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09 Feb
Daily Archives: February 9, 2019
09 Feb
Travel Advisors Put the Thrill Back Into Vacation Planning
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Milena Rocha Vitor went on a mystery trip to Philadelphia planned by a travel agency, Pack Up + Go. She’s pictured with a Isaiah Zagar mosaic in the background at Philadelphia’s Magic Gardens. Pack Up + Go
Skift Take: A growing number of travel advisors are offering mystery vacations, created by keeping trip details a secret from clients until the departure date. It puts the surprise element back in travel, which is something often lost these days, but the challenges for advisors are many.
09 Feb
Grand Hyatt New York Will Give Way to a New Hotel and Retail Space
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Signage for Hyatt Hotels Corp.’s Grand Hyatt is displayed on the corner of Lexington Avenue and East 42nd Street in New York, U.S., on Tuesday, Feb. 16, 2016. Michael Nagle / Bloomberg
Skift Take: Midtown Manhattan is rapidly changing, thanks to new zoning laws, and Trump might be feeling edged out. One of his first big projects is being torn down forever, and who knows — maybe he’ll get nostalgic. There will be taller buildings, and the Grand Central train station will get a facelift.
09 Feb
What Oyo’s Latest Results Say About the Business of Budget Hotels
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An Oyo hotel property in Dubai’s Deira neighborhood. Skift
Skift Take: The business of budget hotels is obviously hard when you consider Oyo’s latest financial report. But the startup, now five years in operation and bankrolled by SoftBank, appears to have the stamina to reach the breakeven point in the next few years.
09 Feb
Expedia and United Agree to Stand Down — For Now
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A United Airlines aircraft. Bloomberg
Skift Take: Armageddon is postponed for now as Expedia and United are conducting discussions to work out their contractual differences. Cooler heads apparently prevailed.
09 Feb
Is Southwest’s New Credit Card Companion Pass Offer Too Good to Be True?
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Southwest Airlines will begin flying to Hawaii later this year, in part because it hopes to boost sign-ups for its co-branded credit card. Pictured is a Boeing 737 on the ground in Honolulu. Southwest Airlines
Skift Take: New customers who apply for the Southwest credit card by Monday, February 11, and meet minimum spending requirements will earn one of the airline’s companion passes for the rest of the year. The deals sounds too good to be true. But Southwest knows what it’s doing. This is probably smart business.
09 Feb
Air France-KLM Plotting to Oust CEO of Dutch Airline
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Pictured is KLM CEO Pieter Elbers. How long will he remain in the role? Bloomberg
Skift Take: Air France-KLM really isn’t a happy family. How long can it continue to exist in its current form if the two airlines can’t work together?
09 Feb
Thomas Cook Sale of Its Airline Could Be a Brexit Victim
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The aircraft tails of Thomas Cook’s airline, which the tour operator might sell off to pay down debt. Analysts spoke skeptically about the plan. Thomas Cook
Skift Take: Investors in Thomas Cook cheered when executives said they might sell its airline to pay off debt. But the next day an analyst’s report spotlighted concerns about how Brexit-related regulatory snafus might hamper a sale. The divorce has so many unintended consequences.
09 Feb
Qantas Cancels an Order for More Airbus Superjumbo Planes
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Qantas has canceled an order for more Airbus A380s, making official what everyone has suspected for years. Pictured is one of the four-engine jets. Bloomberg
Skift Take: No one who was paying attention thought Qantas would take these aircraft. This is not a major surprise. But, yes, it is another suggestion the Airbus A380 program may not be around for much longer. The future is long-range, twin-engine jets.
09 Feb
The Bahamas Launches Marketing Blitz After Fyre Festival Fiasco
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(From left) Bahamas Minister of Tourism Dionsio D’Aguilar, Lenny Kravitz, Joy Jibrilu and Deputy Director General Tommy Thompson arrive at The Bahamas x Lenny Kravitz Fly Away Campaign Launch on February 7, 2019 in New York City. Bennett Raglin / Getty Images
Skift Take: The old adage is that there is no such thing as bad publicity. The Bahamas plans to turn the popular focus on the Fyre Festival debacle into a showcase for the beauty that led those scammers to select the destination in the first place.
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