travel, hotel and booking Information

Sabre figures show e-ticketing acceleration

Hotel Booking Sabre Travel Network and Sabre Airline Solutions have issued electronic ticketing updates for their businesses showing that eighty percent of all tickets issued worldwide through the Sabre GDS are now electronic.

GetThere is enhancing its booking capability by allowing users to search for flights by price as well as by date and time. This facility is expected to be available by the end of the first quarter this year for businesses whose travel management companies use the Sabre GDS (global distribution system), and later this year for those whose travel is booked through Amadeus, Galileo or Worldspan. Floyd Widener, vice president of GetThere and corporate travel at Sabre Travel Network, said the feature had been developed at the specific request of several European customers.

Travel Agency 122 airlines offer e-ticketing for Sabre-connected travel agencies.

The savings figure is based on an internal study comparing the price for travel for two passengers of booking a flight and hotel together using priceline.com's Vacation Packages to booking the same hotel and similar flight itinerary (same travel dates and origin and destination cities) separately on priceline.com. The Vacation Package price yielded a savings of up to $325 over the separate prices of the same hotel and similar flight itinerary.

Cheap Hotel Meanwhile, 57 airlines are now using the SabreSonic Ticket interline e-ticket (IET) hub to facilitate e-ticketing with partner carriers.

Oct 31, 2008 $1, $1, Package price of $1, is per person at Icelandair Hotel Loftleidir and valid for travel through May 31, 2008. Prices will vary and may be higher for different travel dates, hotels and room types. Additional hotels are available at higher rates. Other rates can be viewed during the booking process. * Spring Break special prices at Arnarhvoll (book online for rates). Rates are now up to $70 less than before!

Flight Booking IATAs Simplifying the Business strategy calls for 100 percent e-ticketing by the end of 2007. Collectively, Sabre Travel Network airline customers broke through the 80 percent barrier in March, meaning that now only one in five tickets issued through the Sabre GDS is paper.

And according to Jupiter an increase in managed corporate travel bookings travel is one of the reasons why the amount of travel booked on the web is set to jump. It believes the desire for cost savings will push companies to make their employees purchase their travel online, rather than just use the internet for travel research and information.

Travel Agent South African Airways, PIA, Gulf Air, Air Malta, Cyprus Airways, Malev Hungarian Airlines, Air Europa, Portugalia and SpanAir have become the latest carriers to implement e-ticketing through the Sabre GDS. Sabre Travel Network has now released e-ticketing in 72 countries, including 29 in the EMEA area. Cyprus, Bahrain, Oman,Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Lebanon and Egypt are the latest additions.

Within two years, holidaymakers and business travellers could receive travel tickets, booking and destination information, and after care customer service direct to their mobile phones. And by 2010, mobile technology could be sophisticated enough for customers to browse and book holidays direct using their handsets. This insight into the future of travel technology was revealed today by Steve Procter, CEO of Mobycards, and an exhibitor at next months Travel Technology Show.

Hotel Chicago The travel agents Ive spoken to are completely supportive of the full adoption of e-ticketing, said Dean Bibb, Sabre Travel Networks European vice-president of supplier relations and joint ventures. Part of the reason weve broken through the 80 percent barrier is because our agency customers have seized on the e-ticketing capability of every new airline weve implemented.

Online Booking Sabre Airline Solutions has an e-ticketing enabling product for airlines called SabreSonic Ticket. This is part of the new generation SabreSonic Passenger Solutions and is based on open technology that allows communication with any airlines own IT system. It lets an airline distribute electronic tickets both through its own sales channels and through travel agencies, check in passengers with electronic tickets, and issue interline electronic tickets (IETs).

Travel Health Insurance Sabre Airline Solutions now has 57 airlines connected to its SabreSonic Ticket IET hub, allowing each to issue e-tickets in conjunction with other participating carriers without having to create bilateral agreements and a special connection. IET hub-connected carriers include British Airways, KLM, Cathay Pacific, Qantas, American Airlines,United, US Airways and Northwest Airlines.

Hotel Reservation Any airline can use the IET hub, regardless of where its reservation system is hosted. The business also recently announced a technical development with Worldspan, giving carriers who use the IET hub a single connection to those who use the Worldspan hub. This arrangement eliminates the need for complex, distinct communication layers between airlines that use the two hubs.

London Hotel Booking Sabre Airline Solutions currently hosts the reservation systems of over 100 airlines around the world, including Aerolineas Argentinas, Aeroflot, American Airlines, Gulf Air, Jet Airways, Pakistan International Airlines and Southwest Airlines. Nearly 50 (48) carriers are using SabreSonic Ticket to issue e-tickets through their own sales channels. Nearly 40 (37) are using the product to issue e-tickets through the travel agency channel, via GDSs.

Discount Travel Its highly unlikely that the IATA 2007 deadline for the complete withdrawal of paper ticketing will be met entirely, said Nejib Ben-Khedher, president and managing partner of the aviation consulting practice at Sabre Airline Solutions. However, the figures we are releasing today show an unstoppable momentum, and indicate that carriers that sell most of the worlds airline tickets will be compliant by the due date.

Orlando Hotel Ben-Khedher said the technology was available to help carriers of any size switch to e-ticketing quickly and relatively inexpensively.

Booking Agency Its not a huge exercise developments such as SabreSonicTicket have smoothed the process significantly and will take care of the e-ticketing needs of any carrier, regardless of size and where the airlines reservations system is actually hosted.

[ Comment, Edit or Article Submission ]