American Airlines alleges that Sabre coordinated "negative word-of-mouth campaigns" to paint the airline as "anti-consumer."
Sabre declined to comment on American's charges, which were part of a complaint the airline filed against Sabre and Travelport.
The airline alleged that all of the press about Sabre's decision to bias American's flights in the Sabre GDS, an action which has been temporarily overturned by a Texas court, painted the airline as anti-consumer, "a deception that Sabre has openly argued."
"This has led to negative word of mouth campaigns -- we believe coordinated by Sabre and other GDSs -- particularly in social media, that question American's motives, integrity and commitment to consumers," American alleged. "All this harms American's brand and goodwill."
American didn't provide any proof of its claim that Sabre and other GDSs coordinated a negative campaign against the airline in social media.
The airline's allegations, however, may be a big warning to companies caught in a firestorm of negative social media and press coverage.
American alleged that the media coverage and social media bad-mouthing was "so difficult, time-consuming and expensive for American to respond effectively and fully..."
Meanwhile, the falllout from Sabre's biasing actions reverberated throughout American Airlines, creating "extensive and unnecessary turmoil for American's employees," the airline alleged.
American alleged that its sales team "spent all of their professional time and resources addressing it [Sabre's biasing actions]."
In an affadavit as part of the American complaint, Cory Garner, the airline's director of merchandising strategy, alleged that Sabre's biasing actions weighed heavily on the "time and resources" of the airline's executives and other managers, including Garner, the chief commercial officer, vice president of sales and the distribution strategy team. These executives had "to forgo other areas of responsibility at the expense of financial performance for American," Garner alleged.
Among the neglected areas, according to Garner, were executive level discussions on strategy with British Airways and Japan Airlines; performance reviews of the route network; engaging key corporate accounts and travel agencies; coming up with ways to offset the revenue impact of disputes with Expedia and Travelport; and issues related to AAdvantage, revenue management, long-term fleet plan and analyzing American's revenue performance in December.
So, if American is to be believed, the dispute with Sabre not only caused a substantial revenue hit, but was a major distraction which paralyzed many of the airline's planning activities.
American knew already, but is coming to newly appreciate, that the GDSs carry a big stick.