Dennis Schaal

Carnival needs its new CEO to step up and get involved right away. The cruise line needs to take responsibility for its seeming lack of crew-member preparedness and whether there may be links to this and the low, low wages it pays.

It's business as usual for now for major airlines with Dreamliners in their fleets as the investigation proceeds in London.

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.

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.

HomeAway's transition to offering a pay-per-booking model, with some parallels to but not a carbon copy of Airbnb's, may be more difficult than HomeAway and investors expect.

The study shows that there are no easy answers for travel research and transaction sites and apps: With travelers willing to change devices by whim, location or activity, travel websites have to accommodate the devices within reach, and will have to be flexible enough to handle new devices to come.

The FAA's announcement on new co-pilot training requirements is not tied to the Asiana Airlines crash and only relates to U.S. airlines, but it does resonate given heightened safety concerns.

Loyalty points are increasingly becoming a new and broader currency with businesses rewarding them to employees, and even some travel startups awarding consumers airline points for hotel stays.

There's been so much talk about hotel rate parity, and the sameness when searching for a hotel room. TripAdvisor's invitation to often-overlooked independent hotels and B&Bs may provide some real choice.

At some juncture, there will be a tipping point when passengers rebel against bag fees. There is no sign that this is imminent, however.