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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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.

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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.

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How the 6 Biggest Credit Card Issuing Banks are Carving Up the Market

costco
Sep 18 2017

The top 6 credit card issuers handle 61% of credit card purchase volume.

Chase is the market leader by a wide margin. American Express and Citibank traded places after Citibank took the Costco co-brand card from Amex, which had been American Express’ largest cobrand deal and substantially larger than Delta at number two (Starwood is number three).

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