US Airways’ Lie-Flat Seats are Transatlantic Travelers’ Biggest Concern
Now, if US Airways would pay a little more attention to their relatively low-paying passengers in coach, that would be something.
Dennis Schaal is Skift’s Founding Editor and Executive Editor. Dennis has been a reporter focusing on online travel and short-term rentals for more than two decades at Skift, Tnooz, USA Today, and Travel Weekly. He is well-known for tough one-on-one interviews on stage at Skift events, including with the CEOs and top execs of Expedia, Uber, Booking Holdings, Priceline, Kayak, Hopper, and more.
Travel Photography App Trover Secures $2.5 Million in Funding from Concur
Trover is a beautiful and fun photo-sharing app, but the company faces some of the same challenges that most startups confront: How do you scale the business so users know you exist? With an additional $2.5 million in funding from Concur, and with other well-connected backers involved, little Trover can hang around for awhile.
Cruise Lines to Begin Disclosing All Onboard Crimes on Own Websites
The devil will indeed be in the details about the cruise lines' decision to begin publishing allegations about onboard crimes on their websites. This would be a big improvement in transparency for passengers, although the decision occurred with the prospect that Congress might have forced the cruise lines to do it anyway.
Carnival Triumph Failed Its First Inspection Before Returning to Service
The Senate committee convened to talk about more consumer protections. Case in point: Carnival was telling everyone about the wonders of the repaired Carnival Triumph in June, and wasn't transparent about letting passengers know that the ship had just failed an inspection because of fire detection and lifeboat drill problems, among others.
Travel Agents Get Angry About the Internet 15 Years Too Late
Hell hath no fury like a travel agent scorned, but get real: Your market is a shrinking one. You can't put online travel and the mobile revolution back into the bottle. This battle was already fought and lost a decade ago.
Child-Free Zones On Airplanes? U.S. Airlines Reject the Idea
With U.S. airlines selling aisle, window and exit row seats for an extra fee throughout the aircraft, child-free zones could be a logistical nightmare even if it were a good idea.
10 Most Wi-Fi-Connected U.S. Airports and 10 Least-Connected
With just 6.2% of travelers on Gogo-equipped flights using Wi-Fi you can see that the industry is headed toward free Wi-Fi on flights, assuming the systems can handle the bandwidth.
Brand USA’s Funding Under Threat After 2015, and Congress May Not Help
You can debate whether Brand USA's strategy is the best way of promoting international visitations to the U.S. But, if the country is going to have a quasi-governmental tourism-marketing organization, it is tough for Brand USA to get on solid footing if it has to constantly look over its shoulder to figure out if it will get renewed funding life.
Smokey Bear gets a makeover: Battling fires and dispensing hugs
All jokes aside, Smokey's mission is a very serious and important one, given recent tragedies such as the deaths of 19 firefighters in Arizona who perished battling a wildfire.
The 13 longest wait times at U.S. Customs in May
Delta is trying to woo business travelers on lucrative long-haul flights from JFK Terminal 4, but the airline likely won't be publicizing the fact that arriving passengers face the longest peak-wait times of any airport in the country in trying to get through Customs.