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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Delta Apologizes For Creepy Inflight Napkins

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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Hilton’s New Tool Tells You How Many Points Hotel Rewards Should Cost

Feb 06 2019

Hilton’s basic program is the least rewarding for spending at hotels and elite benefits are weak. They do not promise Diamonds upgrades to suites even if they’re empty, and they do not promise late check-out requests will be honored. Where Hilton Honors is useful is for the occasional guest who can get status just by having a credit card. There’s some chance this could change since they’re testing a confirmed suite upgrade benefit with some Diamonds, my hunch is if they launch it that holding a credit card alone won’t be enough to have this benefit. One of the most irritating things about Hilton Honors is its lack of transparency. They eliminated their award charts. Here’s what they published just a couple of years ago: Five years ago they effectively killed charts when they introduced…

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United Adding Tons of Premium Seats to Airbus Narrowbodies, 767s, and New “CRJ-550”

people in airplane aisle
Feb 06 2019

United has been moving towards a premium-heavy strategy. The offer more international business class seats than peers using similar aircraft, and they’ve invested in really nice international business class lounges. Their Polaris business class seat allows them to do this because it gives them a fully flat product with direct aisle access without taking up more space in the cabin than their old six-abreast seats. It’s a “good enough” seat that isn’t quite as nice as American’s B/E Aerospace Super Diamond or Delta’s new Suites, but that doesn’t require actively avoiding flying business class on United. United has announced a doubling down on the premium heavy approach adding even more business class seats to a subfleet of 767-300s, as well as adding first class seats to Airbus A319 and A320s where they’ve had fewer seats…

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British Tourist Arrested and Beaten for Wearing a Qatar Shirt to a Soccer Match in Abu Dhabi

picture with stairs around it in a hotel
Feb 05 2019

It’s incredible that Qatar was able to play, beat their geopolitical rivals Saudi Arabia and UAE, and that they had an actual fan in the stadium who dared to support them along the way. That man was punished.

I have to think that this will be enough of an international embarrassment that the UAE will have to back down (though they can’t un-beat the man). Nonetheless it’s a good reminder that when you travel the world you’re subject to the laws of wherever you’ve gone – even if you aren’t aware of what they are.

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A Passenger Wanted Coffee as a Predeparture Beverage and That Nearly Got Him Kicked Off the Flight

american eagle plane
Feb 05 2019

A passenger on American Airlines flight AA5896 on February 2 from Long Beach to Phoenix shared his experience with the first class flight attendant.

The flight was on a CRJ-900 regional jet operated by Mesa Airlines. I’ve had plenty of flights on Mesa and usually find their flight attendants to be excellent. However this story illustrates several problems facing commercial aviation in the U.S.

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