Sabre Corporation has launched its newest AI-powered retailing solution for airlines – Sabre Upgrade IQ – which can help airlines generate incremental and diversified revenue by optimising the available inventory in their premium cabins, while elevating and streamlining the customer experience.
Upgrade IQ is a PSS-agnostic solution which allows airlines to give travellers the opportunity to bid for a seat upgrade at any stage during the pre-travel timeframe – throughout the booking flow, at check-in, in the airline’s mobile app or via email communication.
Using the advanced AI and machine-learning models powered by Sabre Travel AI, Upgrade IQ streamlines the management of seat upgrades for airlines with an intuitive and automated interface that can automatically accept traveller bids, change the flight itinerary cabins, re-issue and revalidate the tickets, process payments and send receipts and confirmation information to the traveller. It also supports instant upgrades, where the traveller chooses to pay full price for a guaranteed upgrade.
During beta testing, Upgrade IQ demonstrated the ability to deliver up to 20 per cent uplift in incremental upgrade revenue by filling empty seats in premium cabins.
In addition to leveraging AI capabilities from Google, Sabre integrated with Hopper’s platform to create a frictionless and streamlined customer experience. The new Sabre solution incorporates Hopper’s advanced bidding platform which facilitates the bidding process and enables airlines to communicate with travellers in multiple languages and in-real time.
“By collaborating with Google and Hopper on some of the core technical capabilities, we have delivered a modern retailing solution to help airlines better manage seat upgrades and create differentiated customer experiences,” said Garry Wiseman, chief product officer, Sabre Travel Solutions.
