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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Passenger Curses Out Flight Attendant Over Buy On Board Meal: Is Turkey Ham Really Ham?

man looking up on plane
Jun 18 2018

A passenger on board a Wizz Air flight from London Luton to Skopje on Sunday demanded a refund for the sandwich he purchased.

He’s Muslim. He bought a ‘turkey ham’ sandwich. It’s not turkey and ham. It’s ham-like meat made out of turkey. But midway through eating the 4.50 euro sandwich he decided it “didn’t taste like turkey.”

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JetBlue’s Founder is Starting a New US Airline With $100 Million and 60 Planes

jetblue plane
Jun 18 2018

Dave Neeleman founded JetBlue after his non-compete from Southwest’s acquisition of Morris Air where he was CEO expired. During that non-compete period he was involved in the launch of Canada’s WestJet.

A citizen of Brazil as well as the U.S. (and also now of Cyprus), Neeleman launched Brazilian carrier Azul after being forced out at JetBlue. He’s also a partner in Star Alliance carrier TAP Air Portugal.

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Award Alert: Redeem For a Family of 5 in Etihad’s First Apartment

flight chart
Jun 17 2018

Etihad is dropping one of its two New York JFK – Abu Dhabi Airbus A380 flights, and putting the A380 on Paris – Abu Dhabi. That means there will be two daily Paris – Abu Dhabi flights with the A380.

The Etihad A380 features the ‘First Apartment’ — one of the three best first class products in the sky. There’s a separate bed and seat, and living space which was unprecedented when the product was introduced. In addition it’s only one of two first class products with a shower onboard.

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Biggest Starwood Points Sale Before the Program Effectively Ends Next Month

hotel lobby
Jun 17 2018

Starwood is offering a 35% discount on buying Starpoints through July 20. They’re actually letting you buy points at a price which those points are worth which is great.

Technically Starwood Preferred Guest will still exists August 1, but that’s a legal distinction. Marriott, Starwood, and Ritz-Carlton will all have the same program at this point just with different names because contractual issues prevent them from calling it one program. For all intents and purposes though this is the last sale of Starpoints qua Starpoints.

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