Sabre urges customers to keep pressure on American Airlines

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Sabre and American Airlines pledged not to make any public comments about their truce, but in an email to customers, Sabre urged travel agents and corporate clients to “let your voice be heard…”

“AA has committed to approaching these talks in good faith,” Chris Kroeger, Sabre Travel Network’s senior vice president, marketing, wrote to travel agency and corporate customers. “You can help us hold AA to that commitment by continuing to let your voice be heard so that AA and other carriers understand that what you want is the value of transparent, efficient comparison shopping, not unproven, costly one-off systems that would make comparison shopping more difficult.”

“On a personal note, we want to thank you for your ongoing support for the principle of a transparent and efficient marketplace,” Kroeger added. “We will continue to keep you apprised of new developments in this process.”

Asked to comment about Sabre’s email to customers, American Airlines wasn’t backing down.

“We continue to believe that our direct connect solutions will more efficiently distribute our product as well as empower agencies with new tools and products,” says Ryan Mikolasik, an American Airlines spokesman. “We also believe that the arguments that these solutions are not transparent are completely groundless.  All of our negotiations with Sabre will be informed by these firmly held views.”

Below is an image with the full text of the Sabre email:

So, if Sabre won’t comment publicly about its off-gain, on-again negotiations with American Airlines over a new GDS contract, the email to customers is a clear signal that the rhetorical heat will not be diminished.

In fact, the email contains a “Forward to a Friend” widget, so Sabre wants to spread its message as widely as possible.

When you click on the Forward to a Friend link, your options look like this:

There are plenty of slots to fill in the email addresses of new recipients.

So, Sabre may be publicly silent about its current detente with AA, but behind the scenes the lobbying campaign continues.