Dennis Schaal

All signs point to JetBlue's Barger leaving the airline in 2015 as it continues to evolve with its Mint business class service and A321s. Still, this is definitely not a done deal.

FedEx is too big to worry about pesky Uber nipping at its heels in the same-day delivery business. Still FedEx CEO Frederick Smith could be downplaying Uber's potential for diversifying beyond its core people-transportation business.

Trivago's new shared-room search reflects the born-again trendiness of hostels -- which are no longer called youth hostels -- and apartment shares. Booking.com and Kayak already have it, and others will add it.

Conferences and trade shows could do more to attract international attendees, perhaps by tacking on or promoting leisure travel options to the main events.

There's nothing wrong with a startup pivot. Even successful online travel industry veterans Bob Diener and David Litman had to change the trajectory of Getaroom.com when they realized their initial assumptions didn't work.

For hotels that don't have the resources to develop their own apps, the Alice hotel app and concierge service, and others like it, could be a useful solution for making concierge services more mobile-oriented.

In the last couple of months the Priceline Group has acquired OpenTable, Buuteeq, Hotel Ninjas and Qlika. The big speculation is what lucky startup will be the next to get a Darren Huston letter to employees.

TripIt's premise is that business travelers will want to look at some pics and get some tips from Trover about restaurants and attractions during business trips. And, besides, when the business trip ends, a leisure trip often begins.

Any irrational exuberance aside, the valuation analyst estimates Uber's valuation at $6 billion, on par with the market cap of Avis Budget Group, and he thinks Uber has a 90% chance of survival.

In startup land, B2B companies providing services to the vacation rental and apartment-sharing industry are hot, hot, hot.