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 »

Free Top Tier Elite Status With 33 Hotel Brands Through December 2019

discovery black promo
Oct 30 2018

GHA Discovery is the loyalty program for Omni hotels, Rydges, Alila (part of Two Roads Hospitality, which is being acquired by Hyatt), Kempinski, Anantara, Pan Pacific and more — 33 brands in total.

Discovery is an experiences program, not an earn and burn program. It’s all about status and recognition. Right now their top tier of elite status — Black — is available free on a trial basis. The offer may be restricted to cardholders in Middle East and Asia Pacific but I’ve already gotten 5000 American AAdvantage miles just by bouncing around and getting transferred a bit asking.

Continue Reading »

American Airlines President Finally Acknowledges D0 is Failing Without the Right Resources

airline seats
Oct 29 2018

Perhaps the fact that all of the focus for years on D0 not actually generating strong on time performance has sunk in. Perhaps it’s the poor financial performance with premium customers not booking American.

Hopefully American will align the resources with the operation and put the customer at the center of their thinking in order to run an on-time operation that delivers value to passengers. If American Airlines President Robert Isom re-watches his answer to this question, it could actually happen.

Continue Reading »

I Just Purchased American Airlines Tickets for Someone Else, and Two Things Struck Me

plane seating chart
Oct 29 2018

Here’s what it’s like not to have elite status on American Airlines. This is a two hour flight. In order to avoid paying extra for seats on top of their fare, and avoid a middle seat, these passengers are able to book something only in the last two rows of the aircraft.

It taught me something about basic economy — and why it is going to perform worse for American as they make the travel experience worse — and I noticed another big failure during the booking process as well.

Continue Reading »

This Strange American Airlines Route is Just 69 Miles and Doesn’t Go Near a Hub

flight map
Oct 28 2018

One American Airlines route stands out to be as an aberration: Meridian, Mississippi to Hattiesburg, Mississippi. That’s a flight of just 69 miles, and it’s operated once daily in both directions with a Bombardier CRJ-200 50 seat regional jet.

To get a quick understanding for why this route exists — and persists under current management — Glazer’s law helps do some of the lifting.

Continue Reading »

What Routes is American Airlines Considering?

british airways plane
Oct 28 2018

After American’s third quarter earnings call late in the week, executives gathered for their internal ‘State of the Airline’ comments to employees along with question and answer session. Vice President – Planning Vasu Raja answered questions about the airline’s route plans in a “network speed round.”

Here are key takeaways:

Continue Reading »