SWA is with Sabre now!
 

I guess we can buy tickets on Travelocity now?

https://www.nasdaq.com/articles/sout...ide-2021-01-01
Southwest Airlines Signs Agreement with Sabre; Street Sees 14% Upside

CONTRIBUTOR
Daniel Plaks TipRanks
PUBLISHED
JAN 1, 2021 5:45AM ESTFEATURED IN SMART INVESTING
Learn MoreSouthwest Airlines Co. and Sabre Corp. have finally reached an agreement after two years of discussions that will allow the companies to continue offering clients access to low fares and improved customer service in 2021.

Southwest Airlines Co. (LUV), which will celebrate its 50th anniversary this year has itself a goal to offer exemplary customer service by its 58,000 employees.

Sabre (SABR) is a software and technology company that serves a wide range of travel companies including airlines, hotels, and travel agencies. Sabre connects travel suppliers with buyers from around the globe and its technology platform manages more than $260 billion worth of global travel spend annually.

As part of the agreement, Southwest Airlines flights and services will be distributed through Sabre’s travel marketplace, promoting the airline's offerings to Sabre-connected agencies and other travel buyers.

Southwest Airilines Chief Commercial Officer, Andrew Watterson, said in a statement, "Providing our content in Sabre GDS with industry-standard capabilities has continued to be a top priority of our Customers. He added, “We are thrilled to come to terms that are mutually beneficial for our Customers and continue our long-standing partnership with Sabre.”

Southwest stock hit a multi-year low in May 2020, but improved investor sentiment and positive Covid-19 developments helped the stock recover much of its losses. However, shares still ended 2020 with a 15% decline. (See LUV stock analysis on TipRanks)

Last month, Deutsche Bank analyst Michael Linenberg downgraded the stock from a Buy to a Hold but raised his price target from $48 to $50 (7% upside potential).

Linenberg believes that airline stocks are at or near fair value based on 2022 valuations, suggesting that investors have already paid for two years of earnings growth. Meanwhile, the analyst remains bullish on the sector in the long-term.

Consensus among analysts is a Moderate Buy based on 9 Buys, 3 Holds and 1 Sell. The average price target of $53.08 suggests upside potential of around 14% over the next 12 months.
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The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.

This is a big deal. They told us in training that they were hitting the business travel systems pretty hard, but I think this one puts us in front of everyone as well as adding the hotel and rental car bundling options on one screen like everyone else.

Any fare advantage we have on any particular routing will be instantly highlighted, even without any special deals we might have with hotels and rental cars that can sweeten the deal for people who like to bundle all that together.

This doesn't mean SWA tickets will be on outside websites. It's all business and government travel.

This is huge for business travel...when it returns. SWA is well positioned for a strong recovery.

Does this mean we can accept foreign currency now?

Don't get all crazy now...

Business travel and Southwest? That’s pretty funny.

Maybe back when they had frequent service between business markets. But when you drop down to 2 or 3 flights a day between markets, probably not. SW is a big enough airline to employ the shuttle model between big business travel city pairs.

Laugh all you want. It was steadily picking up before we hit the COVID brakes. A lot of folks would rather have their choice of nonstop flights in markets that SWA serves regularly rather than fly two legs in an RJ. Not all business travel is transcon or overseas between big cities. Plenty of business travelers have flown SWA a long time and will continue to do so.

Plenty of government travel too, and they just started that a few years ago.

Didn't Sabre buy Dunder-Mifflin?

Correct.

Dunder Mifflin is a part of Sab-ray.

I think most would prefer an assigned seat on a 175 over rolling the dice at Southwest on a packed 737.

Buy enough tickets and you’re A-list and board first.

All right! Just in time for business travel to substantially pare back from its pre-covid levels (at the 8:42 mark if link doesn't take you there):

Another bit of anecdotal evidence for the likely impending swan dive in business travel after covid departs the fix (watch from the 10:00 minute mark if link doesn't work):

Don't feed the troll. This guy's bit is trolling every airline's threads trying to stir up ****. Look at his post history. I guess there's not much to do when you're a bitter old **** living in our version of Siberia.

Only BITCOIN futures contracts, and Benjamins.....

Lets negotiate to get half our pay in BTC like Russell Okung.

You do realize that Southwest has had extensive business traveler bookings ever since they started right?

Because it kind of sounds like you don’t know airline history and/or you just repeat the stereotypes your Captain feeds you.

Right now, that does seem like a good idea. Not so sure about a year from now.

I was listening to a podcast about lost Bitcoin yesterday. Apparently like 30 percent of Bitcoin is lost and will never be recovered. Folks got into it when it was 9 cents a coin or whatever and then trashed their old PCs that had their wallets on them because it wasn't worth saving. There are literally people scouring dumps looking for old PCs now that it is over $30k/coin.

Burbank to Vegas. Friday afternoon.

All business.

Interesting stat: globally today there are 46.8 millionaires. There will only be 21 million BTC ever mined. There have been 18.5 million BTC mined so far.

The last BTC is expected to be mined in 2140. There have been ~4 million BTC permanently lost for various reasons (mostly what you mentioned).

Anyway, that leaves about 14.5 million BTC available right now. That’s enough for .31 BTC per existing millionaire if it was evenly distributed among them.

But already, lots of individuals and corporate investors have scooped up more than .31 each. Some have scooped up thousands or hundreds of thousands each. All of that makes the .31 available per millionaire lower. IOW, on the supply side, there’s not that much BTC to go around and demand is increasing.

Some people are throwing around .28 BTC as the figure you would need to be wealthy 10+ years from now. I don’t know how that number was arrived at but it’s out there.

Also, ya, BTC might go lower a year from now. But given the dramatic increase in money supply due to covid and the amount of institutional adoption, it’s beginning to look unlikely. Forecasts for BTC price a year from now range from zero from guys like Peter Schiff up to $320K from CitiBank. Some are suggesting (like the Winklevoss twins) that 10+ years from now BTC could hit a million dollars plus per coin.

I’d take the odds on getting half our pay in BTC. Not that it’ll happen, but it’s a nice thought.

There's plenty of business travel on SWA. A friend of mine works for a large non-profit and travels exclusively on SWA. She has a huge number of points and gets free leisure travel all the time.

There's more non-elective (business) travel on SWA than folks imagine and SWA values these customers. My friend has been to SWA sponsored focus groups and the like, where they clearly are trying to figure out how to improve the product for these valuable customers.

Spot on correct.

If only you could show a picture. :).


$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

Spirit Airlines enters the chat ;)

I enjoy seeing these particular business people travel.

Yes.
Burbank is the perfect setup. Weather usually allows cockpit windows to remain open, boarding ramp goes by said window at chest level. "Entertainment industry" professionals commute to work for a 3 Day LAS trip just like a lot of airline employees do.

God bless them, each and every one.

I'll never forget my first Friday afternoon BUR-LAS leg. The Captain told me I should get up and greet the enplaning passengers while he carried out my pre-flight preparations. I thought it a bit odd but did as requested. Upon sitting back down after boarding was complete I asked the natural question: "Hookers or dancers?" The one word answer was yes!

What a cappy.

In my experience, 99% of 'em are as cool as this story.

Agreed. Their love for white new balances and iPhone holsters notwithstanding, most of my CAs have been a blast to fly with.


And moving the ballet from the valley to the desert ain't much, but it's honest work.

Preach it, brother, preach it!

Classic!!!!!

This one is a gem.

Bravo to you, sir, where ever you are.