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 »

American Airlines CEO Promises Overhaul After Firing Top Exec—Here’s the Real Plan

by Gary Leff

Jun 01 2024

After comments by American Airlines CEO Robert Isom at the Bernstein Strategic Decisions Conference this week, where he explained changes that he planned to make after the ouster of Chief Commercial Officer Vasu Raja, many customers and readers of this blog have speculated that the airline would right the ship. After all, Raja was famous for his belief that network is the product.

Would the high cost airline, which desperately needs to convince customers to pay more in order to earn a profit, finally focus on delivering a higher quality product?

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No Deal: American Airlines Flight Attendants Told To Brace For Strike Over Pay Dispute

by Gary Leff

Jun 01 2024

American Airlines and its flight attendants were at the negotiating table with federal mediators in Washington, D.C. for the last six business days. The union reports back that no agreement was reached. They expect the National Mediation Board to insist on one ‘last ditch effort’ to reach an agreement early in June before declaring an impasse, which would start a 30 day ‘cooling off period’ before releasing the parties to ‘self-help’ (a strike).

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CDC Alert Triggered As O’Hare Customs Dog Goes Wild Over Maggot-Infested Bushmeat Off Amsterdam Flight

by Gary Leff

May 31 2024

A customs dog alerted to a passenger’s bag off of an arriving Amsterdam flight in Chicago on Saturday and it’s no surprise. The contents were easy to smell: raw African bushmeat that had been decomposing for 30 hours in transit, infested with maggots. The dog was so agitated that it began tearing at the plastic wrap as soon as the luggage appeared.

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