About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

More articles by Gary Leff »

American Airlines ConciergeKey Changes: Concorde Room Access And Extra Confirmed Upgrades

by Gary Leff

airport lounge
Jul 07 2020

The best treatment at American Airlines goes to their top secret ConciergeKey level. They do not release much information about it publicly, but I’ve shared full details before. ConciergeKey is the ‘super secret’ level that George Clooney had in Up in the Air.

With some of American’s best ground services suspended during the coronavirus pandemic, they’ve also introduced two new opportunities: more confirmed international upgrades and access to the British Airways Concorde Room at London Heathrow airport.

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Several Airlines Took PPP Loans On Top Of CARES Act Bailouts

by Gary Leff

Jul 07 2020

Now that the Small Business Administration has released detail on the businesses receiving $150,000 or more in “PPP” loans, I was curious to see if there was any ‘double dipping’ by airlines, taking advantage of their own dedicated payroll support and also PPP funds which were meant to allow small businesses to continue to pay their employees.

It turns out there were at least 10.

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Behind The Curtain Of American AAdvantage Account Shutdowns

by Gary Leff

Jul 06 2020

Late last year American Airlines started locking AAdvantage accounts and cancelling pending award travel for people they believe took advantage of a ‘loophole’ to sign up for multiple Citibank credit cards.

Several customers whose accounts were shut down filed complaints with the Department of Transportation. American has now responded to a formal complaint, and reveals a lot about what they know – and how they know it.

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Airline Sends Private Jet To Pick Up 4 Year Old Girl With No Passport

by Gary Leff

Jul 06 2020

After a medical diversion a family was given the private jet treatment by Spirit Airlines.

The airline dropped the family off in Turks & Caicos. The girl recovered. But they were stranded – the local airport was closed to commercial traffic, and the they hadn’t even intended to leave the country so weren’t carrying passports. So the very next day Spirit actually sent a plane to bring the family back to Puerto Rico.

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Targeted: Southwest Airlines Credit Cards Earn 30% Bonus (Towards Already-Reduced Companion Pass Requirement Too)

by Gary Leff

southwest plane
Jul 06 2020

Southwest is offering a 30% bonus on points that post to your account between August 1, 2020 and October 31, 2020 under the ‘credit card’ category. You’ll earn this bonus if you have at least 6000 credit card points post during the promotion period, and you can earn up to 25,000 bonus points. These points count towards a Companion Pass, which itself has reduced requirements to earn this year already.

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All Emirates Airbus A380s – With Bars And First Class Showers – Expected To Be Flying Again By April 2022

by Gary Leff

private airplane bar
Jul 06 2020

Emirates has 115 Airbus A380s. Those offer a lot of capacity when flying is at such low levels. And Emirates is an international airline, they aren’t flying domestic routes which have fewer restrictions around the world. Their on board bars are designed precisely not to social distance. And showers, while in normal times cleaned between each use, are both an expensive amenity (carrying all that water means burning fuel) and represents use of the same space by multiple passengers.

To bring the A380 and its amenities back means air travel recovers, and social distancing is no longer required to fly.

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