2013 Archives

Saggy pants bans touch tourism and also people wanting to just walk or ride around the nation's cities in their everyday lives. Why is it that some legislators and their constituents have such distaste for others who don't look or dress the way they do? The bans do indeed have racist overtones.

More than a decade of cheap, government-backed financing has built up the fleets of foreign airlines as well as the business of domestic manufacturers. It's also forced the early retirement of a lot of perfectly good planes.

Google is all grown up now and won't take chances on integrating Waze's reports about police speed traps into Google Maps. That takes some of the life and authenticity out of the Waze community.

Technology aside, will travelers care about Hopper if they ever see a product after six years of development? If you have patience in excess, then stay tuned.

How long can Tripadvisor stick to its core of media and lead generation and how much growth is still left in there? That would answer the question of whether the company wants to spend material money in doing bigger acquisitions than it has done so far, and move into actual transactions and booking space in travel.

Priceline Hotels Pro may become the next version of, or a twist on, Express Deals. Priceline shows the price up-front and identifies the handful of the hotels in the mix to give travelers additional confidence in where they might stay. But, there is enough wiggle room for the hotels to participate behind a Pro app without diminishing their brands.

Middle-ground options have fallen by the wayside as economics demand airlines emphasize super-cheap and super-fancy options for disparate passenger types.

With the American and US Airways merger hitting some turbulence, JetBlue becomes an even more attractive takeover target. But, although the new American must deal with a regulatory brushback pitch, the prospects for its merger are far from dead.

The Interior Department's first smart move was leveraging its own photo resources to build a social presence. It's now engaging the public on important department issues while generating excitement about the parks that were once at risk of being forgotten.

Private company Sabre must be taking a financial beating behind the scenes as CEO Gilliland's exit was carried out in a very clumsy manner. Is there trouble in IPO land with owners TPG and Silver Lake getting very impatient about their own exits?