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 »

30% Bonus on Transfers from Marriott Points to United (And Other Hotel Points, Too)

by Gary Leff

points miles promo
Oct 11 2018

When Marriott combined programs on August 18th they took all Starwood points balances and tripled them. And they kept the basics of the Starwood points transfers to miles system. So miles transfer 3:1 with most airline partners (instead of the old 1:1, but it’s effectively the same) and transfers into 20,000 miles earns 5000 bonus miles.

In other words, transferring 60,000 Marriott points yields 25,000 airline miles. When you transfer to United you also get a 10% bonus because of the Marriott-United RewardsPlus tie-in. And right now United is offering a 30% bonus on Marriott transfers up to 25,000 extra miles.

Continue Reading »

American Sends Bigger Planes to Chicago – Because They’re Taking Business Seats Away From Smaller Planes

by Gary Leff

american plane
Oct 11 2018

American Airlines is taking business class seats out of their Boeing 787-8 aircraft. Those planes are going from 28 business class seats down to 20, so that the “mini cabin” at the back of business class can be used for premium economy.

Chicago is American’s 787-8 city. The airline likes to base a specific aircraft type in each city to the extent possible, because it makes their operation simpler. When a plane goes mechanical, they have more of that aircraft. They have people used to working on those planes all the time. And they have the parts. They also have more crew qualified to operate the aircraft.

Continue Reading »

Murdered Oligarch Was Prepared to Testify About Aeroflot’s Role in Russian Spying

by Gary Leff

flight attendants in red
Oct 10 2018

Nikolai Glushkov was preparing for legal proceedings over claims that he looted over $100 million from Aeroflot when he served as the airline’s Deputy Director for Finance in the mid-1990’s. He had run out of money and was preparing to represent himself — until he was “strangled to death with a dog leash.” The Russian government has impugned the circumstances around his death, while the British government is investigating murder and notes that “a black van [was] seen near his home the night he was strangled.” Had his trial proceeded he was prepared to testify that Aeroflot was the centerpiece of Russia’s clandestine services. The airline, Ms. Litvinenko said her husband told her, was a centerpiece of the Russian spy services, which since Soviet days had used its global network of offices and air routes…

Continue Reading »

$1 Buys Both 1000 American Miles and Long-term WSJ.com Access

by Gary Leff

credit card wallet
Oct 10 2018

About five years ago I took advantage of a free 6 month trial subscription to the Wall Street Journal. I have no interest in a paper copy, but I do value access to articles behind their pay wall. And I still have that access. That’s because I suspend paper delivery of my subscription. You can do that for two months at a time. When they aren’t delivering the paper they aren’t decrementing the remaining days on your subscription you still have full access to website content. Many people are more interested in the miles offered for trial subscriptions, and take advantage of various shopping portal signup offers. Right now for instance Frequent Miler points to a $1 offer for a two month Journal trial that earns 1000 American AAdvantage miles. This offer should be around…

Continue Reading »