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 »

It’s Time To Lift U.S. Travel Restrictions On China And Europe

by Gary Leff

Jun 10 2020

It makes no sense to ban travel from places where virus spread has slowed to a much lower pace than it’s already circulating here, especially when we’re not banning travel from some of the places in the world where the virus is spreading fastest.

The China travel ban failed because the CDC blew its implementation and the Europe travel ban came too late. Those were policies that might have helped if implemented at the right time and in the right way back in January and February. But they no longer make sense in June.

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COVID Surcharges Have Started In Las Vegas

by Gary Leff

Jun 10 2020

As properties re-open in Las Vegas it looks like there’s a new opportunity for a surprise ‘gotcha,’ a COVID-19 surcharge. When destinations around the world that have re-opened, or that are looking to, are practically paying you to come, we’re starting to see extra charges not listed on the menu show up on bills in Las Vegas.

And yes – it’s identified as a “COVID-19 crisis” surcharge.

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Earn 10 Aeroplan Miles Per Dollar On Uber Eats Food Delivery

by Gary Leff

Jun 09 2020

Earning Aeroplan miles is independent of payment method. That means you can choose any credit card to pay that is bonusing food deliver (or, like Capital One, that is letting you redeem miles at full value to pay for food delivery).

That means this is an entirely new, stackable, avenue of value for Uber Eats food delivery orders which is huge – especially since Aeroplan lets you redeem for Star Alliance awards on their website, at reasonable rates and many partners without fuel surcharges, and now including awards on Etihad as well.

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With Few Passengers, Three Airlines Pivot To Selling Inflight Meals To The Public

by Gary Leff

Jun 09 2020

I could see airline meal delivery services finally taking off. I’d happily pay for Singapore Airlines laksa or ANA ramen at home. Not Ural Airlines chicken or frozen Canadian airline Thai food. But I’d love to try Thai’s meals – if they succeed in the Bangkok market they’d probably be ‘good enough’ to expand and offer Thai frozen food internationally.

Here in Austin I’d happily stock my freezer with their stir fried tiger prawns with salt, garlic and chili. I’m not sure $8 in Bangkok having to pre-order and pick it up makes this a winning business strategy, however.

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Austria Passes Minimum Ticket Prices And New Airline Taxes

by Gary Leff

lufthansa plane
Jun 09 2020

Austria’s government bailed out Austrian Airlines with about half a billion dollars, even after its German parent obtained a $9.8 billion aid package. Part of Austria’s bailout includes moves to protect the airline from competition, under the guise of environmental responsibility.

Last summer Lufthansa’s CEO declared that only the wealthy should fly arguing that the cheapest flights offered by competitors are “economically, ecologically, and politically irresponsible.” And all it took was a global pandemic to get those cheap flights banned.

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American Airlines No Longer Lets Employees Offer Compensation For Broken Seats, Missing Meals

by Gary Leff

Jun 08 2020

Effective Monday American Airlines has taken away the tool airports, flight attendants, and reservations used to compensate customers when a crew member spills a drink on them, their seat is broken, or their inflight meal didn’t get loaded onto the aircraft.

To save money, instead of compensating customers when things go wrong, employees are supposed to show they care and acknowledge what the customer is saying… just not do anything about it.

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