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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Delta Won’t Give Discounts to the NRA, Here are Groups Still Receiving Discounts

delta badge
Mar 01 2018

Delta and United rescinded their group discount offer for NRA members over the weekend. United is based in Chicago and we expect gun violence there I guess. But Delta has taken a lot of heat for their position and tried to walk it back claiming they weren’t really taking a position.

There’s a lot of misinformation out there in the ongoing story of Georgia politicians blasting Delta for their move.

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American Eliminating Seat Back Video, But Doesn’t Tell Customers How to Stream

airline cabin
Mar 01 2018

At an American Airlines Crew News Q&A session between employees and management one flight attendant raised the problem that customers don’t know how to access the inflight video American is providing, “Our customers are having a problem finding the landing page for our inflight internet… they’re having a hard time finding the videos. I probably get 5, 6 people asking on a flight.”

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Watch: Passengers Tackle Man Who Attacked Baby, Sexually Assaulted Mother

man in jail cell
Mar 01 2018

A man onboard oneworld carrier S7 — Siberian Airlines’ Airbus A320 flight S7-3338 from St Petersburg to Novosibirsk was detained by armed police on landing. He reported sexually assaulted a woman, tried to strangle other women, and even attacked a baby after shouting about ‘Olympic Gold medals’.

We don’t usually get to see what happens next, after the passenger is taken off the aircraft. But there’s actually video of the man in his holding cell. Quite a piece of work.

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You Can Now Earn and Burn Hyatt Points on Home Sharing Stays

hotel lobby
Mar 01 2018

Back in September I wrote that as a result of Hyatt’s minority investment in Oasis, the home sharing site would join Hyatt’s loyalty progam. That’s now happened. And you can triple-stack promotions with it.

So while Airbnb talks notionally about what a loyalty program might look like (for both home owners and for guests), Oasis already has one for guests. Hyatt’s. Because effective today Oasis is now part of Hyatt’s ‘Unbound Collection’ brand. And much of the rest just follows logically.

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What American Airlines is Telling Employees About Their Dispute With Chicago O’Hare

airport
Feb 28 2018

American Airlines is pissed that Chicago O’Hare expansion plans preserve United’s 14 gate advantage rather than the 9 gate advantage they say they expected after shelling out for 5 new gates themselves. At issue is O’Hare’s $8.5 billion expansion plan, and what they dub a ‘secret provision’ added in ‘at the last minute’ that gives United more gates than they thought the plan entailed. American Airlines at Chicago O’Hare Both United and American have resisted adding gates at Chicago O’Hare for years, since they have most of the gates themselves and don’t want competition. They are happy to see gates added as long as they are the ones who get the gates, and if they’re both getting gates they want to ensure neither gets an advantage over the other. United Airlines at O’Hare Things are…

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