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 »

Busta Rhymes Nearly Comes to Blows With Frequent Flyers Over Bin Space

by Gary Leff

busta rhymes
Jul 30 2019

Rapper Busta Rhymes was flying British Airways first class from New York JFK to London Heathrow on Monday on board flight BA112. When he boarded he found that a passenger in the middle of row 2 was using bin space above his aisle seat.

Mr. Rhymes asked the woman to move her belongings out of the bin above his seat and over to the other side of the cabin. He wanted his stuff above his seat. She reportedly broke down in tears. Her husband stepped to, telling Busta not to be so rude. Busta refers to the husband as “home boy.”

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United Testing Pre-Order Meals in Premium Cabins

by Gary Leff

airline food
Jul 30 2019

Some airlines around the world let business and first class customers select a meal in advance from a variety of options, and then they’ll make sure to have it on board for you. Other airlines – including U.S. airlines – have been letting you choose mostly from what would otherwise be on board but choosing in advance ensures you receive your first choice.

Now that Delta has followed American Airlines offering to let you select in advance – and ensure your first choice of meal – from what they’re offering on board, it’s no surprise that United is rolling out their own test of this as well.

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Hilton Says Honors Engagement is Up: Giving Members Less Works

by Gary Leff

hotel
Jul 30 2019

Two and a half years ago Hilton reported 60 million members. Then at the beginning of 2018 they reported 70 million. Now they say they are up to 94 million Honors members.

Hilton was the first to aggressively advertise ‘member rates’ which are small room discounts that require you to join the loyalty program. Unsurprisingly that’s just what guests do. And since the number of members has gone up recently, driven by this savings, these are ‘engaged’ members with recent Hilton activity.

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AWFUL: IHG Hotels Will Move to Bulk Toiletries Across All 17 Brands

by Gary Leff

soap dispenser bathroom
Jul 30 2019

When you ‘make a green choice’ to let hotels save money on housekeeping, at least they’ll usually give you points so you can share in the savings (but not at the Hyatt Regency Seattle).

Marriott revealed that wall mounted toiletries save a couple thousand dollars per hotel each year. That’s a big savings across all of their managed North American properties who are making the switch from individual bottles.

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Play-By-Play Inside the Oval Office Meeting With Airline CEOs That Delta Skipped

by Gary Leff

Akbar al Baker meeting Trumps
Jul 29 2019

The meeting lasted an hour, during which “there was a lot of yelling.” I think my favorite part has to be that “the president ribbed American Airlines CEO Doug Parker over his company’s flagging stock price, asking why it’s so low at a time when the stock market is surging.”

In the end American, Delta, and United were told by the President to follow the legal process they’ve so far in their 4 year saga been unwilling to follow, knowing that their case would fail on the merits at the Department of Transportation.

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