I just got off a 15-minute call with Terry Jones, the president of Travelocity.com. Pretty much, the status of easySabre as it is today is over. easySabre/travelocity is basically a travel agency, even though Sabre is a separate division of AMR. They make money by selling tickets, and easySabre sells far fewer tickets than travelocity, and thus they lose money on it. Most people use easySabre the way I do and many of us do: look up information and buy somewhere else.

So, while they are aware that very many people are upset by the demise of easySabre, they don't want to keep paying for it. I told him (truthfully) that I would be willing to pay whatever they ask for in order to have continued access. He says they are looking into that possibility. If you call or write to express your opinion (and you should), you should also be prepared to back it up with an offer to pay something. If you have status with American Airlines, you could try to convince someone at AMR to subsidize your use of easySabre, but according to Mr. Jones, AMR already knows that many of the exec. Platinums are unhappy, but so far they haven't offered travelocity anything.

Everyone is still thinking about what to do next. He was not too enthusiastic either about the idea of at least keeping easySabre around till it breaks in December, but he hasn't ruled it out. So, keep those phone calls and emails coming, but remember the free lunch is over.