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 »

American Testing New Food, Serving Pasta and Sliders in Admirals Clubs

food
May 07 2018

American Airlines Admirals Club have had a hit with their made to order guacamole in the afternoons.
Unfortunately it’s not available at my home airport in Austin but I’ve sampled it all around the system. Here it is in Dallas prior to the renovation of the ‘A’ Club there.

They’ve also rolled out made to order avocado toast in several lounges. Someone must have made a bit bet on avocado futures.

Continue Reading »

Passengers Held For Hours After Truck Hit Taxiing Southwest Plane After Midnight

airplane hit by taxi truck
May 07 2018

Southwest Airlines flight WN6263 from Fort Lauderdale to Baltimore last night was struck by a pickup truck as it taxied to the gate. No one – onboard the aircraft or in the truck – was injured.

However it was after midnight, and passengers had to wait a long period of time before they were permitted to deplane — and then they were reportedly held in the gate area once they did.

Continue Reading »

New Biggest Ever Offer for Barclays AAdvantage Business Card

aadvantage card
May 06 2018

American AAdvantage has two banks issuing credit cards to members in the U.S.: Citibank and Barclays. Citibank advertises online, through direct mail, and in American’s club lounges. Barclays advertises in the airport (but not within 100 feet of a club) and on flights.

The Barclays small business card is still new and hasn’t ever offered 50,000 miles before though I imagine after this offer ends we’ll eventually see it back.

Continue Reading »

China Dictating US Airline Website Design and Award Charts

temple
May 06 2018

In January China flexed its muscles against Marriott at a time that the US President began making rumblings of a trade war. They shut down Marriott’s booking engines in the country. Marriott Marriott fired an hourly worker who rather innocuously ‘liked’ a tweet about Tibet and even removed a banned book from one of their hotels.

At the time I wrote that China would be cracking down on airlines, too.

Continue Reading »