In the early 1980s Pepsi launched a marketing campaign that touted blindfolded taste tests that found that consumers preferred its sweeter flavor to Coke's.
Sabre seems to be hoping that the GDS equivalent of the blind-taste test is a study of which GDS finds the lowest airfares, on average.
Sabre has repeated a study it commissioned in 2013. Once again, the results have come back that Sabre Bargain Finder Max found lower fares more often globally and regionally, on average, than tools from rival GDSs, namely, Amadeus's Master Pricer and the Travelport-owned Galileo Super Best Buy.
The study says Sabre found the lowest fare 12% more often than Amadeus in a weighted average. It bested Travelport 9% of the time, on average, in all regions.
Sabre had lower average fare prices of 4.3% (USD $20.50) against Amadeus and 2.8% ($11.40) against Travelport, across regions, the study claims.
The study was done in January and February 2016 by Munich-based consultancy Dr. Fried & Partner. The study includes 100 top-booked city pairs per country for 31 countries, each city pair with 8 combinations of advance purchase and travel duration.
Presumably low-fares do matter somewhat to agencies, versus other factors, when choosing a GDS tool. If there hadn't been a marketing benefit, then Sabre would have been less likely to run the study again three years later.
Sabre, Travelport, and Amadeus are trying to win travel agencies over their systems, particularly in Europe, where Travelport and Amadeus have had an edge in market share over Sabre, not unlike how Coke has a lead over its rivals there.
The study can be downloaded, here.
UPDATE: May 6:Travelport and Amadeus respond to Sabre fare study