Lesson Two

Sabre City Pair Availability (CPA)

Introduction

In this lesson you will be introduced to the Sabre system and learn to display all the
available flights from any two cities. Most of this lesson and all subsequent Sabre
lessons are related to making Sabre entries and interpreting and acting upon Sabre
responses. You should complete all Sabre lessons by actually making the entries in your
Sabre system as they are described in the lessons. This hands-on procedure will enable
you to quickly learn how to use Sabre.

Sabre Keyboard

Either the standard Sabre keyboard that comes with your Sabre hardware or the keyboard
on your personal computer can be used to make Sabre entries. If you are using a personal
computer keyboard, several keys have been assigned for specific entries applicable to the
Sabre system only. When you have signed in to Sabre, these keys can then be used only
for their assigned Sabre entries. The following is a list of keys applicable to Sabre entries
only showing the label on your PC keyboard and the Sabre entry that will result from
depressing that key (if you are using a standard Sabre keyboard, you can ignore this
table).

Sabre Entry Depress this key

Display = (equal sign)
Clear Backspace
Change [ (left bracket)
Return ] (right bracket)
End Item \ (back slash)
Erase ; (semicolon)
Cross of Loraine ‘ (apostrophe)
Memo End

In this lesson, you will use:

The Display Key – Located to the left of the Backspace Key on the top row of
your keyboard.
The Cross of Loraine Key – Located two keys to the right of the “L” key.

Entering Commands in Sabre

A command is an entry that instructs Sabre to perform a particular task. Sabre commands
are used to book reservations, request flight information and schedules, and make
changes, as well as many other functions. When you sign in to Sabre you are given a
work area on your PC monitor. In the work area you gather reservations you have made
and all the information pertinent to the traveler, such as name, phone number and the

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reservations you make for him. All of this information is referred to as the Passenger
Name Record (PNR). When all the data has been assembled, you “end the transaction,”
and the record is transmitted to Sabre’s permanent storage database.

A Sabre command begins with a field identifier or command code. Every command has
a format that must be typed in a particular order. Unless the format is followed exactly,
Sabre will respond to your request with an error message. After you type a command
you must press the Enter key.

The illustrations that follow are screen shots of actual Sabre work areas. The Sabre
responses are shown in light colored, or grey, type font; the entries you make are shown
in black. At this point you should be at your computer so you can actually make the
entries being discussed. The notation Make Entry appears each time you should
make the entry in your own computer. To begin your Sabre session, click on the Sabre
icon on your desktop.

Sign-In Procedure

At the beginning of each Sabre session you will be presented with a sign-in screen. If
you are using a standard PC keyboard, your entry format to sign in is:

SI(display key)(your agent sign)

The display key is the key to the left of the backspace key on the top row of your
keyboard.

Make Entry

This should be how your Sabre work area appears:

After each entry you make you must press the Enter key. Next enter the passcode that
has been assigned to you.

Make Entry

Sabre’s response is the announcement screen showing the day’s news from Sabre:

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You are now ready to make reservations and build a PNR.

City Pair Availability

Sabre displays a listing of flights and classes of service between any two designated
cities. The displaying of flight availability is referred to as City Pair Availability or CPA.
The city pair is made up of the three letter codes for the origin and destination cities. To
display CPA, two things must be known, the travel date and the city pair.

Entering Travel Date

Sabre will display only flight scheduled for the current day unless you include the travel
date. The date is entered in code, with the day entered as one or two digits and the month
as a three-letter abbreviation of the month. For example, the 1st of June would be entered
as 1JUN and the 20th of October is entered as 20OCT.

Entering City Pair

Sabre must have the city pair in order to display availability. Flights from Chicago to
Los Angeles are referred to by the city pair CHILAX, using the city code CHI for
Chicago and LAX for Los Angeles.

Some cities have more than one airport (like Chicago), in which case the city pair
availability entry may include either the city code or the airport code. To specify a
particular airport in Chicago, use the airport code – ORD for O’Hare airport or MDW for
Midway airport. By using the city code, Sabre will show flights from all airports in the
city (both O’Hare and Midway in our example).

To find the city code for a city, use the following Sabre entry:

W/-CC(name of city)

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Make Entry

Entering Departure Time

The departure time should be entered at the end of your CPA request. Times are entered
as codes. Enter A for a. m. or P for p. m. 9:40 a. m. is entered as 940A, 10:00 p. m. is
entered as 1000P, 12 noon is entered as 1200N.

Availability Displays

The following is the basic command used to request city pair availability:

1(travel date)(city pair)(departure time)

Make Entry

The Sabre response shows flights scheduled around the departure time between the two
city pairs. Additional flights can be shown by entering 1= (1display). Non-stop flights
are displayed first, followed by connecting flights – in this example, lines 1, 2 and 3 are
non-stop flights; lines 4 and 5 are two connecting flights with a change in Milwaukee
(MKE).

The above availability display is interpreted as follows:

12NOV TUE CLE/EST MCO/EST 0

12NOV - Departure date.
TUE - Day of week.
CLE/EST – Cleveland is in eastern time zone
MCO/EST 0 Orlando is in eastern time zone. 0 indicates 0 time difference

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1CO 1071 A9 D9 CLEMCO 9 930A 1152A 738 S/S/S 0 DCA /E
1 - Line number.
CO 1071 - Airline and flight number.
A9 D9 - Seats available in classes A and D.
CLEMCO – Origin and destination cities.
9 - Flight dependability code (9 indicates 90% or better on time).
930A 1152P - Departure and arrival times (local times).
738 - Type of aircraft (Boeing 737)

F9 E3 Y9 H9 K9 B9 V9 Q9 T9 - Seats available in other classes.

Additional Availability

There are several entries that can be made to display additional availability. These
entries can be made while the availability display originally requested is still active.

Entry Results
1(display key) Displays next six flights until Sabre responds **NO MORE**
1(display key) Displays flights departing around alternate time entered.
(alternate time)
1(alternate date) Displays availability on departure date entered.
1(cross of loraine)1 Displays availability on departure date one day later.
1-3 Displays availability on departure date three days earlier.

Limiting Availability Display

You may limit the flights appearing on the availability display by adding codes to the end
of the basic availability entry as follows:

Add to basic entry Example Results

(city code) STL Displays only flights connecting at city specified.
/D /D Displays only non-stop or direct flights
(cross of (cross of Displays only flights for the carrier specified.
loraine)(carrier loraine)AA
code)
/(time) /10A Displays flights by arrival time rather than departure time.
-(class of service) -V Displays flights only for class specified.

Return Availability

After displaying availability for a departure, you may display flights for a return trip.
The following is the format for the entry to request return availability.

1R(return date)(return time)

In addition, you may limit the availability display to one carrier by adding cross of
loraine and carrier code:

1R(return date)(return time)(cross of loraine)(carrier code)

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Make Entry

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