Hickory Beeline opts for Sabre

23 August 2006

Hickory Beeline
Travel has announced its participation in Sabre’s Efficient
Access Solution (EAS).The program offers travel agencies full
travel content and protection from airline service fees from seven
participating carriers including United Airlines, Delta Air Lines and
Continental Airlines among others.

Hickory Beeline Travel believes in the importance of centralized
access to all airline schedules and fares via a Global Distribution
System (GDS) as a way to maintain the high levels of service and
professional travel advice it delivers to its clients.
“In order to continue to deliver the highest quality professional
travel services, Hickory Beeline Travel must avoid the costs and
inefficiencies content fragmentation and extra service fees bring,”
said Hertha Lasky, Hickory Beeline Travel president. “Because we book
a wide variety of travel—everything from a business trip to a
special, Silver Anniversary cruise vacation—our agency must have
the most efficient source for all travel content, and we applaud Sabre
for working to make this possible through its EAS program.”
To facilitate full content access, Hickory Beeline Travel would
like to see all carriers sign agreements with GDSs and urges those
airlines without such agreements to consider the impact content
fragmentation will have on the travel industry.
“All travel agencies regardless of their business mix will find it
very costly to do business and meet their clients’ needs if they have
to search for content in multiple places,” said Lasky. “In July 2006
alone, ARC data indicates agents booked over $5.8 billion in travel,
demonstrating the revenue agents bring to the industry. Surely the few
airlines that have not signed agreements to date to participate in the
GDS programs know agents need full content via the GDS in order to
sell tickets and will take steps to join programs like the Efficient
Access Solution. No matter what the issue or what’s causing a hold-up
in negotiations, I’d like to see all parties involved work towards a
mutually beneficial agreement.”