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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Beyond Burgers: Why McDonald’s Is Indispensable For Every Traveler

united plane with ronald macdonald in it
Jul 17 2024

The Big Mac is so ubiquitous The Economist developed a price index for the burger as a way to measure purchasing power parity across economies.

McDonald’s changes its offerings to meet local demand. For instance there’s no beef in Mumbai McDonald’s but they do offer several different fry dips. However my reason for going there has nothing to do with the food.

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Major Overhaul Already: American Airlines Updates AAdvantage Business Program with New Perks

Jul 16 2024

American Airlines let go Chief Commercial Officer Vasu Raja, architect of their strategy of chasing award managed business travel. His thesis had been that they were going to fill their planes, and didn’t need to offer companies discounts. They’d make more money, and do so at a lower cost – without the sales teams and special customer service to service those accounts.

Now they’re backtracking on this strategy.

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