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 »

More articles by Gary Leff »

American Has Started Offering Free and Paid Upgrades to Premium Economy at Check-in

airline seat
Sep 20 2017

American offers premium economy on Boeing 787-9s and is rapidly retrofitting its Boeing 777-200 fleet to add premium economy seating.

Today American has rolled out a formal day of departure upgrade program for going from coach to premium economy seats. They’re using the ‘Load Factor Based Upgrade’ (sometimes referred to as LFBU) system to offer upgrades at check-in if seats are available.

Continue Reading »

Why Do American Airlines Frequent Flyers Complain the Most?

Sep 19 2017

It’s hard to remember the last broadly positive thing any major US airline has done for frequent flyers.

Why do you think American AAdvantage members are the loudest about recent frequent flyer program changes? There’s not a ton of difference between the programs anymore. Delta is less trustworthy. American has worse award space. United doesn’t offer top tier elites international upgrades on any fare. So there are differences, but not nearly as much as there used to be.

Continue Reading »

You Won’t Have to Go to Jail for Using Your Smartphone in Airplane Mode on Chinese Airlines

Sep 19 2017

Chinese civil aviation regulations forbid the use of mobile phones inflight – even in airplane mode – but they do not forbid the use of tablets.

I know this but out of habit had my phone out and was scolded for it by a flight attendant on China Eastern last year. I was perplexed for a moment, trying to explain that the phone was in airplane mode.

Continue Reading »