The AI Assistant Race, Southwest's New Promise and Booking.com Revelations
Southwest Airlines has scrapped its signature free-checked-bag perk, instituting $35 and $45 fees for first and second bags, moving toward assigned seating with extra charges, and framing the changes as essential for competitiveness and profit. OpenAI, meanwhile, is forming a hardware company to build AI-native devices that could become travelers’ primary booking assistants, giving the startup a chance to rethink consumer tech from the ground up and challenge incumbents like Apple and Google. Finally, the 2021 investigative book The Machine chronicles Booking.com’s tumultuous rise, revealing cultural rifts, leadership shake-ups, and a long-standing resistance to sharing data and resources with other Booking Holdings brands. Inside Booking.com: Ousted CEOs, Power Struggles and Local Backlash Southwest’s Overhaul: New Bag Fees, Seating Changes – What's at Stake OpenAI’s New Device Company and the Race for the Ultimate Travel Assistant Connect with Skift LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/skift/ WhatsApp: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VaAL375LikgIXmNPYQ0L/ Facebook: https://facebook.com/skiftnews Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/skiftnews/ Threads: https://www.threads.net/@skiftnews Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/skiftnews.bsky.social X: https://twitter.com/skift Subscribe to @SkiftNews and never miss an update from the travel industry.