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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Will American Airlines Drop New York – London in 2022 as BA Moves Into JFK Terminal 8?

by Gary Leff

outside airport
Feb 08 2019

British Airways and American announced today that BA would move to American’s terminal 8 in 2022. That’s not really news, since New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said this was part of the plan back in October. However we do get new details including a bus gate for the terminal. That’s miserable.

Some are surprised by BA’s willingness to walk away from that investment, but $65 million is peanuts amortized over four years in the context of the $1 billion annually they generate on the New York – London route.

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American Airlines Cancels Transatlantic Flight Due to Drunk Pilot, Everyone Entitled to Over $500 Apiece

by Gary Leff

pilot cockpit
Feb 07 2019

Confronted with proof that American Airlines does, in fact, offer predeparture beverages up front a spokesperson says “Safety is our highest priority and we apologise to our customers for the disruption to their travel plans, we have rebooked them on alternative flights.”

I asked what was being done for customers and was told that everyone on the flight is being offered 15,000 miles. Of course that is separate from the compensation that passengers are entitled to under EU Regulation 261/2004.

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Grand Hyatt New York Will Be Torn Down

by Gary Leff

Feb 07 2019

The best thing about the property is that it’s often available less expensively than other full service properties in the area. Indeed searching for a room later in the month it was pricing at $171. The second best thing is the club lounge which features a large outdoor seating area.

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American Gets to Keep Its Authority to Fly to China — Without Actually Flying to China

by Gary Leff

china memorial
Feb 07 2019

There’s no Open Skies agreement between the U.S. and China. Instead a bilateral agreement lays out what route authorities can be doled out by respective governments. American Airlines dropped Chicago – Beijing and Chicago – Shanghai and Hawaiian Airlines dropped Honolulu – Beijing. American would like to keep their route authority from Chicago to China even while not using it. That would mean preventing any other U.S. airlines from adding China frequencies, which benefits American by avoiding competition for its Dallas and Los Angeles to Beijing and Shanghai service. So they asked the Department of Transportation to grant a ‘dormancy’ of their authority to keep the routes for a year without flying them. Normally they would lose the routes after 90 days. The odds that they’ll return to flying from Chicago to China are really,…

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Delta Apologizes For Creepy Inflight Napkins

by Gary Leff

Feb 06 2019

Delta serves Coke products because Atlanta, and their napkins advertise Coke products because money. Ads try to be clever to get your attention so they aren’t ignored, in order to get better value for that money.

However the napkins Delta was boarding last month didn’t go over well. They encouraged passengers to give fellow travelers unsolicited phone numbers in hopes of… well, you know what it’s in hopes of.

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