Travel Industry Earnings Coverage

Expedia is concerned that Booking.com's booking partnership with TripAdvisor will hurt Expedia traffic from TripAdvisor. Expedia's answer for now is Trivago taking hotel bookings. It's not a big answer for now, but it's a start. And Expedia might forge a booking partnership with Google in the future.

Hilton Worldwide officials say they like the chain's position and claim the game plan wouldn't change if Starwood indeed is involved in a merger.

Passengers will certainly JetBlue know how they feel -- one way or the other -- about the reduced pitch and extra seats added in JetBlue's A320s starting midway through 2016. Barring a passenger rebellion, the extra seats will be a financial bonanza for JetBlue.

JetBlue was all about giving passengers more choice when the airline introduced new fare families in June. But It came as a surprise to JetBlue that passengers decided to check more first bags than the airline predicted.

Spirit is facing substantial competitive pressures over the short term as legacy carriers try to take away its price advantages. A lot of the outcome depends on who blinks first.

It is possible for an airline, such as Southwest, to cater to some fairly satisfied passengers. Not gouging them with fees and treating them like human beings really helps.

American Express pushed its travel business off the official books to a great extent with its joint venture for American Express Global Business Travel but Amex's credit card business is still very much tied to airline relationships.

Expedia is content to work with Google on hotel bookings while stiff-arming TripAdvisor. There is likely more to the warming and cooling relationships than just the relative economics.

Despite Kelly's rhetoric about being "the low-cost carrier," Southwest has probably transitioned beyond that positioning. Still, the largest U.S. domestic carrier indeed has room to grow in the U.S. and internationally, as well.

Priceline trounced Expedia in hotel room nights booked in the first quarter but Expedia is growing its still-smaller roster of hotels at a faster rate. This should continue to be a very interesting race over the next few years.