SABRE Remote Individual User Plan
 

I'm curious if anyone has experience with the Sabre Remote Individual User Plan.

http://www.sabretravelnetwork.com/ho...elector/remote

I'm thinking of giving this a try as a way to look at fare buckets for DL, but from what I've been able to see, Sabre is not user friendly.

It has been a real pain ever since all DL info was removed from EF. All I want is the fare bucket availability for a city pair on DL, such as used to be available on EF or FlightStats.

Don't know if accessing what I want to find is as difficult as it seems using this, so any actual experience using this would be helpful.

Thanks.

I'm sending this way of a friend that might be using this...sounds like PITA might be the case. But if it works for DL ^.

I can attest that the process of setting up Sabre almost requires you to be an IT professional, and the process of learning how to use Sabre almost requires a degree in computer science and a knowledge of ancient programming languages like FORTRAN, machine language, etc. :p

It's not impossible (and given the fact that 90% of the travel agents I've ever met are seemingly below average on the intelligence scale, it's clearly learnable by anyone), but it is not nearly as easy as just going to a website and filling in a few fields. Once you do get it installed (just follow the instructions to the letter--if you can even find the PDF with the instructions--and hope you've done it right!) and you log in, you're presented with a blank blue screen. There's no such thing as typing "Menu" or anything to get a list of things you can choose from. You have to know the commands by heart (or have a cheat sheet nearby) and then type the command you want in exactly--no typos.

Example: to search for fare bucket availability on an ATL-LGA flight on 29 June departing at 2pm with DL, you'd type:

129JUNSEAATL2P‡DL

There are lots of guides to using Sabre around the Internet and even whole multi-part book series and college-level courses are offered to train people in its use, though for simple fare bucket availability searching, the free materials you can find online are enough.

That all said, it will do what you want it to do, but the installation/learning curve is steep and it's quite a bit pricier than EF--I think I was paying $49 a month for the plan you mentioned.

I agree that the commands are cryptic but they are easily learnable.

In this day and age, we seem to be addicted to windows on computers.

The great thing about using Sabre is that you don't have to wade through time consuming menus and windows.

Once you've learnt things such as the availability commands, which goes
Number 1 to indicate availability, Date, Departure City, Arrival City, Optional time and airline,
e.g. 120MARNYCLAX

They you are away and you'll never want to go back to wasting time filling in form fields.

Sabre does come in handy at times. Especially when I want check if a ticket can really be issue (availability/price-able).

ITA used to be my "GOTO" tool, but either it is getting too popular now or Google broke it, it seems to be worst than before. Aside half the time it gives various non-sense error messages... it fails on a few occasions to find lowest fare which really bothers me.

But on the other hand, I found KVS is doing a pretty good job, and much easier to use for beginners.

Simple things like fare rules/basis, availability can all be done with KVS.

So depends on what you want, I suggest to try KVS first, to see if it met your requirement.

Thanks all. I greatly appreciate your insight.

I have downloaded some Sabre training info, and it does look like a pain to learn.

It makes me understand why, years ago, when I'd go to the ticket counter, agents would have pages of cheat-cheat notes to help them type what is needed to access some bit of data. Certainly not user friendly.

But all I need is DL fare buckets for city pairs, so I will only have a few commands to learn. If I can access the info I need, it will be worth the $45/mo.

I started the application process, and now have 30 days to call back with my bank account info. Still mulling this over, but I may give it a try, as I can cancel with 30 days notice.

I'll have to look at KVS. I had that years ago, but switched to EF, as it was much easier to use, and has some great features such as seat alert. But all I want is an easy way to get the DL info I need, so I'll check KVS again and see what they offer.

Thanks everyone. Always great info here on FT.

I’m a recent retiree that had access to my companies PSS/CRS (GDS). There are links in here to SABRE remote access - but those links are from 2015 posts. It seems the 2 most common platforms discussed in this forum are ExperFlyer and KVS. I’ve read the posts in this forum going back to the beginning of 2023, and it read as the poster are dissatisfied with these 2 platforms. It seems neither is being maintained or updated.

The way I search is an airline tariff first, then availability; My time is flexible.

I’m a 37 year veteran of 3 systems - Sabre, Apollo, and Shares - and formats do not scare me. If someone has a current link to the Sabre remote access, I would appreciate that info. Looking for system requirements - MAC compatibility, and pricing.

thank you.

For what it's worth, this post in the ExpertFlyer help thread (emphasis mine) is somewhat related to your point:

​​​​​​
Using an ATPCO-published fare and building an itinerary in a GDS is really not going to be the best way to search for much longer (and IIRC is already not working well for AA, which was the first to say they were moving away from publishing their lowest fares in GDSes).

While I'm sure individual GDS access as described in this thread is still possible, the hassle of getting set up for it may not really be worthwhile for much longer.