I was on GEnie from 1987 until they pulled the plug in 1999. Used an Atari ST and 1200 baud modem to connect initially. By 1999, I had a 486 PC and 28.8K modem.

I used Eaasy Sabre a lot, and also helped out friends and family by researching flights and fares for them. You could either go through a menu entering each data element, or use a command line like /air,phx,bna,sep22,aa for flights PHX-BNA on Sep. 22 on AA.

Compuserve member in very early days. Radio Shack external dialup modem with Heathkit H-89 computer. Spent $50 to add 16K of memory. Used 300 baud rate to connect!!! It was fun playing with Eaasy Sabre.

My favorite Eaasy Sabre moment:

Booking a UA SFO-LAX F OW for $200. The best part was that they lacked a routing restriction, so this simple OW allowed you to route the long way, RTW on UA1. Would have been even better had they honored it

Wow, brings back memories. This is what got me hooked on travel.

Yep, I was a CompuServe Travel Forum sysop for a while. I still have a CompuServe account and use that for my personal email.

Those were the days. People felt safe using their real names. I met a lot of fellow CompuServe people in person, and one of those people has become, today, one of my best friends.

Travsig used to do dinners or get-togethers in various cities. Sorta like we do at FT... Travsig also had negotiated a discount with AutoEurope that saved me a reasonable amount of money back in the day.

Sabre is still easily accessible today.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trave...-bookings.html

Alan Hamilton?

And some members have even made an effort to fill this void -- back in 2004, EasySabre became one of the inspirations for the creation of the KVS Availability Tool.

In fact, for those who prefer to use keyboard shortcuts, what used to be a command to check Flight Availability in Easy Sabre is now in the KVS Tool.

Yep, I was there, banging out those command lines all through the early 90s. I ticketed my first online-bought flight through them in 1990.

Pros: FF programs were significantly more generous then, you could book some truly wacky itins and check class of service segment-by-segment, and it was possible in some circumstances up until about 1996 to do throwaway ticketing even for more then just the last segment.

Cons: It took a LOT more time in general to book trips, you'd hit more dead ends if one segment didn't work, and kiosk/online check-in wasn't yet available to allow an avoid-the-humans strategy.

It took years for me to put all the pieces together with segment maximization and the multiplier effect with elite status. My "graduation" was around 1996 in taking a buyout offer so I could travel the world for a year (with FF miles earned making it possible). I had to burn off vacation before my last day (they didn't just pay it; I had to take the days), so I did 3 different LAS trips of 8 total segments RT each, getting upgraded on all the segments.

I still miss Eaasy Sabre and I first used it in the early 80s when I was not yet a teenager. I used an Apple IIc and accessed this through CompuServe. We had a family friend who was an agent at a Uniglobe, so I would just tell her my itinerary and she did the ticketing. She helped me land an month long internship during high school there (we needed either community service or work experience to graduate). Eaasy Sabre helped me adapt to the GDS.

Eaasy Sabre was the only way to find a 7 segment H class US ticket which got me 25,000 bonus miles in the mid 90s. She laughed at me thinking I was paying too much since there was a V class available. But of course, I needed the qualifying fare class for the promo. I always found it amazing that back in the day when TA's got free travel, they didn't know much about the frequent flier programs let alone the promotions.

Just thought I'd share my experiences. I, too, used EAASY SABRE when I as on Q-Link. I didn't have a fancy PC, this was my Commodore 64 with 300 baud modem (though I did move to 1200 before demise.) After Q-Link bit the dust I did move to GEnie on my Amiga, but I don't think I ever used ES again. Last night while digging through some papers I found my ES welcome letter from Erica Adams, EAASY SABRE Coordinator, with my AAdvantage number and password.

I don't suppose this information is any good these days, especially considering the letter is dated September 8, 1992. heheheh

Anyway, I am pretty certain I only ever used it to book one flight. That was to book my on-line girlfriend a trip to visit. Ah, youth

Eaasy Sabre is officially gone.
I've been using it for the last 5 years here, but it looks like travelocity took it down recently. I'm very annoyed

Great thread. Especially for those of us a little longer in the traveling tooth.
YES, I remember Easy SABRE. I used it a lot. Also, I was a very early adopter of Compuserve.
With my TRS Model 3. 1980? 81? That I can't quite remember.
I was on Compuserve every night at 300 and then 1200 baud (wow! 1200 baud! Smokin'!) before going with an IBM machine.

Easy SABRE was awesome. Back then, I typically used American Express for travel. I lived in an area of NY that had an AMEX office near my office. They knew something was wrong when I stopped coming in weekly and booking travel. They asked me, "Are you doing things on your computer?" Funny. Yes, I was "Doing Things" on my computer.

I remember executing my first travel itinerary on SABRE. I also remember, now that someone mentioned it, my COMPUSERVE ID. XXXXX,XXXX. It popped into my head for the first time since the 80's. I think I went from Compuserve to Prodigy around 1990. Don't hold me to the dates. Too long ago.

Thanks for the stroll down travel/computer/good-ole-days lane!

You mean CIS TRAVSIG?