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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12,000 Bonus Miles for Online Shopping

Oct 30 2017

If you’re going to spend money shopping, shop online if you can and start off clicking on merchants through a rewards shopping portal to earn cash back or miles.

One nice thing around holidays and major shopping events is mileage bonuses on top of usual earning. Back to school is a big bonus time. Another is holiday shopping. And the holiday shopping bonuses have begun.

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More Hypocrisy By US Airlines on Subsidies: Where’s the Outrage Over the Latest Bailout?

south african airways
Oct 30 2017

Here’s another piece of evidence that the US airlines don’t have an issue with subsidies — it isn’t an issue of principle, it’s about looking for a lever to get the government to benefit their business. United partner South African Airways just got a new government infusion of cash. Yet there’s no call to abrogate our aviation treaty with South Africa.

There’s not even a press release from the Partnership for Fair and Open Skies (which in Orwellian fashion opposes Open Skies).

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Loophole Closed: No Longer Earn Full Mileage Flown Crediting American Flights to Etihad

airline cabin
Oct 29 2017

After American Airlines moved to revenue-based mileage-earning for flights you had 3 choices where the cheapest American Airlines tickets still earned 100% of flown miles. Last spring we lost Cathay Pacific. Now we’ve lost Etihad.

But the other side of the Etihad trick is still valid, and there’s one frequent flyer program that does still award full mileage for discount American Airlines tickets.

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More Revenue-Based Changes Coming to AAdvantage in 2018 and 2019

Oct 29 2017

On this past week’s earnings call, American Airlines Senior Vice President of Revenue Management called out changes being planned for the AAdvantage program in 2018 and 2019.

He said, “we have a host of initiatives coming in the AAdvantage program later in 2018 and 2019, which are going to attract more high-yield customers which is going to increase yields.”

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