This week our crystal ball is crystal clear. The unholy union of Frontier and Spirit Airlines got us thinking: what if a wisecracking genie appeared and gave us three wishes to change the airline industry? Fees, genuine competition (that's where the archaic yet lyric-friendly "cabotage" comes in), passenger comfort ... it would be a whole new world!

Which passports give you the most juice, and why? We get into passport rankings, how politics and economics affect those rankings, underrated and "golden" passports, and the ups and downs of traveling to China.

Shortened schedules, pruned expectations,  and fewer exhibitors didn't stop one of the world's biggest trade shows from bringing in the new year. But in a world of stricter health precautions, new travel restrictions, and changing tastes, can CES change too? Does it even need to?

What was the most overused word in hotel marketing in 2021? What will be a hot destination in 2022? What was the biggest ah-ha moment in tourism economics this year? What are good ways to keep up with the industry? What's a sneaky trend nobody's talking about (but should)? What's the best state fair? What luggage should I buy? And more!

Links mentioned in the episode:
The Points Guy https://thepointsguy.com
View From The Wing https://viewfromthewing.com
BTN Daily https://www.businesstravelnews.com
Hotel News Now https://www.costar.com/news/section/hospitality
Hospitalitynet https://www.hospitalitynet.org
World Economic Forum https://www.weforum.org
Hotstats https://www.hotstats.com
LARC https://www.larcanalytics.com
PhocusWire https://www.phocuswire.com

Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Small Business Saturday...welcome to the Advent Calendar of Capitalism! Everybody has ambitions to "own" a shopping day. Why not travel? And between Omicron and lingering pandemic wariness/weariness, what's going to happen to hotels 3 weeks from now? Also, Question of the Week: What’s the worst night during the holidays for a hotel manager?

It happens every time, that feeling of resignation and frustration when you're checking in/checking out and there's this laundry list of fees below the price you had stuck in your head when you booked the hotel. What are resort and destination fees, are they really "deceptive," and are hotels and travelers stuck with them forever?

Expedia and ARC just released their annual 2022 travel hacks and it got us thinking about why hotel and flight deals happen when they happen, how work and leisure schedules are changing, and Anthony Bourdain's maxim on why restaurants push seafood on Mondays.

Every day there’s a flurry of articles about how the hotel and travel industry are trying to rebound and readjust to covid-era life.

When there’s talk about speeding up that rebound the topic invariably touches on vax passports and why they’re so hard for a decentralized system like the U.S. to do. One body that shows up consistently in these conversations is IATA, the International Air Transport Association. 

Ok, so, what is the IATA, what is its mandate, can it help the state of international business travel, and how do you pronounce the acronym exactly?