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’s President Just Gave an Economics Lecture to Investors About the Airline’s Future

by Gary Leff

Jan 23 2018

As a general matter I think any airline whose operations are being run by Scott Kirby is going to get worse not better for customers in terms of passenger experience. At the same time there’s no one in the industry I’d rather listen to because he’s earnest and thoughtful and lays out more clearly than anyone else his belief about how his business, and the broader industry, works.

He walked through airline economics, United’s positioning, and marginal analysis with a primary goal of convincing investors it is okay for United to grow.

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Changes Coming to United Basic Economy Like Paid Seat Assignments and Buy Ups

by Gary Leff

airport boarding
Jan 23 2018

The point of ‘Basic Economy’ fares — which don’t let you assign seats in advance, upgrade, or make changes for a fee, and at United and American don’t allow you to bring a full-sized carry on onto the plane — is to make the travel experience so unpleasant you don’t want the fare, and will spend more to avoid the restrictions.

The risk is that customers don’t spend more with the airline offering the inferior Basic Economy product, but instead book a different airline instead (or even just decide not to travel). That’s what happened when United launched their basic economy product. They lost business. And they lost about a hundred million dollars.

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Internal Document Shows When American Airlines Will Have Fast Wifi

by Gary Leff

american airline plane
Jan 23 2018

In the middle of last year American started flying its first plane with high speed satellite internet. I lucked into flying the aircraft at the beginning of November, and internet worked though I was surprised it wasn’t faster. I know what Gogo’s 2ku service can do unthrottled and I wasn’t getting anything like those speeds.

I flew American’s inaugural 737 MAX flight at the end of November and the ViaSat satellite internet didn’t work well.

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BOOK NOW: American Airlines Transatlantic Business Class Award Space

by Gary Leff

airplane first class
Jan 23 2018

American Airlines has been uniquely stingy making award space available on its own flights. I value American miles, but really just because I can book awards on partners like Cathay Pacific and Etihad.

Over the past few years there have been availability ‘dumps’. There will be a day or two or sometimes just a few hours where tons of international business class award space opens up on American flights. We haven’t seen that in many months, but are seeing it again right now.

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Court Takes Airline NIKI Away from British Airways, Gives it to Race Driver Niki Lauda

by Gary Leff

Jan 23 2018

NIKI was driven into insolvency with the collapse of air berlin and withdrawl of support from Etihad. It was expected that the Austrian carrier would go to Lufthansa (specifically their low cost subsidiary Eurowings), but European competition regulators shut down that possibility.

Ultimately British Airways parent IAG was left as the lone remaining company seeking to negotiate a purchase of assets.

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Do Hotels Make You Prove You’re Eligible for AAA or Corporate Discounts?

by Gary Leff

AAA renewal
Jan 22 2018

Five years ago a couple of commenters noted being asked to show their AAA card at hotel check-in when staying on a AAA rate. I have never seen this happen myself.

Later that year when AAA sent me a renewal notice with the card I asked readers whether I should just pocket that to show ‘just in case’ or actually pay for the membership, universally the sentiment was ‘you use the discount you pay for the membership.’

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For Domestic First Class Meals Quality is Better Than Quantity

by Gary Leff

Jan 22 2018

Years ago there was a story about former American Airlines CEO Bob Crandall having olives removed from first class salads, saving $40,000 a year. Small savings add up across all an airline’s flights and passengers. So carriers are often very careful about their pennies in catering.

In the spring of 2001 United replaced steak at lunch with gourmet cheeseburgers. Today’s inflight burgers on domestic airlines are much smaller and I find with lower quality meal. They keep figuring out ways to push the savings envelope farther.

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