Recent Articles from Robert Polk
About to land: The new United Airlines
A big day has arrived for the travel industry. But, if all goes well travelers will not even notice. At 9:59 p.m., United/Continental will reach a very big milestone in their merger—the official death of Continental Airlines. The Continental signage comes down, the website goes dark, and the last...
The travel pros came, they saw, they liked
For four days in August, the Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) descended on the Mile High City for their annual convention. Nearly 6,000 professionals in the travel industry came together to talk shop, show off, and have some fun. This was one of GBTA’s largest conventions yet and they pulled off an impressive event. Part […]
Finding the good news in the FAA fiasco
I knew that talking taxes would not be pretty, but I did not realize just how hideous it could get. I had to start with downright ugly and navigate through really bad and pretty bad to find something that was almost good. As I am sure you know, the FAA has had a rough couple of weeks. After Congress […]
Don’t tell them, and they won’t come
Washington is now the only state in the country without any money pledged on tourism marketing. Tourism is the state’s fourth largest industry. Visitors to the beautiful state spent $15.2 billion in 2010. It will be interesting to see how much tourism spending drops in the coming years. Other states are going the other direction […]
Denver loves Mexico
A long-time customer recently asked me to comment about traveling to Puerto Vallarta for vacation since the State Department has updated its Mexico Travel Advisory. Many areas in Mexico are among the most popular summer destinations for Denver residents. With so many direct flights, you can jet out of DIA in the morning and be […]
The travel wars are on
In what has been quite possibly the smoothest and fastest airline acquisition in recent history, Southwest officially purchased AirTran early this month. In the short term, not much will change for Southwest and AirTran customers. Southwest and AirTran will continue to operate separately until receipt of a Single Operating Certificate from the FAA, which is […]
Is there an app for that?
We were recently asked what we think the next “big thing” will be in corporate travel management. We believe the next big thing among business travelers will actually be quite small. In fact, they keep getting smaller and faster every time we upgrade. Smartphones are quickly outpacing laptop sales and the time is upon us […]
And in this corner…
As co-owner of a large regional Travel Management Company, I have watched with great interest the ongoing battle between American Airlines (AA) and Orbitz and, later, Expedia. American has succeeded in having their fares dropped from these online sites, making it harder for consumers to compare fares. I have watched with increasing great interest as […]
Hitting the road in 2011
Ah, January. It is again time to pull out my crystal ball and gaze into the future, offering my best predictions on what the next year will bring the travel industry. Before we start on our best guesses for 2011 we have to review how we did with my predictions for 2010. Last year we […]
The adventures of a road warrior
Heading out this holiday season? Whether you are traveling for business or pleasure anytime soon, you should be prepared for new TSA regulations, more secondary searches, and know the drill before you get into the body scanner line. This certainly is a hot topic around our office. We have had several of our staff on […]
Creating the world’s largest airline
Did you know that United and Continental Airlines only overlap in 13 markets? For two carriers that combined will make the worlds largest airline, that is just amazing. I learned this and many more amazing, interesting, and even inspiring facts about the new combined carrier last month when Polk Majestic Travel was lucky enough to […]
Southwest sure can keep a secret!
The Southwest buyout of AirTran is a huge game-changer in the travel industry, and boy was it ever a well-kept secret! Airline executives at two other carriers and industry experts we spoke with said they were not surprised about the deal, but they had no idea it was in the works. So, after scrambling to […]