Computer History: IBM SABRE Reservation System, American Airlines (1960 scheduling air fare flights)

The only disadvantage I find with the IBM SABRE Reservisor System is that flight data had to be printed as output. When the printer ribbon ink wore off, that problem would be a bad inconvenience to the sales agent. This thing came before the cathode ray tube (CRT) terminal was invented. I was born in 1953, but learned typewriting when I was 12 years old.

My father helped install Sabre in Tulsa mid 1960"s. He worked out of Briarcliff Manor NY

Wow, and I am still using Sabre today—much more modern now. I branched off to Amadeus after a few years, but my heart is still with Sabre; it's the first GDS I learned

I have been using SABRE from AA for about 40 years! - The Americans were technologically at least 30 years ahead of Europe. EXTRAORDINARY film!

🎶We've come a long ways, baby!!!🎶

I had to write code against Sabre years back, they had a SOAP based wrapper that we used to communicate with it. I believed I was dealing with a stateless service, but it was indeed stateful. That bug lurked without being a problem for over a year until we hit high volume. Let me tell you, that was not a fun day/night. I had to first shutdown the whole integration and then figure out what we fucked up. When I realized the nature of the bug, boy did I feel small. I had to quickly build a system to store the state which needed to be passed a long with each step of the booking. Was able to turn it back on about 12 hours later. Then of course we had to deal with all the fucked up bookings, which honestly, wasn't as many as you would think.

jo a viditeprakticky elektrický tabulator v roce 1860 jednak z duvodu že potřebujete už toto s určitostí v rámci bankovnictví ale i stock exchange mnohem dříve - tedy už za doby prvního telegraph a us post v roce 1800

pak tedy vidite ADAT ale jde o zaznam DAT ze 30. let v rámic kotoučových pamětí - tedy reel to reel které vidite - pak vidite commercial prodej a vyrobu tak proto je ukazana invention ne že je neměly a že neměly hardisk a paměti rom a ram a základní chipset a nebo zobrazovací začřízení a video rozhraní - tedy jakoby grafický chipset a nebo audio

jo to josu 30ta leta vy jednak už máte i mainframe s hdd ale i mate tape kotouče a zpracovavate databazy a registry - pak máte i zobrazovací zařízení jiné než automatic typewriter a to klasickou tv a to jsme v roce 1938 - pak už nelze mluvit ani o relé ani o elektronkách - normálně mají v rámic ibm od jejího prakticky vzniku od roku 1930 přesně toto jednak mají tranzistor a jednak mikroporcessor a processor a integrované obvody pak také klasickou sít s dial up a také zaznam v digitalní formě - pak vidite i parovaní a vyhodnocování dat v rámic voice a to je jasné proč ukazují ty slabiky a voder - jednak tak ta i obracěně ale i v rámic vyhodnocování pak u ruského teletype - vidite i přenos velice jednoduchou formou grafiky a tisku - ve formě časopisů a novin a to v orce 1930 a to jsme u nich technologicky na zpět - těžko řešit jaký byl hlavní mainframe ve 30 letech v usa

Very informative

OLTP. I love it. I wonder how they handled down time.

Wow 😲 a Lockheed 1011 that takes me back to my teen years

I learned Sabre to become a ticket agent for AA in 1987.. It took 3 full lines to type in just to change out a ticket..After becoming a flight attendant, and leaving AA in 1993, they were still using Sabre.

It looks painful to build and to use.

What's insane is I remember helping to build a website for AA back in like 2014 and we had to interface with an old system called "SABRE"... holy crap, they weren't kidding when they called it old, haha. It really hit me though when I visited the Computer History museum in Mountain View. Strolling by this old mainframe computer, I saw the word SABRE and I was like "Oh! That reminds me of a website I did a few years back." I kept reading and they mentioned American Airlines and I was gobsmacked, lol. I know that's just a general name and it's probably been through quite a few iterations over the years, but I didn't realize just how far back that name really went!

"Idlewild" - you know its a real throwback when this name is used

no overbooking capabilities? huh

It is difficult to see exactly but it seems to me, that the operator may have to stretch her arms a lot to reach some of the buttons (and the dial).

Might want to clip that last 40 sec. of nothingness.

I started working for American Airlines in Chicago, May 1961, with the understanding that my job was temporary because SABRE was being implemented and the manpower would go down after that implementation, I was taught how to use the Reservisor.
36 years later, retired as an American Airlines Manager under the SABRE umbrella, shortly before EDS showed up.

What's most amazing is an airline having enough money to do this and not having seen them go bankrupt 3 or 4 times in your life.

Back in the late '70s & early '80s, I was a computer technician with CN Telecommunications, working on the Air Canada reservation system. However, Air Canada then shut down their own system and moved to SABRE, which I had no involvement with. The Air Canada system I worked on was more advanced than what I saw in these older SABRE systems, but I expect that changed by the time they switched. The Air Canada system evolved from an earlier CN Rail passenger system that some of my co-workers supported, but I didn't. The Air Canada system ran on UNIVAC computers, which I didn't work on. I worked on the communications front end for the UNIVAC, based on Collins computers. The Collins computers were MIL spec IBM clones.

Seems great usability for the time (and excellent styling!), but awful ergonomics - reaching all the way over that console for a common button!!

My Mom used to work as a travel agent in the 90s and early 2000s, and used SABRE for making reservations, and later Worldspan (a similar competing system). Don't remember much about it, but the commands and output on the screens was so convoluted I had no idea how anyone could read it (guess it made sense if you were trained on it.)

A direct offshoot of the SAGE system. I spent five years working on that system. It was right at the edge of the vacuum tube/transistor age.

This is rapidly becoming the channel I watch the most.

Cool! never saw a IBM B1 with a separated keyboard and printer. crude but effective.

computing with a purpose.

If only today's customers were so patient and friendly like those back then...

Excellent.... SABRE TX...

All that from a chance meeting on a plane. :)

Большое спасибо! Очень интересно! Успехов!