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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Chase Making Cuts to Sapphire Reserve, No More Unlimited Priority Pass Guests

hostess
May 06 2018

I don’t believe that Chase will ever make money on its Sapphire Reserve product. They’re effectively spending all of the interchange on rewards and benefits, and any margin must be coming from customers paying an APR — but with the high income, high credit, and high assets Chase reports about Sapphire Reserve cardmembers you’d expect even that to be a smaller group of customers than usual.

So it’s not surprising that we see the bank looking for cost savings.

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Phoenix Will Replace Small Priority Pass Space With New 10,000 Square Foot Lounge: Whose Will It Be?

lounge club
May 05 2018

Currently Phoenix Airport’s terminal 4 B concourse has a Priority Pass-accessible “The Club” lounge. It opened in 2014 and it quite small, 2985 square feet. It has food and drink, but the furniture is dated and there are no restrooms inside the lounge.

This space — and an additional 7000 square feet — will be turned into a new lounge. The airport’s RFP provides clues as to whose lounge it will be.

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50 Live Crocodiles Seized at London Heathrow

crocodile
May 05 2018

Last Friday 50 crocodiles were found at London’s Heathrow airport. The saltwater crocodiles were all about one year old and were supposed to be headed for a farm where they would be bred for their meat. In my experience crocodiles taste like chicken.

These crocs originated in Malaysia and were being shipped illegally — because of how they were packed.

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Nurse Boarding Houston Flight Had $41,000 Confiscated – Money Meant For a Medical Clinic

civil forfeiture
May 04 2018

The government confiscated $41,000 on the jetway from a 59 year old nurse departing Houston back in October. She was never charged with a crime.

The woman, a US citizen living in the Houston suburb of Katy, had taken her savings with her to start a medical clinic in Nigeria. She was bringing medical equipemnt and supplies on the flight along with the cash. Customs and Border Protection stopped her during boarding.

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