2013 Archives

HotelTonight has succeeded by having a singular focus on mobile. It provides a model for how startups can take on incumbents without losing focus.

Should we view Spirit Airlines as the corporately responsible greenest U.S. airline or as the best gutter marketer in travel? Despite the mixed marketing messages, Spirit is following both tracks in becoming a highly successfu airline, and the envy of many of its peers.

JetBlue's frequent flyers are truly blue that just about all the other big U.S. airlines are participating in TSA PreCheck, but JetBlue has yet to get in.

The National Park Service took reigns of the Grand Canyon before the state's money was exhausted, but legislators are now fighting for the full amount and could be waiting for a long time.

It's definitely creative, but the agency runs the risk of consumers overlooking the images having grown accustomed to an onslaught of advertising.

Greedy, greedy, greedy. Keeping the bidding to low-cost carriers would indeed inject some competition into airports where it is at times sorely lacking, as well as protect consumers that the U.S. Justice Department said it was looking out for in the American/US Air lawsuit.

Smart travel agents already are keeping their heads down and staying away from all this boosterism, looking at specializations and niches that help them stand out. And reinventing themselves beyond the usual cliches.

Are behavioral security techniques ineffective or does the TSA merely not know what it is doing? That's a legitimate question given Israel's success in pioneering behavioral techniques at airports.

The universal human search for connection -- and the travel that fosters it -- as satisfied by Google products. It could have been crass, but instead turned out classy and heartwarming.