SkiftX

That didn't take too long now, did it? In all seriousness, however, this mega-merger was certainly a long one in the making, filled with plenty of twists and turns. Now, we hope, comes the even more interesting part in the next chapter of the story.

Starwood Hotels & Resorts as we know it may be going away now that it'll be owned by Marriott International, but its history of innovation has had a lasting impact on the hospitality industry as a whole.

If there were any doubts about the Marriott-Starwood deal getting done, you can now toss them out because of the approval from Chinese regulators. Now, let's get on with it.

Does the airline industry even need another in-flight Wi-Fi provider? French aircraft company Thales thinks so. And if its entry into the market helps drive costs down and speeds up service, we're all for it.

Lots of "likes" and "shares" look good in a marketing campaign reports. But did they lead to meaningful actions by the audience? It's time for social media metrics to get more scrutiny from travel marketers.

Red Lion has been making some bold moves as of late, including its arguably controversial partnership with Expedia. As the company scales up with this acquisition, it'll be interesting to see how Red Lion expands or deepens its partnership with other online travel agencies.

Six years after brashly boasting about how it would disrupt travel search, Hipmunk, which had to compete against larger players with more ample war chests, is exiting into the business travel portfolio of Concur. Hipmunk's turn toward business travel may make it more of a business-to-business play than its current consumer incarnation. As Concur's TripIt example shows, it remains to be seen how innovative Hipmunk can be given larger corporate priorities within SAP/Concur.

In airports across the U.S. this weekend, the calls to turn off Note 7s echoed through the terminals. Airlines are concerned about fires from faulty phone batteries while in flight, but it's still not clear whether passengers are taking the warning seriously.

American changed its AAdvantage loyalty program to a revenue-based model earlier this year and its members seem to be angrier than usual. But is the furor enough for American to act?

Travelers on British Airways may be in for a long week after another industry IT glitch bogged down its operations. This is the major third major IT glitch to hit the industry this summer, but the first in Europe.