Kayak, Facebook, Allegiant, Air France, Qatar Airways, and Oneworld all appear in our roundup of the stories making news and driving opinion on 8 October.
Oneworld announces its new alliance member this afternoon East Coast time. Qatar Airways is expected to join the global airline alliance led by American Airlines and British Airways.
Air France-KLM Group locked down an alliance, seat-sale agreement with Etihad Airways. The code-share deal is the first phase of a “much larger strategic partnership," says the airline. Air Berlin, 29% owned by Etihad, is also wrapped up in the deal.
Some analysts say this is the biggest news since the initial settling of major members of the alliances about a decade ago. The Gulf carriers are the largest non-alliances carriers in the world, and the only major international carriers that were unaffiliated.
A month ago, Emirates got cosier with Qantas. Yet the major reason for exclusion has been the feeling among Western airlines that Middle East government give subsidies to their state flag carriers.
The other two alliances – Star and SkyTeam – will be scrambling. Expect a courtship of Qatar Airways competitors Etihad and Emirates, reports USA Today's Ben Mutzabaugh.
DISTRIBUTION
10 things you may not have known about Kayak. Number 1 is "They’ve gone from 9% unaided brand awareness two years ago to 33% today."
Surprise: Hotels hit an all-time high in room revenue in the US during the first eight months of 2012. That's according to STR, the most authoritative database for US numbers.* (Post corrected. Originally misidentified the company providing the statistic.)
SOCIAL MEDIA
Nasair has won the Most Popular Airline on Social Media award at the SimpliFlying Awards for Social Media Excellence 2012. They were announced at the EyeforTravel Summit in Amsterdam.
Is Facebook's user base fragmenting? US media critic and former startup founder Michael Wolff says yes:
It's fragmenting by demographics: Path, for instance, targets an upscale, executive, familyish, yuppified niche. It's happening by interest: ArtStack focuses on art and taste as the common thread. There's gender: Luluvise and SkinnyScoop. There's format: Pinterest. There's video and audio: Viddy and Just Sayin'.
SEARCH/DIGITAL MARKETING
Tron-like map of bike journeys reveals London's hubs. Pretty data visualisation with public transit data.
AIRLINE TECH
US regional airline Allegiant plans to "beam" entertainment to fliers. It'll be a Row 44 solution. Appearing first on flights to Hawaii, it's a video-on-demand service that streams content without providing WiFi, says Jaunted.
HOTEL TECH
Oi! Apple trouble again. iPhone 5 presents compatibility challenges for hotel room docking stations.
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