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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Leverage Little Known Hotel Rules: Combine Points From Friends & Family in Your Account

hotel lobby
Feb 27 2018

Starwood lets you transfer points free to someone else’s account but your account and theirs must be registered with the same home mailing address. It’s actually even easier with Hilton and Hyatt.

That means you can get friends and family to sign up for cards and give the points to you. In fact they can sign up for cards you may not be able to get yourself.

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American and Qantas Submitted Request to DOT Today to Collude on Schedules, Pricing

sydney opera house at sunset
Feb 26 2018

Two years ago American Airlines and Qantas announced an expanded joint venture. American was launching Sydney and Auckland service, Qantas Sydney – San Francisco. And they indicated there would be more new routes in the offing as a result of the partnership.

The Obama administration’s Department of Transportation indicated they were going to reject anti-trust immunity for the revenue-sharing partnership. They said they didn’t believe there would be greater growth in service compared to what they expected to happen anyway which was a novel approach. Qantas and American withdrew their application rather than having it rejected.

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Olympic Gold Medal Curler Got Upgraded on Delta After All – Watch the Champagne Toast

people toasting on plane
Feb 26 2018

Delta’s fairly stock social media reply to the gold medallist US olympic curlers has gotten a lot of play. The athletes tweeted hoping for an upgrade coming home from Seoul, and were roundly told no.

Except it turns out – despite all the media surrounding Delta’s initial response – that there was a celebration at the gate, a champagne toast onboard, and one of the medalists did wind up sitting up front.

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