Rafat Ali

We are nowhere near any of the answers, except for one: this was deliberate.

While American Airlines gave birth to the modern loyalty marketing, the game has completely changed as the market of players operating in it has shrunk. The report lays out the ongoing and coming changes in loyalty marketing, and what marketers can do to operate in this new world.

Geolocation is everything to travel now. From the smartphone in your hand to recommendations based on location coming to you on your desktop, information is tied to real-world locations now in ways that have revolutionized travel.

The next phase of travel investment will focus a lot more on B2B than disrupting the consumer, helping existing large travel brands on the backend and also helping them reach customers more efficiently.

The low-cost carriers are bringing the startup-like innovation and disruption in the incumbent-heavy airline industry. But are they doing it with an unfair advantage -- especially when it comes to labor -- as many critics claim?

Expect a lot more intelligence to come into the listings business, both a mix of using data to personalize, and smaller form-factors like mobile taking off.

Lots of macro issues at work here, as airline and hotel companies rethink their travel loyalty programs. Understand the changes, get our report.

At what point does the point of these safety videos fade into obscurity as everyone searches for a viral hit? At what point does stretching the boundaries for a creative hit mean these videos become parody of themselves? Next up: some airline should do a parody safety video around new genre of safety videos.

2014 will be an interesting year to watch from traffic perspective. While Priceline Group has a huge lead, Expedia and Tripadvisor family will continue to duke it out.