AA, Sabre Come To Terms On Content

Following a heated battle that for weeks kept the industry caught in the crossfire, American Airlines and Sabre today reached accord on a new content agreement. The five-year deal—reached the same day new distribution economics entered the corporate travel industry—places Sabre among American Airlines' preferred distribution channels, while giving Sabre American's full content. The GDS now has entered into new content arrangements with all six domestic legacy carriers.

By bringing Sabre into its roster of preferred channels, American now will waive its $3.50 to Sabre subscribers who elect to opt in to its Efficient Access Solution. The move therefore makes the Sabre opt-in program more palatable to agency customers, as they now have content assurances from and fee protections for the nation's largest carrier.

The corporate travel community had been urging American and Sabre to come to terms during what for weeks had been an ongoing butting of the heads between the two travel giants. Sabre had tentatively put in place a program to offset American's intended $3.50 fee on bookings coming through all Sabre channels. Sabre's promotional offering—now moot—also gave incentives to agencies to shift share away from American Airlines and toward carriers with which Sabre had struck new distribution terms.

American, too, mobilized to shift share away from Sabre by upping marketing efforts with Galileo and Worldspan—the two GDSs with which American signed new content deals.

As recently as Aug. 14, American said it remained at a standstill with Sabre, noting that the two parties were not even engaged in discussions.