Subject: Re: online airlines database?
Organization: I.E.C.C.
Date: 14 Dec 92 18:06:36 EST (Mon)
From: johnl@iecc.cambridge.ma.us (John R. Levine)

>Can I search the database which travel agents use to find if there are
>any tickets available on any airlines on a particular date?

There are three CRSes that have consumer interfaces:

Eaasy Sabre -- American Airlines CRS
PARS Travelshopper -- TWA/Northwest CRS
Electronic OAG -- On-line interface to the Electronic Airline Guide

All three have similar data, e.g. schedules up to a year ahead, fare info,
rental cars and hotels, and let you make reservations on all computerized
airlines (nearly all of them.)

Sabre is available at no surcharge on most on-line systems, e.g.
Compuserve, Genie, Delphi, and Prodigy.  Prodigy has a "we know you're
stupid" user friendly interface that greatly limits what you can do.
Everyone else uses a so-so line-oriented menu interface.  You can type
through menus, e.g. /AIR,BOS,LAX,15MAR,1300 asks for flights to Boston to
Los Angeles on Mar 15th at 1 PM. In the past year they've arranged to
store a lot of personal defaults (keyed by AAdvantage number, which is
your Eaasy ID) such as seat preferences, FF numbers, etc.  Tickets can be
issued by airlines, any Sabre agent (most of them), or by mail.  Cheapest
access is via one of the systems with a fixed monthly rate such as Genie
or Delphi.

PARS is available at no surcharge on fewer systems.  It has its own menu
interface, again which you can type through by stringing commands with
semicolons, e.g. A;BOS;LAX;15MAR;1P for the same request.  It's a little
harder to use, but is somewhat more flexible, e.g. it can waitlist
segments and do open tickets which Sabre can't.  It is also better at
finding connections and at computing international fares, though Sabre has
gotten a lot better at the latter recently.  (They'd better, considering
all of the new international routes that American has.)  Same ticketing
options as Eaasy, though fewer agents are directly connected to PARS.

On international flights, I always reserve both with Eaasy and PARS to see
who gives me a better price.  Both guarantee their prices, even if they're
wrong, occasionally offering amazing bargains to the observant user.

The OAG is quite expensive, either as a surcharged service on gateway
systems or as a direct subscription.  It's cheaper if you subscribe
directly.  It used to have better data than the other two, but these days
it's no better.  Tickets can be issued either by airlines or by Thomas
Cook Travel which is affiliated with OAG's owner.  There are a bunch of
other services that I haven't looked at in much detail but don't impress
me as very useful.  I hardly use the OAG at all any more even though I
have a direct sub.

Also to consider are the various on-line agencies.  There are some that
will split the commission with you.  Traveller's Access is available
through Eaasy, costs about $39/yr, and rebates 5% on air, car, and hotels
ticketed through them when you mail in your receipts.  There are strange
rules about who you can get rebates for (half the time they said my
nephews were OK, half not) and their agents are morons.  I currently use
Travel by Modem which is on Delphi, has a sliding rebate scale on air tix,
has good deals on consolidator tix, and the agent is really skillful.  I
use TBM even though their rebates aren't always as high as TA's, because
they're a lot better at getting good routings and fares and have lots of
free upgrade coupons and the like.  There are some other on-line agencies
but since they don't offer anything that your local agent doesn't, I see
no reason to bother with them.

Delphi is accessible through the Internet.  They have a $5 for 5 hours
intro deal charged to any major credit card.  To try it, telnet to delphi.com,
log in as JOINDELPHI, use password SHOP55.  (No, I don't get a commission.)
Compuserve may have a gateway, Genie and Prodigy don't.

Regards,
John Levine, johnl@iecc.cambridge.ma.us, {spdcc|ima|world}!iecc!johnl
Newsgroups: rec.travel.air