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

American Airlines: IBM Computer History: Origin of the IBM SABRE Airline Reservation System, developed from 1957 to 1959, installed in 1960. The world’s first large scale electronic reservation system. Built utilizing IBM 7090 mainframe and technologies used in the Air Force’s missile defense program, it revolutionized the airline industry of the 1960’s. With vintage films from the 1950’s and a rare IBM film of the SABRE Experimental Agent’s workstation of 1958, we can see how the system evolved over time. We also discuss the pre-SABRE “Reservisor” system developed by Teleregister Corporation. A 4 minute historical into, followed by the 8 minute IBM Experimental workstation, and short image glossary. Total run time about 13 mins.
{Presented for Educational and Historical use only. IBM film clip is copyrighted by International Business Machines Corporation and used here with permission. Computer History Archives Project ("CHAP")
IBM originally named the project SABER for “Semi-Automatic Business Environment Response”.
In 1959, American Airlines changed it to SABRE for “Semi-Automatic Business Research Environment”, for marketing purposes.
With Special Thanks to:
IBM Corporate Archives
Poughkeepsie, NY 12601
Max Campbell, Archivist
www.ibm.com/ib...
Computer History Museum
Mountain View, California
Dag Spicer, Senior Curator
computerhistor...
Charles Babbage Institute
(Oral history interview of R. Blair Smith)
conservancy.um...
San Diego Air and Space Museum Archives
/ sdasmarchives
Vintage Airport film footage
The Prelinger Archives
Modern Narration: David Melvin
Reference Links:
SABRE: 10 page report describing the System (Computer History Museum)
www.computer.o...
Teleregister Corporation brochure (Computer History Museum)
archive.compute...
(IBM 7090 Specs) A Third Survey of Domestic Electronic Digital Computing Systems
Report No. 1115, March 1961, by Martin H. Weik, by Ballistic Research Lab.(BRL),
Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland
www.ed-thelen.o...
Datamation magazine, March 1969
Issue Topic: “The busy crowded world of air transportation”
bitsavers.org/m...
The Sabre Story (Sabre Corporation)
www.sabre.com/...
Sabre Holdings Corporation (history, profile)
www.referencef...
Book: “Airline Operations and Management “
by Gerald N. Cook and Bruce G. Billig, 2017, Routledge, New York, NY
DC 7 History --
epicflightacad...

[@peterwaesch1820]

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.

[@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject]

Hi Peter, it sounds like you got a "front row seat" for many of the airline reservation system changes. I can imagine those were some very interesting times! ~ Victor

[@salvecarmelapoche4431]

Hi Peter! This is really interesting. I am a podcast producer and we are currently launching a podcast about computer history. One of the episodes will be about Sabre. Would you be interested in speaking in this episode?

[@tracycolvin7789]

What is eds??

[@straightpipediesel]

@@tracycolvin7789 EDS was Ross Perot's company. They were one of the first IT outsourcing contractors. They were sold to GM then HP, then merged with CSC to form DXC.

[@un_amor_perfecto8926]

I noticed most agencies and a few Airlines still use SABER is there online training for SABER?

[@j.sebring6136]

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.

[@javaguru7141]

That is awesome!! I've long had a fascination with SAGE. Limitation breeds engineering innovation. What part(s) of the system did you work on, if you can say? Any interesting stories?

[@James_Knott]

I didn't work on SAGE, but the telecommunications company I worked for connected RADAR bases in Canada to it.

[@markusjuenemann]

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

[@AlonsoRules]

difference between back then and now is that you had to talk to a person to book a flight, now you can do it on Google Flights

[@Roady1013]

Wow that’s insane 8:20 on two days of training. I use Sabre interact for a us airline and we had a month of training. Granted I am pretty young and never used anything close to any old systems. Making new bookings now takes around 20 over the phones. What a crazy world.

[@frankowalker4662]

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

[@thesledgehammerblog]

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.)

[@rmrbush]

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.

[@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject]

Hi Chris, fascinating story. Sounds like some midnight oil was burned on that one. (PS: Surprised your comment made it passed the YT censors... : ) )

[@tpcdude]

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

[@LMacNeill]

I was thinking the same thing -- what a neat setup that was. I wonder who thought of doing that.

[@patricknelson]

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!

[@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject]

Hi Patrick, yup, it has been around a long time. Airlines had lots of money to throw at computer automation back in the 1960's and 70's. They helped force the IT industry to get better at reservation systems. And it took a while! ~ Thanks for the great feedback! ~ Victor, at CHAP

[@pantherplatform]

This is rapidly becoming the channel I watch the most.

[@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject]

Panther Platform, glad you enjoy our videos. Thanks for the kind words. ~ Victor, CHAP

[@AlonsoRules]

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

[@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject]

Hi Anthony, yes, it sure does. Reminds me of the 1961 Twilight Zone episode "The Odyssey of Flight 33." ".. just about 50 minutes out of Idlewild Airport..." ~ Thank you for visiting our channel! ~ VK

[@faizansiddiqui9261]

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

[@James_Knott]

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.

[@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject]

Interesting! I had not heard of "Collins" computers before. Lots of brands have come and gone since then.

[@James_Knott]

@@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject That Collins is Rockwell Collins, which you may have heard of. They made a lot of communications equipment for the military and aviation industry. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rockwell_Collins

[@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject]

James, thanks very much. That does sound a bit familiar. Thank you for the link, I will check it out! Victor, CHAP

[@360MIX]

Excellent.... SABRE TX...

[@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject]

Thank you very much. ~

[@TSquared2001]

Very informative

[@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject]

Hi TSquared2001, thank you for your feedback! ~ Victor

[@ebntje]

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

[@tracycolvin7789]

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.

[@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject]

Hi Tracy, sounds like it was a cumbersome system to use, but lasted a long time(!)

[@AlexPayneKU]

Большое спасибо! Очень интересно! Успехов!

[@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject]

Thank you. Glad you enjoyed the video. ~ CHAP

[@hattree]

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.

[@straightpipediesel]

This was before airline deregulation in 1978. Fares were set and routes were assigned by the government to ensure no airline would go bankrupt. On the other hand, only executives could afford to fly. Note on the card there's no fare: there was only full fare which didn't matter which flight you took, and that trip you heard probably cost around 1 month's average wages.

[@typograf62]

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).

[@CATDIGITAL]

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

[@MJK1965]

🎶We've come a long ways, baby!!!🎶

[@ftjax]

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

[@johnsimon8457]

1:38 holy moley what a monster! I’ve never seen a magnetic drum running before. Only in museums. 3:48 Miami? Seattle? Eh…. leave them off 9:52 Collecting OFFICE phone first! Then home phone. I know it’s a demo call, but that’s a cultural difference. Actual cost of a flight is never discussed. Also this predates credit cards, so no billing.

[@LMacNeill]

6:19 -- "[It] assures the agent that the passenger space has been subtracted from the right inventory, and that it will not later be confirmed to another passenger." The part he left out: "Unless we over-book. Which we always do. Then some of y'all are gonna get screwed." ;-)

[@tedsaylor6016]

Back in that day, there was no overbooking. The prices were fixed, airlines solely competed on Service. If any airline overbooked, you would not choose that one in the future as all city-pair prices were the same across carriers.

[@apl175]

@@tedsaylor6016 Ahh that explains why they didn't talk about the price - or discounts. Same price on all airlines for a given route.

[@peterwaesch1820]

Yes, heavily regulated by the CAB, same price on all airlines for a given route.

[@rugcutter284]

8:26 no payment needed to reserve the flight..?

[@yvr2002rtw]

@rugcutter284 Back then after you made the reservation, you had to show up either at a city ticket office or airport counter by the deadline they give you to pay for the ticket. The agent then writes out the ticket by hand using those multipart carbon paper forms. Reservations not purchased by the deadline are released back into inventory.

[@jvolstad]

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

[@adamwordsworth6732]

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

[@jamiehardt3061]

Having to constantly crane your head to the left to read the tty seems like a real pain. OTOH having the quick reference cards in front with a little reader and the interactive search is really elegant.

[@rugcutter284]

8:40 ?And how did she know he need to depart from Idyllwild? He didn’t tell her where he was calling from nor the departure city!

[@jmd1743]

computing with a purpose.

[@Metaldetectiontubeworldwide]

8:20 my Thoughts "Elvis " is back ...lol Very nice video ! I wonder how much Kb of data that "drum" -steadystate memory could hold back then ? Grtzz johny geerts

[@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject]

Thanks. Yes, could be Elvis... : )

[@cityofabscissae]

I saw one once that was capable of storing 44 kilobytes, but that may have been smaller in size than this one.

[@janrehak5287]

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

[@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject]

Thank you Jan, (Google translate says: "then you see ADAT, but it is a DAT recording from the 1930s in the framework of disc memories - that is, reel to reel that you see - then you see commercial sales and production, so the invention is shown, not that they didn't have them and that they didn't have hard drives and rom and ram memories and basic chipset and/or display device and video interface - i.e. like a graphics chipset and/or audio.") --

[@mortarmopp3919]

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

[@janrehak5287]

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

[@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject]

Jan, thank you. (Google translate says: Czech language - "yes, and you practically see an electric tabulator in 1860, on the one hand, for the reason that you definitely need this in banking, but also in the stock exchange much earlier - that is, already during the time of the first telegraph and us post in 1800.")

[@janrehak5287]

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

[@pablotorres2675]

no overbooking capabilities? huh

[@joefrisco]

It looks painful to build and to use.

[@MLX1401]

It's just a prototype! Actual machinery was much better to use. IBM was actually quite interested in ergonomics and actively studied how to improve workflows.