Travelocity: Easy Sabre, the Roaming Gnome and a $280M Sale to Expedia

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Travelocity's roots run back to 1978, when American Airlines opened its Sabre reservation mainframe to outside travel agents. In the mid-1980s, under Kathy Misunas, American offered a consumer slice called Easy Sabre, spelled with a double A to nod to the airline, over text-only dial-up networks like CompuServe and GEnie and later AOL. In 1994 Worldview Systems Corporation and Sabre formed a 50-50 venture, launched Travelocity.com over 1995 and 1996, and in 1996 Sabre bought out investors Ameritech and Advance Publications and put longtime Sabre IT executive Terry Jones in charge. An exclusive AOL partnership followed in 1999, and a 2000 merger with Preview Travel made it the leader in online travel and took it public on the NASDAQ with Sabre keeping 70 percent.

Facing Expedia and Orbitz, Sabre took Travelocity private again in a 2002 tender offer, bought last-minute specialist Site59 and made its founder Michelle Peluso CEO in December 2003. The Roaming Gnome arrived in 2004, the brand sponsored The Amazing Race for 34 seasons, and in 2005 it paid 577 million pounds for lastminute.com. 2012 brought a $180,000 Department of Transportation fine over fares that left out fuel surcharges and a $29.95 paper ticket fee revealed only at checkout. Under Carl Sparks, a former Expedia marketing chief, the company sold off its pieces, handed its North American sites to Expedia's technology in August 2013, and in January 2015 Sabre sold the Travelocity brand to Expedia Group for $280 million in cash.

• Sabre launched a direct-to-consumer site knowing it risked a revolt from the travel agencies that were its core customers.
• In August 2012 Travelocity's social team retweeted a $200 code meant for National Federation of the Blind conference attendees, then canceled trips booked by anyone not on the attendee list.
• The Asia-Pacific agency Zuji sold for $25 million in 2012, and lastminute.com went to a Swiss firm for 76 million pounds in 2014.
• The company also shed Travelocity Business and shut its review site IgoUgo.
• Peluso resigned in 2009, and her successor Hugh Jones stepped away in 2011.