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 »

NEW: Earn and Spend United Miles for Gas

by Gary Leff

aston martin
Mar 07 2018

Back in the day frequent flyers and road warriors used to drive past half a dozen gas stations and ten extra miles to the Shell that accepted Diners Club even though the “low fuel” light had been on all day. We do crazy things for points.

A signup bonus and up to 3 miles per dollar is great. And both earning and burning points are a decent way to keep miles from expiring, buy gas at BP once every 18 months. At the margin it makes BP competitive with Shell (although neither gas is usually cheapest).

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Soft Landing From Starwood Platinum to… Starwood Platinum

by Gary Leff

outside hotel
Mar 06 2018

In 2016 I spent almost half the year in hotels. I earned Hyatt’s top tier status and I earned 100 night Starwood Platinum status.

said at the time that I wouldn’t hit 100 nights with Starwood again. I just wasn’t going to travel as much, and I still wanted to earn top tier with Hyatt too. I also knew that I could keep Starwood Platinum by signing up for the Ritz-Carlton credit card and spending $75,000 on it.

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Mideast Watershed: Mumbai – Israel Flights Can Use Saudi Airspace

by Gary Leff

map of saudi arabia
Mar 06 2018

A month ago I wrote that Saudi Arabia would allow Air India to fly through its airspace to operate Mumbai – Tel Aviv. There was much handwringing at the time and even a denial from the General Authority of Civil Aviation in Riyadh.

However there’s clearly crack ups in the old order within the Mideast. And now the move has been confirmed by Israel’s Prime Minister.

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Passenger Strips Naked and Watches Porn. That’s Not Even the Worst Part.

by Gary Leff

man masturbating on plane
Mar 06 2018

Malaysian Airline Malindo Air requires women to remove their tops for flight attendant interviews. However they aren’t required to do that for passengers, and passengers are supposed to stay clothed while inflight.

That message wasn’t clear to one passenger onboard flight OD162 from Kuala Lumpur to Dhaka, however. He stripped naked and started watching porn inflight. Then the moment reportedly overtook him. And the flight hadn’t even taken off yet.

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Auschwitz Survivor Can Forgive Nazis, Can’t Accept TSA Body Searches

by Gary Leff

portrait of old woman
Mar 05 2018

Eva Mozes Kor is a holocaust survivor. She and her twin sister were experimented upon by Josef Mengele at Auschwitz. She lived long enough to have a son who battled cancer, and to donate a kidney to her sister later on.

I’ve got a hint for the TSA: Romanian Jewish holocaust survivors probably haven’t been radicalized by ISIS, and have probably been humiliated enough.

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British Airways Unveils New Tighter Coach Seats Without Power Outlets

by Gary Leff

airline cabin
Mar 05 2018

A little over a year ago British Airways laid out their plans to offer a product that’s a close as possible to economy on Norwegian’s Boeing 787s. Their London Gatwick-based 777s would get 10-across seating in coach and in total add 52 seats.

The plan is to offer a product that won’t be better than a low cost carrier, so they don’t appear to be going for a revenue premium. They want to push cost per seat as low as possible and just compete on price.

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