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 »

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Marriott Prepares To Make $7000 Per Night All-Inclusive Available On Points, Updates Terms & Conditions

by Gary Leff

villa
Dec 13 2019

Back in March we learned that $7000 per night all-inclusive North Island in the Seychelles would be joining Marriott’s Luxury Collection and I confirmed that it would become part of the Bonvoy program for earning and redemption.

Marriott updated their program terms to allow for redemptions that cost more than category 8 high season – because we were never going to book this place for just 100,000 points per night. We can only hope though that, having made the change, they aren’t tempted to expand the pool of properties “off award chart.”

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Why American Airlines Would Make More Money If They Improved Product And Service

by Gary Leff

american airlines planes
Dec 13 2019

American Airlines has said that they believe their path to profitability is doubling down on their current approach which hasn’t worked so far. They should be changing their approach to invest in better service and a better product, especially domestically and in economy, and to build up their route network in key business centers, because that’s how they’ll grow the key profit center of their business – co-brand credit cards.

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Delta Says Brand and Scale Drive Credit Card Signups (Not Rewards)

by Gary Leff

delta check in airport
Dec 13 2019

Airline President Glen Hauenstein says the model works like this: Fly Delta -> like the experience -> join Delta programs -> like them even more.

They believe the “relevance of [their] offering and how much people like you” determines allegiance and spend. The implication is that brand experience and scale matter more than value proposition of the card.

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Korean Air Announces Huge Award Devaluation and Other Program Changes

by Gary Leff

korean air
Dec 13 2019

Korean Air says they’re making significant changes to their frequent flyer program, but only giving us the briefest sketches of what that might be. A new distance-based award chart is available in Korean and pricing for premium cabin awards, especially long distance premium cabin awards, because much more expensive.

Korean says they’ll be testing cash and miles awards, shifting to more revenue-based mileage-earning and distance-based redemptions, and revamping the elite program. That distance-based redemption chart is what I’m disappointed in.

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Don’t Fall For The Hype: Qantas Hasn’t Pulled The Trigger On “Project Sunrise”

by Gary Leff

Dec 12 2019

Qantas announced today that they have selected the Airbus A350-1000 for ‘Project Sunrise’ ultra long haul flights such as Sydney – New York JFK and Sydney – London.

The news here is that they’ve deferred a decision, not that they are doing anything. And their aircraft selection just means they’ve tentatively decided not to order the Boeing 777X. It doesn’t mean they’ve ordered ultra long haul planes. And it doesn’t mean they’re going to fly these routes.

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Drip, Drip, Drip: American Pushes Out the Return of the 737 MAX to Service Again

by Gary Leff

plane tv
Dec 12 2019

The return of the 737 MAX is like every other delay on American Airlines. You show up at the gate before scheduled departure time, because the flight board says you’re leaving on time. But there’s no aircraft at the gate, so that’s impossible.

The plane pulls up, passengers flood out into the terminal, and you stand there waiting. American updates your new departure time, but it isn’t until after that time passes that the departure time gets updated again. You have a mechanical delay and American keeps pushing your scheduled departure out 10 minutes at a time, updating with a new time only after the last one passes.

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