Sabre Makes a Bold Bet It Can Simplify the Way Airlines Sell Seats
Photo Credit: A lounge onboard a Qantas Airbus A380. The airline is actively engaged in Sabre's “Beyond NDC” program. Qantas
Skift Take
There’s an advantage to simplicity in retail. It’s worked wonders for companies like Apple, but then they’ve never had to work with airlines.
Everyone loves an analogy. Now we have Sabre comparing booking a seat on a plane to shopping in a supermarket as it launches its “new airline storefront.”
Sabre believes airlines have increasingly complex offers. So someone booking directly on an airline’s website could be overwhelmed by different fare names, seat types and the various ancillaries on offer when they try to compare that deal with another airline deal.
And when booking indirectly, say on an online travel agency, Sabre thinks those complex bundles get lost in translation, and end up being shown as just a fare, with little visibility on what's included.
Sabre's response is this storefront concept, which provides “shelves” for travel agencies, and travel managers, to display different airlines’ content side by side. It claims it is an industry-first capability that makes it easier to comparison-shop in the indirect channel.
Behind the scenes, its data scientists are mapping all of the airline offers,
