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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Air France Killing Low Fare Carrier-Within-a-Carrier Joon and Millennials Everywhere Rejoice

airline promo ad people on plane
Jan 10 2019

It’s been a year since Air France started service under the ‘Joon’ brand. A separate airline with lower labor costs is one thing – and Joon had lower flight attendant costs, but not lower pilot costs. It’s hard enough to pull that off without really being a separate company. Just ask United, Delta, US Airways, and Continental about the airline within an airline experiment.

Pretending that the Air France low cost carrier without low costs was really a different brand for millennials was just silly. It was created by consultants who think millennial means “no money, doesn’t care about comfort, and is into marketing buzz.”

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American Taking Business Class Seats Out of 787-8s, Now They Don’t Know What to Do With the Aircraft

american plane
Jan 09 2019

When American ended Chicago – China service they freed up Boeing 787 aircraft and seemingly didn’t know what to do with them. They’re flying 787s now to Cancun and Anchorage.

Then they freed up even more 787-8 flying time. Since they removed business class seats from 787-8 aircraft, with the new configuration featuring only 20 seats up front, the plane no longer works for premium markets.

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Marriott’s View of Loyalty Prevails: Al Maha Won’t Charge Guests for Meals, Activities After All

view from villa
Jan 09 2019

Hotel loyalty programs face a unique challenge that airlines don’t. Airlines set the rules and provide the product directly. Hotels have to get properties which are often owned and even managed separately to comply, with benefits like upgrades delivered consistently by individual employees at a front desk perhaps thousands of miles away. They rely on individual hotels and even employees to comply.

Embedded in a loyalty program as well is a philosophy of how to treat guests redeeming their points.

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Delta Will Stop Automatically ‘Upgrading’ Elites to Extra Legroom Seats on 7 Routes (‘Temporarily’)

delta check in airport
Jan 08 2019

Delta calls moving from regular coach to extra legroom coach (“Comfort+”) seats an ‘upgrade’ the way other airlines call coach to business an upgrade.

When you buy a ticket you don’t just assign yourself an extra legroom seat, your upgrade ‘clears’ into the extra legroom section of the plane. This process is going to create a problem on several routes beginning in March.

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