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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Passenger Sees Their Cat Running Across Tarmac While Waiting to Take Off

man holding animal cage on tarmac
Jul 01 2018

A couple flying from Labuan to Kuala Lumpur on Malaysia Airlines were waiting to take off when they looked out the window and saw their cat Scooty running on the tarmac.

There’s video of the incident and the cat is in the top left corner. While perhaps an optical illusion the cat seems to disappear into a drain. Airline staff came out from under the plane’s wing — carrying the cat’s empty cage, door open.

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Marriott IT Failures Cost Them Money, Force Them to Blame the Customer

outside marriott hotel
Jun 30 2018

Marriott is apparently cracking down on people booking hotels that haven’t yet opened — speculatively, hoping for compensation when the opening date inevitably delays — and in particular warning people trying to do this while using credit cards “that will not authorize the forfeiture amount.”

Rather than temporarily disabling customer accounts, Marriott needs to fix its IT and better manage construction projects.

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Delta Raises Roundtrip Europe Business Awards to 164,000 Miles

black and white photo plane
Jun 29 2018

Last month I asked why people still collect SkyMiles. There has to be some limit to how much programs can devalue their currency.

Truly the only reason I care what Delta charges for awards is because other airline executives think people at Delta are smarter, and blindly copy what Delta does. And because higher Delta pricing may make those executives feel they have headroom in their own award pricing.

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