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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Up to 30,000 Miles Per Night for Hotel Booking Made By November 5

Oct 17 2017

Rocketmiles is offering double Qatar Airways Privilege Club Qmiles on all hotel bookings — and not just for new customers, either.

The promotion for one booking made by November 5. The original terms and conditions said “limited to first time customers” but I pointed this out and Rocketmiles updated the terms to remove this restriction.

What’s really great here is that despite language suggesting the maximum earn is 20,000 miles per night, you can actually earn 30,000 miles per night.

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Pilot of the Final Air Berlin Transatlantic Flight is in Hot Water for His Landing Maneuver

Oct 17 2017

oneworld member air berlin filed for bankruptcy in August after Etihad withdrew its support. The German government extended a loan guarantee (subsidy) to keep the airline flying while a sale of assets was arranged. Key pieces go to Lufthansa, leading to consolidation in the German market.

The airline itself is ceasing all operations October 28th. However the final transatlantic flight landed in Dusseldorf yesterday.

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Kiwis are Birds That Can’t Fly, But This One Discovers It Can Fly… Air New Zealand

Oct 17 2017

New Zealand’s national bird is the kiwi, and it’s Air New Zealand’s symbol as well. After all, New Zealanders are often referred to as Kiwis.

The irony for the airline of course is that kiwis can’t fly. But Air New Zealand has turned that on its head, creating a video showing that in order to fly a kiwi can fly on Air New Zealand.

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United Could Have Problems Squeezing More Money Out of a New Deal With Chase

Oct 16 2017

United and Chase renewed their credit card agreement two years ago and there’s already talk of the next extension, which suggests that they made a 5 year deal which historically was standard although we’re seeing more 7 and even 10 year deals in the co-brand space.

The financial analyst most bullish on credit card revenue for airlines now believes that United’s bargaining position may have slipped as a result of Chase’s success with its own products and American Express’ investments in its Platinum card in the broader competitive space.

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Delta: Subsidies for Me But Not For Thee

delta plane
Oct 16 2017

The Partnership for Fair and Open Skies is putting out a statement against Emirates, Etihad, and Qatar in response to Emirates pointing out just how many Boeing aircraft they buy — a direct contrast with Delta.

However Delta at the very same time is directly at odds with Boeing over subsidies, with Boeing arguing that Canada shouldn’t be able to subsidize aircraft manufacturer Bombardier, and Delta arguing that they should be able to benefit from these subsidies.

These two things are not at all inconsistent.

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