Sabre, Galileo Tools Help Airlines Manage Alliances

<B> Sabre, Galileo Tools Help Airlines Manage Alliances</B>

By Mary Ann McNulty

As part of its suite of new airline sales and marketing tools, Sabre and Galileo are developing several products designed to help both travelers and airlines benefit from the new breed of airline alliances and loyalty partnerships.

Airlines will be able to display an integrated listing of their codeshare flights and loyalty program partners at the point of sale. More importantly for travelers, codeshare partners will be able to ensure that passenger name records in their respective systems are synchronized. Before sending a frequent flyer number to a partner airline, Sabre will verify that the number is valid with the original airline.

"If there is a change in one of these trips, the rest of the upstream and downstream PNR segments are notified," said Jim Poage, senior vice president of customer marketing for the Sabre Travel Information Network. Currently, PNR changes are a "fairly big problem in multi-carrier itineraries," Poage added, as carriers never know whether to cancel a reservation or just change it.

"Today, we're announcing capability for the airlines, but obviously, we have the same things in mind for hotels and other partners," Poage said.

Galileo's airline alliance line, to be called GlobalService, will be announced later this month and available in early 1999. It too allows customers to shop by alliance, just as they can shop by a specific carrier today.

In addition, Sabre announced its Sales Manager line, which allows airlines to identify customers--by their frequent flyer or a new corporate identification number--when an availability request is made, and offers a customized response for that traveler. Airlines that participate in its highest level of displays will be allowed to send marketing messages offering special prices, meals, frequent flyer deals or other information, based on the traveler's preferences or itinerary. Galileo International last month announced a similar product suite, called Target 1-2-1 (<I>BTN,</I> Sept. 14).

Amadeus already has a similar product that it has been testing with Air France in Europe for the past three or four months, according to Holger Taubmann, senior manager of airline partners for the Madrid-based global distribution company. Like its competitors, Amadeus plans to make the product available to all airlines in early 1999. However, to use its offerings, airlines will have to comply with the Edifact 96.2 communication standard. Over the next few years, Taubmann estimates that 20 percent of Amadeus' airline partners will be using such software to better manage their inventory and customers.

The new corporate identification number is an attempt to help Sabre's airline customers better implement their corporate agreements, said Scott Alvis, vice president of airline sales and marketing. Today, some airlines tie pseudo-city or other numbers to reservations to identify corporate rates. "This moves that up in the process, so it will get sent at the time of request," he said.

In a separate product called PromoSpots, Sabre will provide air, car and hotel vendors with the ability to display special prices or upgrades based on a traveler's itinerary. Vendors can target who will view its offerings, based on a variety of criteria, including traveler's origin and destination, dates of the offer, dates travel agents can display a message or even the specific travel agencies that can see the message. The promotions can be displayed within 72 hours of submission--24 hours for premium pricing--perhaps allowing a vendor to fill a last-minute meeting room block. The text will appear on two lines at the bottom of every reservation screen. Agents will be able to search promotions by city, date or other criteria.

"Airlines can now differentiate products and leverage their full marketing mix," Poage said, "since competition is no longer limited to schedule, availability and price."

The new products, which Sabre has been working on for over a year, will debut in pieces, starting in December, said Alvis.