We’re all familiar with the big three GDS, but it was Sabre that launched the earliest fully operational computerised reservation system in 1964. The brand was actually founded by American Airlines in 1960 before being spun off as an independent company in 2000.

It feels quite fitting then that the same company is partnering with PayPal and consumer AI travel platform Mindtrip to “usher the travel eco-system into the next era”.

The brands are building what they claim is the industry’s first truly end-to-end agentic travel booking system, which is set to launch in Q2 this year. Agentic AI refers to systems that, like an agent, can take actions on a user’s behalf, not just answer questions, hence “agentic”.

Instead of hopping between tabs, apps and browsers, consumers will be able to interact with an AI-powered travel assistant on the Mindtrip platform. Within a single experience, they will be able to describe their holiday requirements – preferred destinations, timings, budgets and other preferences – and get personalised flight and hotel options.

They'll also be able to ask follow-up questions and refine recommendations conversationally before completing bookings and paying, all as part of the same user experience, which then “seamlessly transitions” to post-booking management, including itinerary changes.

'The future of booking travel?'

Sabre debuted the technology at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last month, claiming: “For the first time, the system handles the whole trip automatically. It finds the flights, selects hotels in your budget, checks availability, connects rail, and pays for everything.

“And when things go wrong, it keeps working. If your flight is delayed, the system alerts the hotel so your room isn’t resold. If you miss a connection, it rebooks the next best option, updates your calendar, notifies your companions, and adjusts your itinerary while you’re still at the gate.”

Sabre said all of this was made possible owing to its position as a “backbone” of the global travel booking landscape, powering reservations for airlines, hotels, rail systems and car rental firms. “Now, Sabre has opened that infrastructure to agentic AI, allowing real end-to-end automation for the first time in the travel industry,” it added.

Central to the upcoming launch are agentic-ready APIs made possible by a new, proprietary Model Context Protocol (MCP) server, which acts as a universal translator and makes the complex language of travel technology understandable to any AI agent.

So why does all this matter? Well my interest was piqued by Sabre's “future of booking travel” claim, so I set up a call with the brand's vice-president of product management Brad Johnson to try and better understand how these developments might impact the traditional travel agency community, especially given the brand’s role as a partner to travel agencies.

'Disruption; not displacement'

Speaking more generally about Sabre’s developing capabilities, prior to the Mindtrip and PayPal partnership announcement, Johnson agrees its technology was intended to be disruptive, but insists “disruption doesn't necessarily mean displacement”.

He explains Sabre has been working closely with travel agencies during testing of some of its AI developments to see how it can better support them, and that it “really believes in the travel agency space and what they can provide”.

“Interestingly, most of the traditional agency partners we've worked with see the opportunity [in AI] – they are asking how they can better serve their travellers [and are] looking for travel technology and tools to help them in that evolution,” Johnson adds.

“Travel agents, particularly those who've been around for some time, are nothing if not resilient, and they've been very adaptive to technology changes,” he continues. “I think we'll chart a path together.”

Credit: Sabre

Johnson adds Sabre does not view itself as “just a GDS”, but as a “travel marketplace", flagging some of the AI tools it has already developed to help agents be more productive, such as email automation. “A lot of the opportunity with AI is around providing the core capabilities – the APIs – but then tools on top of those,” he says.

“As a major travel provider, I'd like to think agencies would actually be a little more worried if we weren't engaging in the space.”

In December, the company introduced an “Agentic U” programme to help customers better understand agentic AI, for which more than 100 agencies have signed up.

“We want to make sure our partners see that while this is something that is disruptive, it's an opportunity to take advantage of these capabilities and get ahead of it, rather than being left behind,” Johnson explains.

Beyond the consumer-focused Mindtrip and PayPal partnership, Johnson says many of the tools and capabilities planned will be guided by feedback from Sabre’s agency partners, adding information on whether agencies want full automation or semi-automation has been key.

Keeping 'a human in the loop'

Johnson stresses that as AI continues to develop rapidly, there will often be a need for a “human in the loop”. “A good example lays in the email space where many partners we've been working with have opted for semi-automation, meaning they use it for accelerating the email proposition, but then have a [human] agent actually review the email and send it on.

“If you think about a trip disruption scenario, the human in the loop becomes really important. And as we move towards more automation, trust is going to be key. Some will say, ‘I feel comfortable with simple point-to-point domestic or transporter travel being fully automated, but we want to semi-automate international, complex trips’. So we're going to have to see how that plays out.

“It’s that flexibility where if you, as a business, want to fully automate certain aspects of this, you can, but if you want to continue to introduce the human in the loop for validation, you can. But in both scenarios, you're getting the value and the benefit.

“We think it's going to be a hybrid situation for some time, as agencies are trying to determine how best to apply those tools in their business.”

Johnson finishes on a note about security, coming back to Sabre’s legacy. “Behind all of the AI is the fact that we protect the customer's data,” he adds. “We're very robust in terms of our scaling capabilities, we provide that layer of trust around data and data privacy.”

Unpacked by TTG

TTG's Sophie Griffiths and Jennifer Morris were recently joined by Travel Counsellor Marie Rowe to discuss the merits of AI in agents' day-to-day lives in 2026. You can listen to their full discussion below.