purchases
(fare and ancillaries) within a single record.
That will be a major simplification from the current
ecosystem. At present, when a customer books a ticket, the airline creates the
passenger name record (PNR) document familiar to travel agents, which houses
information such as the traveler's identity and itinerary. The PNR does not
record payment information, however; that's the function of the e-ticket, which
is issued at the time of purchase.
In addition, if a flyer purchases an ancillary product, such
as an assigned seat, it too is recorded separately in what is known as an
electronic miscellaneous document (EMD).
A manifestation of the current complexity is that the
average airline ticket contains multiple reservation codes. In a One Order
world, there would be just one confirmation code, making problem-solving for
both agents and passengers simpler.
Thus far, the Sabre PSS is only One Order-enabled for the
purchase of air tickets, said Rodrigo Celis, Sabre's senior vice president of
commercial solutions. Enablement of ancillary airline purchases will be next,
though he didn't say when that would happen.
To take advantage of the new offering, Sabre's airline
clients must make significant changes to their own back-end systems. That's
especially true for legacy airlines, which are still working through processes
established well before the onset of the digital era, when paper tickets were
necessary.
Celis declined to say if Sabre has any airline trial
partners for its One Order capability.
"There's a lot of interest from our customers from an
airline perspective. They want to simplify and improve the passenger
experience," he said.