Skift Take
What a difference a year makes. The airline’s business travel division has, finally, added Sabre, but is also preparing to add a shopping mall-style loyalty program. Will this complete its corporate-friendly transformation?
Southwest Airlines’ business travel unit completed the holy trinity of global distribution systems by fully adding the Sabre global distribution system last month. It’s significant progress considering its tussle with the technology firm in July last year. But is it enough to shed its low-fare leisure carrier image?
Southwest last month finally began offering serviceable flights within Sabre’s global distribution system, on top of selling through Travelport and Amadeus. This means companies cannot only book the flights via Sabre, they can then also amend or rebook afterwards — something that had been lacking before, and which caused so much friction for travelers that Southwest Business pulled the plug.
Sabre has the biggest share of the market in the U.S., so it was an important final piece of the puzzle.
Situat
