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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Qatar Airways is the Best Airline in the World. Second and Third Place May Surprise You.

first class cabin
May 11 2019

There are several services that will do the heavy lifting for you if you’re owed compensation, in exchange for a percentage of the proceeds. Many customers can’t be bothered to deal with compensation on their own, or fight for it when an airline first denies a claim.

One such company is AirHelp, and they have their own ranking of airlines based one third each on on-time performance, their rating of service quality, and how good the airline is at honoring compensation claims.

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2 Year Old Bitten By Dog at the Centurion Lounge: Who’s Responsible?

lounge
May 11 2019

A family is suing American Express and Dallas Fort-Worth airport because their two year old was bitten by a dog in the DFW airport Centurion lounge.

It seems like the issue here ought to be between the family and the dog owner, which doesn’t likely have the deep pockets that American Express or DFW airport does. What do you think, who is at fault here and in what proportion?f

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Alaska Airlines New Mileage Partner: El Al

elal airplane
May 10 2019

Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan has introduced a new frequent flyer relationship with El Al.

Earning Alaska Airlines miles for travel on El Al starts July 1. It will presumably be possible to redeem Alaska Airlines miles for travel on El Al at some time in the future. Often it takes longer to get the IT in place for redemptions than for mileage-earning.

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The Barclays American Airlines Card Now Comes With a Companion Ticket as Part of Its Signup Offer

steward on plane
May 10 2019

Big changes to the Barclays American AAdvantage cards went into effect May 1. I’m looking forward to trying out the $25 per day inflight food and beverage credit from my Aviator Silver card this coming week. I’m up front, but I plan to ask for a flight attendant’s help springing for a row’s food and drinks in back. I’m going to use that benefit every single time I can because even if it doesn’t benefit me directly it will benefit some flyers’.

The Red card now has a companion ticket available to be earned after $20,000 spend as well. And it’s now also available as part of the card’s initial bonus.

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Elizabeth Warren Flew Out of the Most Notorious Gate in America

airport escalators going down
May 10 2019

Elizabeth Warren flew out of the notorious gate 35X at Washington National airport on Thursday evening, taking American’s once-daily flight AA5017 to Charleston, West Virginia. That’s appropriately a single cabin 50 seat regional jet operated by PSA Airlines. And it was delayed an hour and 45 minutes. Before heading down into the Gate 35X she got extra cheese on her &pizza. She then stopped at Dunkin’ Donuts for an iced black tea. Spotted: Elizabeth Warren selfies (and FaceTiming?) at be airport pic.twitter.com/45AWQgFbik — MJ Lee (@mj_lee) May 9, 2019 For the uninitiated you take an escalator down to a holding area with a lack of seating and several doors (sub-gates) where you wait to board a bus that “makes a slow, winding journey across the airport to your plane.” Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown was also…

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