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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Frequent Flyer Program for Sale: Blackstone May Buy Stake in Jet Airways JetPrivilege

by Gary Leff

jet airways plane
Aug 15 2018

While both Etihad and Jet Airways would retain stakes in the program after a deal with Blackstone it’s not clear the relative shares each party would give up. For Etihad even a partial sale would them out of their worldwide expansion, which they’ve retrenched from after losing their shirts in Alitalia and air berlin. For Jet Airways it would provide them desperately-needed cash.

Reportedly the deal would value the program at $429 – $569 billion, which is 43% – 90% higher than in 2013. At the same time though membership in the program has grown 220% during that period so its value would be lower on a per-member basis.

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Report: 60,000 Mile Inflight Offer for AAdvantage Card Ends This Month

by Gary Leff

inside airliner
Aug 15 2018

At the beginning of the month Barclays increased the offer on its AAdvantage Aviator Red World Elite Mastercard to 60,000 bonus miles after first purchase in the first 90 days and paying the card’s $95 annual fee (the fee on this card is not waived the first year).

These are the cards flight attendants advertise onboard American. ComputerPlayerOne says flight attendants have been told this offer will last through August 31.

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American Says They Have a Problem With Premium Revenue. Will They Fix It?

by Gary Leff

airline cabin
Aug 15 2018

At a meeting between American Airlines employees and airline President Robert Isom last week, a sim instructor asked whether – with higher fuel prices – there’s an ‘industry initiative to increase fares’ to compensate. Isom explains that American is lagging behind on premium revenue.

However he thinks that premium economy will drive higher performance, and that basic economy and segmentation will “offer our customers what they want to buy, trying to encourage that move up the ladder” and that this will fix things.

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American Reveals Its Plans and Challenges With Airbus A321s

by Gary Leff

american plane
Aug 14 2018

American Airlines is a big operator of Boeing 737s, a workhorse of the domestic fleet. But they’re also a big operator of Airbus narrowbodies, including the larger A321 version. There are 121 Legacy US Airways A321s, and there are 98 legacy American Airlines A321s.

The airline also has 100 A321 ‘neo’ or ‘new engine option’ planes on order. And at an employee forum last week American’s management shared their plans for these A321neos, as well as plans to update the interiors of existing A321 aircraft in the fleet.

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