The Conversation - January 2026

Welcome to BTN's monthly roundup of business travel distribution and technology topics as shared on social media channels. In recent weeks, industry insiders discussed Sabre's investment in BizTrip.AI, the global distribution system "injury list" and the Travelport-United Airlines partnership.

Sabre and BizTrip.AI

Sabre this month announced it is investing in and partnering with AI travel platform BizTrip.AI, which launched last summer and plans to expand out of pilot mode in the coming months. Sabre said working with BizTrip.AI, it will be able to bring to market corporate travel assistants that can handle complex booking flows, manage itineraries and automate policies. With the announcement, BizTrip.AI co-founder Tom Romary, who previously co-founded Yapta, said on LinkedIn that his company and Sabre "have a shared vision for how AI is positively transforming the future of corporate travel. We’ll be announcing more about BizTrip’s new funding round with multiple institutional VCs participating in the coming days."

HRS Group SVP of supply and operations Tim Wagner on LinkedIn said it was a "mistake" to dismiss the investment as "another AI partnership."

"This move signals a deeper shift in where decision-making and value creation will sit in corporate travel," he said. "For years, the model was clear: platforms distributed inventory, TMCs managed workflows, OBTs handled search, and humans resolved exceptions. Agentic AI breaks this structure."

He added that this structural change raises questions for travel management companies and suppliers alike. "If AI agents handle planning, booking, and disruption end-to-end, where does differentiated value [for TMCs] sit?" he said. "For buyers, the upside is compelling—faster resolution, better compliance, lower cost—but it also raises governance questions. Who defines decision rules? Whose incentives are encoded? Who owns transparency and accountability?"

'GDS Injury List'

Oystin managing director Danile Langhage wrote on LinkedIn that "in 2025, Sabre was the second global distribution system to be placed on the unofficial 'GDS injury list.' … During 2025, both Sabre and Travelport delivered disappointing financial results, and Sabre indicated that booking volumes had failed to meet its own predictions."

"As a result, those GDSs are "particularly vulnerable now," which has "led some airlines to take a more aggressive stance in negotiations with the injured GDS, with the [ultimate rationale] being 'they can afford to go dark less tha[n] we can, so who will blink first.' At least in distribution, non-GDS NDC aggregators have begun to pick up the slack in relatively large numbers, if not yet booking volumes," he continued.

"In the airline IT/PSS space, however, Sabre's current weakness is arguably even more painful for airlines, where, despite IATA's efforts to transition to a more modern and modular OOSD environment, airlines currently on Amadeus Altéa are essentially stuck with Amadeus, as a hypothetical move to Sabre Mosaic would raise all sorts of internal red flags," Langhage also said. 

"If airlines want future stability, they need to take real action, not beating around the bush," wrote consultant and former CWT executive Martijn van der Voort in response.

"Make some hard decisions. Same for anyone else in the chain that is heavily embedded with GDS," he said.

Former Qatar Airways, Emirates and Accelya senior executive Aslam Mohammed added that "changing with [the] times is key. Sabre is an elephant. Can it transform to dance to the changing alignment of airlines, tech providers of NDCs and open platforms[?]"

Travelport and United Airlines Partnership

Just before the holidays the Travelport and United Airlines partnership was announced in early December.

Travel Again Advisory managing partner Mike McCormick brought up the Travelport and United Airlines partnership on LinkedIn, and said the collaboration to "advance modern retailing" sounds transformational, "but the significance is actually in what's not being said."

Instead of United calling it an NDC rollout, or Travelport talking about removing content from EDIFACT, "we're in the era of 'Offer & Order,' 'modern retailing' and 'connected content,' " McCormick quoted from the suppliers. But what does it mean? "The industry is trying to reframe a messy, slow-moving transition as a long-term retail transformation—buying time while the tech, workflows and commercial models catch up. … The real test will be what United actually chooses to publish through Travelport-plus … and whether TMC servicing workflows continue to stabilize and improve as we head into 2026."

"Spot on with the 'real test' commentary," replied former hotel revenue director for Virgin Hotels and Preferred Hotels & Resorts Leo Rotshteyn.

"What and how will Travelport-plus then deliver improvements to the many booking tools connected via their legacy APIs?," he said.

New M.O. founder and partner Kevin O'Malley in a company post on LinkedIn took a rosier view.

He said the two suppliers were "addressing long-standing challenges around content consistency, serviceability, and the delivery of modern airline retailing in agency and corporate channels. … United's decision appears aimed at strengthening revenue performance through better retailing, richer ancillary access, and more seamless NDC integration."

Time will tell.