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 »

Man Flies To Germany, Tries To Sneak In To See His Girlfriend

by Gary Leff

May 15 2020

Coronavirus has been a strain on relationships, from the hotel that markets itself as a great break from your spouse and monetizes its guest list with a divorce lawyer who offers free consultations to the 85 and 89 year olds who live on opposite sides of the Germany-Denmark border and meet each day for a picnic, staying on their own side of the border and social distancing.

To one 20 year old, no coronavirus border restriction was going to keep him from his love. Then he ran into the German Federal Police.

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90 Years Ago Today A Woman Flew As A Flight Attendant For The First Time

by Gary Leff

May 15 2020

Ellen Church was a pilot and a nurse. She sought a pilot job with United Airlines (then Boeing Air Transport) but got nowhere. Then she suggested the airline hire traveling nurses, helping to ease the fear of flying people had so early on in aviation.

She was hired in 1930 as head stewardess and she then hired seven other women on a three month trial basis. They formed the ‘original eight’ of what would become flight attendants.

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Vietnam Struggles To Save The Life Of An Airline Pilot – And Avoid Its First Coronavirus Death

by Gary Leff

May 15 2020

Vietnam, like Taiwan, is so far one of the great COVID-19 success stories. Despite sharing a border with China they have fewer than 300 confirmed cases and not a single reported coronavirus-related death. And they’re going to some extreme lengths to keep it that way.

A Vietnam Airlines pilot from the U.K. is the most critically ill patient with the virus in the country right now.

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Chase Credit Card Spending Dropped 40%

by Gary Leff

chasebank
May 14 2020

Spending on Chase credit cards fell 8 times as much as average credit card spending during the start of the global COVID-19 pandemic according to the J.P. Morgan Chase Institute. A new study using anonymized transaction date from 8 million customers found that spending on Chase cards dropped 40% year-over-year between March 1 and April 11.

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American Airlines Plans New Shortest Flight In The Country: Aspen to Vail

by Gary Leff

May 14 2020

Airlines receiving the first tranche of government bailout money are required to continue serving nearly all of the cities they flew to prior to the pandemic. In exchange for billions of dollars to fund payroll, the government required that the nation’s air transport system remain intact.

Despite some exemptions from the Department of Transportation, airlines are getting creating launching new short flights to efficiently meet these obligations at the lowest possible cost. And reportedly that means a new, shortest domestic route from American Airlines.

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In The Middle Of A Pandemic, American Airlines Changes Terminals In San Francisco

by Gary Leff

May 14 2020

On Tuesday American Airlines moved operations in San Francisco to the Harvey Milk Terminal, B side of terminal 1. This puts all of American Airlines in one terminal at the airport, instead of having the old US Airways gates a long walk away.

The new ticket counter location is between doors 3 and 4 of the terminal. Their gates are B22 – B27, which despite the move doesn’t give them room for growth. The opening date for the new Admirals Club, across from gate B13, hasn’t yet been announced.

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What Delta’s CEO Told Employees About Retiring Their Boeing 777s (And Refunding $1.2 Billion In Tickets)

by Gary Leff

May 14 2020

More than 650 of Delta’s planes are parked, but in another sign that airlines believe their future is going to be smaller than their past – at least for the foreseeable future – the airline has decided to retire its fleet of 18 Boeing 777s.

Delta CEO Ed Bastian sent a memo to the airline’s employees about the decision, and the internal document was shared with me by a source.

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