Sabre Mulls Travelocity For Agencies

A Sabre spokesperson today confirmed the company is considering the potential of Travelocity as a channel for travel management company bookings, something in which two large corporate agencies said they were interested.

"Booking on Travelocity has come up as an idea," said Richard Spradling, corporate vice president of information technology at St. Louis-based TQ3 Maritz Travel Solutions, the lead participant in a new American Airlines program designed to prompt agencies to seek distribution options that cost less than global distribution systems. "Travelocity has no formal business travel offering, and we're looking at all options." According to Dan Bohan, COO of Omega World Travel in Alexandria, Va., "We've got some early indications from Sabre that they will allow us to access Travelocity through an application programming interface. It's on the agenda."

Bohan said the future will have travel management companies booking through an API on each carrier's Web site--reducing airline costs while retaining the capability for agencies to track and report corporate bookings. American, Continental and Northwest airlines all have acknowledged the same possibility. Some airlines offer agent booking online without the reporting capability.