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 »

Why Loyalty Programs Always Disappoint You

by Gary Leff

zimbabwe currency
Apr 05 2019

Tyler Cowen’s new book coming out April 9, Big Business: A Love Letter to an American Anti-Hero contains this passage final its chapter “If business is so good, why is it so disliked?”

It’s not about loyalty programs per se, but loyalty marketing is one of the key ways that businesses attempt to trascend the transactional and make us loyal. Brand positioning, charitable giving, along with recognition and reward, can temporarily make us see the business as aligning with our values and integrating with our life. And then we’re disappointed:

Continue Reading »

Here’s What it Takes to Get Fired as a Flight Attendant in Australia

by Gary Leff

qantasplane
Apr 04 2019

It’s difficult to get hired on as an employee in many professions in Australia because it’s so difficult to get fired, and because benefits can be so generous. Frequently workers are taken on as contractors rather than employees.

Qantas has learned this over and over, for instance when a flight attendant was awarded six months’ pay because the government determined it was ‘harsh’ to fire him after he was found with “a can and a bottle of beer in his jacket, two 50ml bottles of vodka in his trousers and a 50ml bottle of gin in his bag” as he got off a flight.

Here’s what it actually takes to get fired without a big pay off in Australia.

Continue Reading »

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?

Continue Reading »

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.

Continue Reading »

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.

Continue Reading »

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.”

Continue Reading »