Learn more about our commitment to help the industry sell more cruises

Cruise is a complex product to sell and buy. And the industry has been growing significantly over the last couple of years. So what does Sabre Travel Network President Greg Webb have to say about our involvement in the cruise world? He recently sat down with Stay Ahead TV host Austin Wright to discuss this very subject.

We have invested a great deal of money and human capital in building out our cruise capabilities. And by the end of 2012, Sabre will have 17 of the world’s leading cruise lines available for booking in our system. What does that mean for you? It means we can bring sellers and buyers together in the marketplace – making it even easier for you to serve your travelers.

Stay Ahead TV examines how we are making changes in the industry, and offers a fresh look at other topics that matter most to you. Watch the third video of Episode 1 with President Greg Webb here or visit our Stay Ahead TV page to view all our videos.

Sabre has an unmatched track record of agency and corporate advocacy. Count on us to stand up for your interests. We take a tough stand to ensure balance in the marketplace.

Stay Ahead TV helps you look at your business with fresh eyes and stay up to date on topics that matter most to you. Click on either of the videos shown here or visit our Stay Ahead TV page to view all of our videos.

Want to learn more about how to use Trams® and ClientBase® more effectively in your agency? Then attend our monthly ClientBase Coffee Chats on the third Friday of every month. Sabre® experts will tackle different topics each month with the goal of helping you increase sales and improve client relationships.

Our first Coffee Chat was held on April 20, when we hosted more than 115 attendees. Our topic was tracking leisure trip inquiries and techniques for successfully turning them into bookings. Most experts agree it takes at least five touches to finalize 80% of sales. But most sales reps give up after two contacts. So how can we help you change that?

One way is to simply increase your follow-up contacts after a customer contacts you about a potential trip. And ClientBase helps you easily manage those contacts with Reminders. Another great key to sales success presented is creating a Res Card at the time of inquiry, NOT at the time of booking. Creating Res Cards is faster and easier than it seems, and with the powerful follow-up tools found in ClientBase, managing leads is a snap.

If you’d like more information on what was discussed, download the handout Creating Reminders in Res Cards.

Future Coffee Chats will be recorded so you can listen at your desk or on the go. Join us May 18, 2012 at 12 noon CST.

1. Sabre system passcodes must contain a combination of seven or eight alphanumeric characters. Therefore, the passcode must contain at least one numeric character (such as ABCDEF1) and at least one alpha character (such as 1234567A).
2. You can use any numeric and alpha characters used except for Q and Z.
3. You cannot repeat the same character more than two times in succession. For example, the system allows AAB2AAB4. It does not allow 11A1111.
4. You must change your passcode every 90 days.
   • You will be notified 10 days before your current passcode expires.
   • You cannot reuse last four passcodes.
   • You cannot use proper names or banned words as your passcode.
     • The restricted words are numerous and include a database of commonly used words, proper names, and keyboard sequences (including abusive and foul language).
     • If you choose one of these words, you will receive the error response: “CONTAINS RESTRICTED WORD – NEW PASSCODE UNACCEPTABLE”.

Last week Sabre Travel Network® attended CLIA’s cruise3sixty in Fort Lauderdale. Our congratulations to CLIA for delivering yet another successful event. It brings together agents and suppliers to hear the latest on all things cruise-related.

While there, attendees could join one of our workshops or stop by our tradeshow booth. Sabre® cruise expert Tina Shaffer showed off our industry-leading cruise shopping and booking tool, Sabre® Cruises. If you book cruises and haven’t checked it out, please do. Gone are the days of shopping across multiple cruise line web sites. Sabre Cruises allows you to book 14 cruise lines (17 lines by the end of the year), regardless of your GDS affiliation. We provide you with the details needed to plan just about any type of cruise imaginable.

A number of Sabre products were shown at our booth. Sabre® Red^TM Workspace in graphical view eliminates the need to know traditional formats when booking air, car and hotel. ClientBase® is the most complete customer relationship management tool for managing profiles and using for targeted marketing. And AgentStream gives you an opportunity to learn from other agents and share your own knowledge with others who need an assist.

If you’d like more information on any of these products, click on the links above.  Or if you’re looking for a reason to travel to Las Vegas (and really, aren’t we all?), join us for Technology & Marketing University from June 4-7. There, you’ll be included in three days of industry trends, best practices and marketing techniques that you can’t find at any other industry event.

Easily monitor, manage and grow your business using Trams® Back Office. Our back-office accounting and reporting system is easy to learn and use, and will help you control costs with extreme efficiency.

We recently enhanced Trams Back Office with many new great features, including:

• Addition of Quick Edit button in payment received screen to assist with entering commission track payments
• New client statement option to allow users the ability to email client statements
• Ability to add UDIDs 100-999 to existing reports or newly created reports in the Report Generator/ Build Report
• Addition of “Accounting Remarks” field to the Invoices section
• Enhanced printing options from the Invoice Query screen to allow on-the-fly print invoice option modifications

If you are a Sabre Connected^SM agent learn more about how Trams Back Office and these enhancements can help you.

John Downing, one of our hardest-working account directors, was recently honored by Travel Agent magazine as a Top Supplier Sales Rep of 2012. Downing was the only honoree in the GDS category.

According to Travel Agent, his “amazing sense of duty and unique ability to help clients with even the most challenging bookings deserves the spotlight.” We couldn’t agree more.

John has been with Sabre® for 16 years. He tries to work with the philosophy that “every problem is an opportunity,” and aims to keep strong relationships with his customers. He has traveled to all 50 states of the U.S. as well as to more than 80 countries and 20 territories.

Congratulations, John!

Sabre® has introduced even more hotels for you to book through the Sabre marketplace. A new agreement with Travelodge Hotels (UK and Ireland) allows Sabre Connected^SM agents to book all 475+ Travelodge hotels through the Sabre GDS.

Travelodge Hotels is a leading hotelier with properties based in the UK and Ireland. Throughout 2012, more Travelodge properties will be added.

Shop and book these properties using the TG chain code. They are currently available on all Sabre points of sale, including the Sabre® Red^TM Workspace, Sabre® Web Services and GetThere®.

Around Sabre®, we like to say “Travel is good.”

We believe when there is more travel and travel is made better, then the world is a better place. When people travel, jobs are created and economies thrive. Business gets done. Friends and families reconnect. And vacations and dreams are realized.

Simply put, travel is good — very good for all of us. It’s why we advocate so strongly for an open, transparent travel marketplace.

Because travel is so important, we are proud to support the U.S. Travel Association’s Vote Travel campaign. To promote the campaign, USTA is in the midst of a 40-city, 20,000-mile bus tour. Our CEO, Sam Gilliland, a member of the USTA board, participated in the Los Angeles stop. And I was honored to speak at the recent Dallas/Fort Worth rally.

At its core, travel is an economic engine. One out of every nine U.S. jobs depends on travel and tourism. That’s 14 million jobs, ranking travel and tourism fifth among all employment sectors. International visitors spent $139 billion on travel and tourism in the United States in 2011, making travel and tourism the U.S.’s largest industry export. Travel and tourism generated $1.8 trillion – yes, trillion — in total economic output in the United States last year.

In this election year, we are working with the USTA to encourage our public officials to reduce security and visa hassles, to invest in promoting travel, and to stop piling taxes on the industry that make travel less affordable. We join the USTA in voting “Yes” for travel, and if you would like to cast your vote, please visit votetravel.org.

Chris Kroeger speaks at the Vote Travel event

“It’s come to a point that it’s too much information to be confident that they have the ability to book the lowest fare,” or uncover the best place to stay, said Steve Peterson, the global travel and transportation leader for the I.B.M. Institute for Business Value. “Consumers are hungry for that one-and-done shopping experience.”

As it turns out, after years of losing ground to online sites, a new breed of tech savvy, specialized and collaborative agent has emerged. Read more about why the traditional travel agent is making a comeback.