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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United Gate Agent Gives Passengers a Great Pregame Speech

passengers boarding plane
Mar 13 2018

Yesterday morning a United gate agent in Atlanta ‘sounds like a coach’ giving a pregame speech commends his team passengers for making it to the plane on time. “You’re here, you’re on time. I’m commending you for it. I’m high-fiving you for it,” he says.

But he warns everyone, they may be tempted to go get breakfast at the nearby bagel place. “Goldberg’s have lethargic lines,” he says. “They don’t move as quick as they should this time of the morning.”

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34 Passengers Board the Wrong Plane, Fly to Wrong City — on a 50 Seat Regional Jet

air route map
Mar 13 2018

Passengers aren’t supposed to be able to board the wrong plane. Boarding passes are scanned at the gate. There’s a manifest — airlines know how many people are supposed to be onboard. When passengers are in the wrong seat, there’s usually another passenger assigned that will say something. But it happens. Occasionally one person, or a couple traveling together, wind up in the same city.

Perhaps for the first time ever a majority of people on the plane were flown to the wrong city.

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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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