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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Hotel Discount Deal Comes With All Meals, Premium Scotch and Champagne

by Gary Leff

hotel dining room
May 19 2019

Hotels and resorts that make their money on gambling or in-house services want to fill their properties, and keep guests on property. Old School Vegas did this by treating guests well, especially their big spenders. And they did this through lavish buffets and shows offered at surprisingly affordable prices.

Mohegan Sun, the Connecticut casino hotel a couple of hours from Boston and about three hours from New York, has a cheap rate that comes with decadent meals and unlimited top shelf alcohol. It shouldn’t be hard to eat and drink more than the cost of the room on any given night, and that’s the sort of value proposition only old school casino hotels can offer.

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The Ability to Pay for Southwest Airlines Tickets With Chase Points is Back

by Gary Leff

airline cabin
May 19 2019

You can use Chase Ultimate Rewards points for Southwest Airlines award tickets. You can do this either by transferring Chase points from a Sapphire Preferred, Sapphire Reserve, or Ink Business Preferred Card to Southwest’s Rapid Rewards program, or by using Chase points directly to purchase the ticket.

For some time it hasn’t been possible to use Chase points to buy Southwest Airlines tickets. But the ability to do this over the phone is back.

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US Warns Commercial Planes Flying Over the Persian Gulf They May Get Shot Down

by Gary Leff

airplane taking off
May 18 2019

The U.S. has warned airlines that they may be ‘mis-identified’ flying over the Persian Gulf as well as the Gulf of Oman.

In a Notice to Airmen the US government declares that US air carriers (and operators of US-registered airships, except when operated by foreign air carriers) must exercise caution in the region because of risk of accidental military targeting, GPS interference, and GPS jamming.

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Marriott Bonvoy Has One Big Problem. There’s a Simple Solution.

by Gary Leff

outside marriott hotel
May 18 2019

When things go wrong, either because a hotel doesn’t deliver promised benefits or because something doesn’t work right on the back end with an account, it’s almost impossible to get swift any resolution from Marriott Bonvoy. Customer service is a problem.

When things go smoothly – as they do the majority of the time – Marriott has, in my opinion, a better program than Hilton or IHG. But when they fail the issues are magnified because these failures are primarily happening to their highest volume most loyal members and because there’s no mechanism to fix the issue. That’s a problem, but it’s one that can be fixed.

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Chase Surveying How to Redesign an Airline Credit Card

by Gary Leff

airline cabin
May 18 2019

Chase is surveying how to design an airline card. I’d normally think they would be look at the United product, since Chase and United have been in ongoing and vigorous discussions about how to improve their program (although the United card was recently revamped).

There are two references in the questions that suggest to me they could be thinking through the British Airways product: carrier surcharges on award travel and European destinations.

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