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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The 59 U.S. Airport Lounges Your Priority Pass Gets You Into

by Gary Leff

hotel room
Jan 05 2018

Priority Pass is a card that gets you into lounges around the world. You don’t have to belong to an individual lounge program, this program works to have lounges in most of the places you go.

There are over 1000 airport lounges that a Priority Pass will gain you access to, most of those are spread throughout airports around the world. A year ago there were 41 lounges in the U.S.. Priority Pass aggressively builds out its network and now they’re up to 59 as of this writing.

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Gate Gourmet Will Again Cater American Airlines at LAX Despite Listeria Scare

by Gary Leff

plane docked
Jan 05 2018

siTwo months ago American Airlines stopped using Gate Gourmet for catering at LAX when listeria was found at their facility.

Now American Airlines is bringing Gate Gourmet back for most domestic flights. My sense is that going cold turkey (sandwiches, hah) on Gate Gourmet was probably an overreaction in the first place. There weren’t any reports of sickness.

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New Era: American Gives Out $250,000 Denied Boarding Compensation on a Single Flight?

by Gary Leff

Jan 04 2018

In the aftermath of the David Dao dragging incident in April, several airlines revamped their policies around paying denied boarding compensation. In September Delta paid out $4000 in travel credit to a woman flying to South Bend, Indiana for a Georgia Bulldogs – Notre Dame game. She still made it in the night before the game.

On December 19th American Airlines flight AA150 from Chicago O’Hare to Paris went mechanical just prior to boarding. Instead of cancelling or delaying the flight to the next day, they swapped out the planned Boeing 787-9 with 285 seats for a Boeing 787-8 which has just 226 seats.

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Meltdown: Passenger Punches Ceiling, Takes Off Shirt

by Gary Leff

Jan 04 2018

A drunk man went on a tirade on a jetBlue flight departing Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic.

Before things really heat up you see passengers walking in the aisle, dealing with luggage in the overhead bin, and hear the flight attendant call button pressed repeatedly. A flight attendant announces that “if you continue to press the call button, you’re gonna be staying here in Santo Domingo. If yo continue to press it playing games you will be staying here in Santo Domingo.”

That’s when the passenger loses it.

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Delta Sued for Anti-Semitic Discrimination

by Gary Leff

delta plane
Jan 03 2018

Delta Airlines is being sued for discrimination against Jewish employees and nonrev passengers flying to Israel.

Flight attendants claim to have been fired, denied advancement, or suspended because of their Jewish faith or over friendships with Jews. Delta vigorously denies the claim. It’s not the first time Delta has been accused of anti-semitism.

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