Budget Rent a Car Corp., recently had its Sabre reservations system upgraded. "The company decided to complete the upgrade to provide last car availability and price in real-time," says Jim Poage, senior vice president of customer marketing for Sabre.

Budget now is equipped with Direct Connect Availability. The company was previously using normal connect. The difference is that the Sabre computers are connected directly with Budget and the travel agencies. This means that clients are now able to receive confirmation of their reservation directly from Budget rather than just getting a confirmation from Sabre.

The benefits for Budget are two-fold. Reservations are more exact because the database is more up-to-date and the car rental company can offer real-time rates because there is no slack time.

According to Poage, the upgrade takes affect immediately in every one of the 3,200 Budget offices located in 120 countries around the world.