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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Why I Don’t Want to Fly American Airlines to LaGuardia

outside airport
Feb 11 2018

The problem that American faces at LaGuardia — and this hampers all of their shuttle flights, not just Chicago — is that their operations are now consolidated out of the Central Terminal (also known as ‘Terminal B’). And while construction at the airport has been a disaster all around, nowhere more so than for passengers at the Central Terminal. Put another way you really don’t want to land at LaGuardia’s Central Terminal.

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Flights Cancelling Over Airbus A320neo Engine Problems

lufthansa plane
Feb 10 2018

The Airbus A320neo or ‘new engine option’ was first delivered to Lufthansa in 2016. Over 6000 of the family have been ordered. The plane comes with either a CFM or Pratt & Whitney engine..

And the Pratt & Whitney version has problems. European air safety officials have issued emergency restrictions grounding affected aircraft after “several occurrences of engine in-flight shutdown.”

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Horrible: Woman Videotaped Abandoning Her Baby at Tucson Airport

woman walking through airport
Feb 10 2018

With hundreds of millions of passengers passing through US airports each year every issue and problem imaginable arises. People bring their baggage both literally and figuratively. All of life’s challenges that happen outside the airport happen inside it too.

Video footage from the Tucson airport last month shows a woman carrying her baby that was then abandoned at the airport.

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57,000 Miles Business Class Roundtrip to Europe – 40% Off Virgin Atlantic Miami Awards, Any Class of Service

miami to london promo
Feb 10 2018

Virgin Atlantic is a transfer partner of Chase, American Express, and Citibank. So Virgin Atlantic miles are really easy to get. In general I don’t value their miles as much as many other currencies but there are strategic uses like 120,000 miles roundtrip for first class from the East Coast on their partner ANA.

Another strategic use is when they discount their own flights. Virgin adds fuel surcharges to awards, but when the mileage cost is low enough even that makes sense.

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American’s Front Line Employees Think Getting Rid of Seat Back Entertainment is a Very Bad Idea

back of airlplane seat
Feb 09 2018

Yesterday I wrote about American’s “Tell Me Why” podcast with Senior Vice President Kurt Stache. He laid out the airline’s plans for satellite internet and explained why the airline is getting rid of seat back video screens.

American employees comment internally on these discussions. It always amazes me how frank they are. Union protections and management promises notwithstanding I don’t think I’d be so forceful in my criticisms of management as American’s employees often are in these forums.

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