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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Transatlantic Business Class From $650 One Way

by Gary Leff

first class seats
Sep 19 2018

Business class fares originating in Europe to the US are often cheaper than fares which originate in the U.S. I occasionally see $1000 roundtrip fares originating in Europe. Last year there was even a $400 one-way Europe-US fare on Star Alliance member TAP Air Portugal.

TAP is back with amazing fares across the Pond, originating in Europe. You can book them either one way (Europe to U.S.) or roundtrip (Europe – U.S. – Europe). In fact $651 or $656 one way fares are available most days from mid-November through summer.

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Southwest Joins Delta and Alaska With Free Inflight Messaging – While American Says No

by Gary Leff

southwest plane
Sep 19 2018

Delta and Alaska offer free inflight messaging, you don’t have to buy internet. Days after Delta announced it in September of last year, American announced that they would do it also. Yesterday I got an admission from American that they were walking away from their promise to offer free inflight messaging.

It turns out that Southwest is rolling free messaging too. That’ll leave only major U.S. airlines that have been run by Scott Kirby not offering it.

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American Airlines Backtracks, Isn’t Rolling Out Free Inflight Texting After All

by Gary Leff

airline cabin
Sep 18 2018

Earlier in the month when American Airlines promoted that they had added live TV to over 100 planes I pointed out that they still hadn’t added free inflight texting the way they had promised one year ago and which Delta and Alaska already offer.

American had announced free texting right after Delta made their announcement. But American didn’t follow through. They aren’t saying never, but will no longer even say it’s coming.

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Check Out This Price List for Stolen Frequent Flyer Miles

by Gary Leff

csi miles photoshop
Sep 18 2018

Here are the results from a survey of Berlusconi Market, Dream Market, and Olympus Market. Where they present more than one data point I average them for this chart.  It’s important to note that these are asking prices.  The people selling miles may or may not have a good idea of what they’re worth, and in some cases may be looking for a sucker (buying 500 Expedia points?).

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Instant Hyatt Explorist Status and Fast Track to Globalist For Employees of Various Companies

by Gary Leff

hyatt hotel
Sep 18 2018

Hyatt used to be super generous with elite status matches. If you had a pulse they’d give you 90 days of Diamond status including confirmed suite upgrades, and an expedited path to keep that status.

No doubt they brought over a lot of great members with the offer, but they also picked up plenty of people who just wanted to have that one special trip (honeymoon, anniversary) but transferring in Chase points, booking a cash and points redemption, and applying a suite upgrade to it. Probably at the Andaz Maui or Park Hyatt Vendome in Paris.

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US Airlines are Losing Interest in China, and That’s Bad for China’s Carriers

by Gary Leff

china memorial
Sep 17 2018

China is the next big thing. That was true 15 years ago, and may still be true 15 years from now (without ever actually becoming).

American carriers used to operate two-thirds of the flights between the U.S. and China, and now that’s flipped. And to hear Dr. Zhihang Chi, Vice President and General Manager of Air China North America, tell it “the US carriers are losing interest in the China market.”

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