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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Why Qatar is Buying 25% of Vnukovo Airport

by Gary Leff

qatarplane
Apr 07 2018

Qatar Airways CEO Akbar al Baker loves to ‘rub salt in the wounds’ and said that’s why he launched Doha – Atlanta. The airline loves to pick up awards, and so does the man himself. So it’s a double win for them to be Atlanta airport’s cargo airline of the year. There’s little question though that Qatar Airways is a tool of Qatar diplomacy. That’s why they struck a deal go give up nothing while settling complaints from United, Delta and American that they’re subsidized. It not only puts the issue behind them at little cost it put the UAE’s Emirates and Etihad in an awkward spot. Qatar agreed not to operate fifth freedom flights to the U.S., something they have zero interest in doing. Meanwhile Emirates does already operate fifth freedom flights. Their agreement…

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The Secret to a Good Meal on American Airlines

by Gary Leff

airplane food
Apr 07 2018

I’ve been a critic of American Airlines domestic first class meals, though I’ve had multiple people tell me that the current chicken meatballs aren’t bad and the short rib is better than some of the other choices.

American Airlines lets you pre-select your meal up to 24 hours prior to departure. That’s not like Singapore Airlines where you get a wide variety of choices. Instead you’re mostly just choosing from among the options that would be available onboard. But…

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No ‘The Real Reason’ Dogs Are Dying on United Doesn’t Excuse More Dogs Dying on United

by Gary Leff

petsafe van
Apr 06 2018

There has been a lot of buzz about a Washington Post piece suggesting that high risk dogs are the ‘real reason’ more dogs die onboard United. But that is a substantial overclaim of what is actually in the data.

Understanding which breeds constitute the greatest risk is a good first step in reviewing the pet shipping program. 18 of the 24 cargo pet deaths in 2017 were on United, while United carried about one third of pets. Drilling down into what’s going on with different types of animals may help to identify some of the problems, but it isn’t the entire story and doesn’t begin to excuse United’s poor performance in this area. And it doesn’t speak to the instances of lost/mis-routed dogs either.

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