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 »

Passenger Downs 4 Bottles of Beer, Vapes E-cigarette, Punches Flight Attendant all Before His Honeymoon

by Gary Leff

easyjet
Apr 04 2019

In February a man downed 4 bottles of Stella Artois at London’s Gatwick airport before a 9 a.m. easyJet flight to Egypt for his honeymoon.

He boarded the plane smoking an e-cigarette and was told he had to stop vaping. He responded to the flight attendant’s instruction with a homophobic outburst — before “knock[ing] out one of the cabin crew..with two punches” and sending him to the ground and then proceeding to attack a second flight attendant who responded to the situation. He’ll be spending 7 months in jail, will his new spouse wait for him?

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Leave it to United to Hide Cuts in a Sensible Change to Meal Service

by Gary Leff

first class seats
Apr 03 2019

Faster dinner service on short late night flights makes sense and United still has some of the best bedding in business class in the world — customers should be able to benefit from it with sleep. It will make even more sense once a Polaris lounge opens at Washington Dulles for passengers to have dinner in prior to flights. It’s just that United seems to take every opportunity to find ways to shave from their product, which isn’t what they said they were doing and disappoints me.

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Why Passengers are Increasingly Choosing Airlines Based on More than Just Schedule and Price

by Gary Leff

airplane seats
Apr 03 2019

It’s a fools errand for airlines like American or United to offer a lowest common denominator product. When a business produces a commodity product, the lowest cost producer wins. Spirit is at a great advantage because American and United will always have higher costs.

Given their cost structure legacy airlines need to earn a revenue premium. And customers are already beginning to make buying decisions on more than schedule and price a trend that is only going to become more pronounced as passengers are presented with information during the booking process on what to expect from their flights like seat power and high speed internet.

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Las Vegas Hotels Discover Fraudulent Resort Fees are Hurting Their Business

by Gary Leff

mandalay bay
Apr 03 2019

“Resort fees” are extra charges, on top of a room rate, that aren’t optional. In other words they’re part of the price of a room, but the hotel advertises a lower price instead. That’s on face deceptive.

I understand the logic of charging a resort fee in a market where everyone else is doing it. If a hotel charges a $250 room rate and a $30 resort fee, that’s $280 a night. If another hotel charges $270 a night they’re actually $10 cheaper — but appear at first glance to the consumer to be more expensive. Once resort fees are standard in a market, a hotel loses by not charging them.

What’s become especially egregious in recent years is the spread of resort fees to new markets, under different marketing. City hotels aren’t resorts and instead they promote “destination fees.”

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American Airlines Mechanics Opening Passenger Bags to Insert Union Flyers

by Gary Leff

american workers are worth it poster
Apr 02 2019

When you check your bags with an airline you expect that it will arrive at its destination. While the TSA has carte blanche to open your bags, the airline isn’t supposed to. When it happens it’s a huge breach of trust.

However acrimonious labor negotiations at American Airlines seem to now be affecting passengers, as a customer reports finding a union flyer in a checked bag after picking it up last Thursday at baggage claim.

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Delta and American Express Re-up Credit Card Deal Through 2029

by Gary Leff

delta plane
Apr 02 2019

I view Delta cards as strong, of course for their initial bonus and for the benefits they convey to passengers (especially those without elite status) flying the airline semi-regularly. I do not view them as a strong tool for spending, independent of weakness in the SkyMiles program itself.

That’s because even if you want to earn SkyMiles through credit card spend, American Express offers cards that earn Membership Rewards points faster than Delta miles, and Membership Rewards points will continue to transfer to Delta as well as having the option of being moved to other programs as-needed.

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