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 »

Just 11,000 Miles One Way to Europe (36,000 for Business Class)

by Gary Leff

klm planes
Oct 13 2019

Often connecting itineraries beyond Paris/Amsterdam can be even cheaper than what’s advertised, and specific cities are put on sale because the flights are lightly booked so availability tends to be good. West Coast – Europe for just 36,000 miles each way in business class is fantastic. Come Tuesday we’ll see if some cities price even lower.

Indeed I usually look for business class deals, but this is even pretty cheap economy and premium economy too even when factoring in surcharges. American Express, Capital One, Chase, and Citibank all offer points transfers to Air France KLM Flying Blue, and transfers are generally immediate.

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Lifetime Admirals Club Members Can Continue to Access Lounges Without a Same Day American Airlines Ticket

by Gary Leff

world map in lounge
Oct 12 2019

Last month I reported that American Airlines was still considering whether to allow lifetime club members to keep accessing Admirals Clubs when not flying American or its partners same day.

According to spokesperson Leslie Scott, they’ve made the decision to honor access for lifetime members. She tells me, “We are making an exception for lifetime members, we will not require them to have a same-day ticket on American or partner airline in order to access the Admirals Club.”

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Should a Man Wearing a T-Shirt Threatening to Kill Journalists Have Been Kicked Off a United Flight Yesterday?

by Gary Leff

Oct 12 2019

While Snopes actually has an entry debunking whether United Airlines has an ‘armed seating and apparel division’ the airline is now coming under fire for doing nothing over a passenger’s t-shirt.

On yesterday’s United flight UA824 from Los Angeles to Boston a passenger was wearing a t-shirt advocating hanging of journalists.

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British Airways CEO’s Boss Publicly Blames Him for Failing to Get a Pilot Deal Done

by Gary Leff

plane tails
Oct 11 2019

Willie Walsh, the former CEO of British Airways and now head of IAG, parent company of BA, Iberia, Aer Lingus, and Vueling, has gone public that he’d do a better job than current BA CEO Alex Cruz at resolving the airline’s contract dispute with pilots.

Public efforts to throw his handpicked British Airways CEO over the side and lay blame at his feet for the failure to get a deal done aside Alex Cruz doesn’t even outsource a single IT job without Willie Walsh blessing it first.

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American Airlines in Talks to Partner With Brazil’s Gol Airlines

by Gary Leff

Oct 11 2019

Make no mistake, a Gol partnership is a second best. Remember that when Delta announced its deal with LATAM American’s response was to claim a LATAM joint venture wouldn’t have been that valuable to them anyway because it wouldn’t be permitted to include Chile. What mattered when making excuses for losing LATAM was Chile. Was matters when promoting a deal with Gol is Brazil. The narrative changes with the opportunity.

However it’s certainly better than giving up connecting feed in Brazil entirely. And if they could put together a secondary deal, and grow their own presence in the region, they could fight back effectively after losing LATAM. They just need to get control of the narrative quickly.

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