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 »

Chicago May Be About to Overtake Atlanta at the World’s Busiest Airport

by Gary Leff

airport
Sep 17 2018

Atlanta airport is the world’s busiest. When you look at the number of flights many of the other busiest airports drop down in the rankings, major international airports often have large widebodies dominating but fewer flights. Atlanta certainly sees its share of widebodies but is also a major domestic hub with narrowbodies and regional jets.

It turns out that Chicago O’Hare isn’t that far behind Atlanta when ranked by number of flights. And each airport’s construction plans tell us that the busiest title may be about the flip in the new few years.

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This Everyday Hero Makes Sure Your Checked Bags Come Out Upright and Undamaged

by Gary Leff

baggage handler
Sep 16 2018

Checked bag fees have gone up, at United to $30, but passengers aren’t getting more for their money. Instead the typical baggage experience is like this — just watching your bags get ignored. For $30 they should receive a private escort!

Now an everyday hero named Ephraim Sibeko is going viral for one man’s fight to keep suitcases straight and undamaged as they’re delivered to passengers.

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Watch Out for Seat Changes When American Airlines Gives You An ‘Oasis’ Plane

by Gary Leff

airplane seats
Sep 16 2018

I flew American Airlines for the first time on one of their Boeing 737-800s that’s been converted to a “Project Oasis” interior — meaning it’s been retrofit to have the same lack of legroom and smaller lavatories (but larger overhead bins) as their new Boeing 737 MAX aircraft.

I wrote only days ago that these are planes to avoid but right now it’s really difficult to do so. You book a flight on a 737, and there aren’t enough ‘new’ 172 seat 737s to know consistently where these torture tubes are going to turn up. If you get one of the torture tubes, your seat assignments may wind up messed up, too.

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Housekeeping Protesting Guests Who ‘Make a Green Choice’ With Marriott

by Gary Leff

marriott old promo
Sep 16 2018

Hotels want you to re-use towels, not have your sheets changed, and even decline housekeeping entirely. They tell you it’s for the environment, but their primary interest is saving costs.

Housekeeping staff complain about the programs. More guests opting out means fewer rooms to clean and less work. But they have to do more cleaning after a guest has gone without for several days. And they say work scheduling becomes more erratic.

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Boeing Replaced the Export-Import Bank With Its Own Financing, Now It’s Being Sued

by Gary Leff

airplane in hangar
Sep 16 2018

It turns out that aircraft financing isn’t very risky, and Boeing created their own private sector replacement for the Export-Import Bank and made money doing so.

This new lawsuit alleges that Boeing violated contracts with another company that Boeing built out the structure to do this with years earlier – a private sector bet that involved Ex-Im staff.

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ConnectMe: American Working on Better Communications During Flight Delays

by Gary Leff

american plane
Sep 15 2018

While I don’t know any plans to improve the efforts of American’s Integrated Operations Center to prioritize better departure time expectations, there is a new effort to improve communications between different parts of the airline to better deal with delays, and hopefully reduce them as well. It’s called ConnectMe, and here’s how it’s being described to employees.

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