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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Someone Left Their Emotional Support Goldfish Behind at TSA

cartoon goldfish in bowl
Mar 12 2018

Unlike Spirit Airlines the TSA apparently doesn’t require flushing emotional support animals down the toilet. Leaving behind the goldfish may have been done in hopes of finding them a new home if the passenger was flying United or Delta amidst their crackdown.

Want I want to know though is how this passenger managed to get the goldfish through the checkpoint in the first place in more than 3 ounces of water that would have been necessary to keep them alive.

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Air France Eliminates Award Charts, Introduces New Award Pricing Effective June 1

air france plane
Mar 12 2018

At the end of 2015 Air France KLM’s Flying Blue program said they were working on changes that would make them more like Delta SkyMiles in order to preserve “the program’s economic balance.” That’s never what customers want to hear.

Flying Blue matters to you because they’re a transfer partner of Chase, American Express, and Citibank. And because Air France availability is much better using Flying Blue miles than with points from partners.

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Why United’s New $9 Early Boarding Fee is Really a Carry On Bag Fee

people boarding airplane
Mar 11 2018

American Airlines began the race to charge checked bag fees. First it was a second checked bag fee, then fee for the first. It became industry standard with Southwest remaining as the outlier.

With passengers charged for overhead bin space they began carrying more onto the plane. With planes largely full for the past several years there hasn’t been enough bin space to accommodate everyone, leaving the last passengers to board having to gate check their bags usually meaning that they must collect those bags at baggage claim.

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