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 »

Is Priority Pass Destroying the Benefit of Airport Lounge Access?

by Gary Leff

airport shop
May 01 2018

There’s an axiom on the internet that the answer to any question in an article title is always “no.”
And that’s just the case here. The Wall Street Journal thinks otherwise but fails to make the case, though there’s certainly more crowding in some lounges that’s difficult to manage.

The case the Journal makes is that the rise of Priority Pass cards distributed with credit cards, especially Chase, have led to a decline in quality of airport lounges. That’s false. The other major claim is they’ve made lounges more crowded, and that’s true with some lounges.

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Marriott’s Timeshare Business Buys Hyatt Timeshares and the Starwood Timeshares Marriott Didn’t Want

by Gary Leff

aerial beach ocean shot
Apr 30 2018

Shortly before Starwood announced a deal to be acquired by Marriott it agreed to spin off its timeshare business into a separate company, Vistana, which it sold to Interactive Leisure Group or ILG. ILG now holds the vacation ownership businesses of Hyatt, Sheraton and Westin.

Marriott Vacations is now buying Interactive Leisure Group for $4.7 billion. So an affiliate of Marriott will wind up owning the Starwood timeshare business Marriott itself was believed not to want two and a half years ago as well as Hyatt’s timeshare business.

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American Airlines Flight Attendants Rent Out Their Seniority for $200

by Gary Leff

old picture of american flight attendant
Apr 30 2018

Unionized flight attendants — and flight attendants at airlines whose procedures mirror union work rules — get to work the most desirable trips based on seniority. Senior flight attendants at large international airlines can jet away to Sydney, to Buenos Aires, to Paris while more junior flight attendants overnight in Des Moines.

American Airlines flight attendants have created a secondary market renting out their seniority. They sell prime trip assignments to junior flight attendants, reportedly on average for $200 per trip.

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Here are Details of the Design and Timing of the United Polaris Lounges Still to Open

by Gary Leff

hotel lobby
Apr 30 2018

Newark is going to open in a few weeks’ time and Houston will open over the summer. The Los Angeles Polaris lounge is supposed to open later this year. So if they stick to that schedule United should have 5 Polaris lounges open by the end of 2018.

However we’re not going to see any more in 2019. The next batch won’t open until 2020, which considering these were announced nearly two years ago seems insane.

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This May Be the Single Greatest Use of Rewards Points, Ever

by Gary Leff

woman in packers election area
Apr 29 2018

Whether it’s Dan Eleff spending a million Starpoints to throw out the first pitch in game 7 of the World Series where his hometown Indians are playing or Pizza in Motion using points so his wife could have tennis lessons from Andre Agassi there are things you can do – worthwhile things – with points that may be better for you than just travel.

And Ed Pizzarello shares a video of Cliff Yow announcing an NFL draft pick.

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Wide Open Singapore Airlines Business Class Award Space Nearly Every Day

by Gary Leff

first class airline seat
Apr 29 2018

Singapore Airlines offers very good award availability to its own members, but not very good availability to partners. I’ve written about excellent first class award space Los Angeles – Tokyo and great business class space Houston – Manchester.

If you want to fly long haul premium cabin awards with Singapore, you need to use Singapore’s own miles. Chase, American Express, and Citi points all transfer to Singapore Airlines Krisflyer.

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Cathay Pacific Business Class Award Space Wide Open to and from Asia

by Gary Leff

airline cabin first class
Apr 29 2018

One of the big mistakes people make booking awards is to assume that when you want to travel you go to your frequent flyer program’s website and enter where you’re flying from, where you’re going to, and you’ll be presented with your options.

If you go to the American Airlines website and say you want to go to Bangkok there will be no availability, ever. And that’s not because there’s no availability, although that’s what most people assume it means.

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