I have a memory of accessing SABRE directly maybe in the late 90s to bypass travel agent websites, before services like Expedia etc exploded. Is that possible? Or am I remembering incorrectly.
Yes, it used to be accessible directly, and still is, at least with one level of indirection, via https://www.virtuallythere.com/
But this is also a red herring because I don't think sabre is used to manage pilots times off.
You can find some interesting results by googling site:virtuallythere.com
I think AA is still using SABRE internally for some components for crew scheduling; I did some SABRE work for them back in 2005/2006 as a contractor, and there were still bits and pieces of legacy code from the 90's in place when I was over there.
You could access SABRE pre-1996 via online services such as The Source, CompuServe, GEnie and AOL. Sabre Holdings launched Travelocity in 1996.
I remember this too. Used to go in there to look around and play with all he variables (flight schedule, fares, etc). I think it was called EaasySabre
True, though that has little to do with crew scheduling and bidding software.