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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What Are the Best Cities to Work from Home?

Jul 29 2016

Here’s some interesting data on cost of living and quality of life by a variety of measures for cities around the world.

You can search just on cost of living, best cities if you’re a single guy (or girl), cheapest, safest (for women), and where you can make the most on Airbnb.

I like their list of best cities to work from home which they call their digital nomad list based on “internet speed, cost of living, weather and fun.” The neat thing is you can filter by your own criteria like beach or snow, cold or hot, and how friendly a city is to same sex couples.

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The Most Luxurious Uses of Miles and Points, and Two New Airlines Under My Belt

Jul 28 2016

Following on my last report, flying all 3 big gulf carriers in first class on their Airbus A380s in a single trip where I visited Bangkok and finally got to see the Museum of Islamic Art in Doha, I redeemed miles for another fairly over-the-top adventure.

This trip involved using American Airlines miles for Etihad’s First Apartment roundtrip, Hyatt Gold Passport points for 5 nights at the Park Hyatt Hadahaa Maldives, and 117,000 Starwood points for 3 nights at Al Maha Desert Resort & Spa. I also had the chance to fly business class on China Eastern and flydubai.

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Is United Going to Kill its Washington Dulles Hub?

Jul 28 2016

United has operated a hub at Washington Dulles for 30 years. It began as a primarily domestic operation. They wouldn’t introduce their first international flight from DC for four years. However the airport grew into United’s primary transatlantic gateway.

It was also United’s primary connecting city up and down the East Coast and for Northeast and Mid-Atlantic traffic which didn’t make sense to route through Chicago.

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American Now Offering Advance Paid Domestic Upgrades to Non-Elites

Jul 28 2016

American has sold upgrades at check-in to non-elites when they expected all elites requesting upgrades to receive them and they’d still have first class seats left. This has been known as “Load Factor Based Upgrades” (LFBUs).

As part of American’s plan to extract incremental revenue from existing passengers, they’re changing their approach somewhat to selling first class upgrades to non-elite frequent flyers.

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