American and Sabre Call a Truce

American Airlines announced this afternoon that it and Sabre Holdings have put their litigation on hold until June 1 in order to negotiate an amicable solution to their disagreement.  As you know, American pulled its flight information from Orbitz back in December, and shortly thereafter things began falling apart with the other big online agency, Expedia, and then Sabre, owner of Travelocity.  American is pushing for agencies to bypass traditional Global Distribution Systems (GDS’s) and instead connect directly to American’s reservations computers.

I must remain passionately neutral in this unfolding saga, but I will say that I think change is a comin’ to the way we buy travel.  I just don’t think it’s coming quite as fast as American wants.  If they can reach an agreement with Sabre, I’d expect some progress with Expedia and Orbitz soon.