They also saw Orbitz as a way to force down the costs of reservations systems, like Travelocity's owner, the Sabre Group.

Its parent company, Sabre Holdings, spun off from American as The Sabre Group on March 15, 2000.

In some ways, however, the company is similar to Sabre Group, American Airlines' hugely successful reservations service that went public last month.

He retired in 1995, as the chairman of Sabre Group, a unit of AMR Corporation, the parent company of American Airlines.

Travelocity is part of the Sabre Group, the reservation system that is controlled by AMR, the parent of American Airlines.

Business Technology Through its Sabre Group, Federated is selling to other retailers the computerized inventory-management and back-office record-keeping service it uses in its own stores.

One site that has had to figure out how to manage an enormous inventory is Travelocity, a travel site owned by the Sabre Group.

Last June, it agreed to buy Galileo, the second-largest reservations booking engine for travel agents (after the Sabre Group), for $2.9 billion.

The Sabre Group controls Travelocity.com, the No. 1 online service.

The survey was also sponsored by on-line agencies: Expedia, the Internet Travel Network, Preview Travel and the Sabre Group.