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 »

Supreme Court Will Decide if Credit Card Rewards Matter For American Express Anti-Trust Case

by Gary Leff

Oct 16 2017

In the biggest case for loyalty programs since Northwest v. Ginsberg, the Supreme Court has agreed to hear Ohio v. American Express, reviving an anti-trust case brought by retailers and 11 states which argued that American Express violates anti-trust rules in its merchant agreements.

At issue is whether benefits to consumers — like rewards and credit card protections — count when determining whether the market is competitive (do we look at both sides of a two-sided market, or only the merchant-network relationship)?

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Womens March Co-Chair Kicked Off American Airlines Flight, Says Pilot Was Asserting White Privilege

by Gary Leff

Oct 16 2017

Womans March co-chair Tamika Mallory was kicked off an American Airlines flight from Miami to New York yesterday which was taking to attend Reverend Al Sharpton’s daughter’s wedding.

She had a middle seat on the flight but managed to change herself to an aisle seat using a kiosk. However she was called to the gate and given a new boarding pass for a middle seat. She challenged this and says the gate agent was “nasty” and “disrespectful.”

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Over 100 Cockroaches Found on 2 China Eastern Planes

by Gary Leff

Oct 15 2017

More than 100 cockroaches were onboard two international flights bound for Kunming, China. The China News Service reported on the incident on Friday while refusing to reveal where the planes were flying from, the date this occurred, or the airline.

The South China Morning Post doesn’t identify the airline either, but does share a photo from the aircraft that was reportedly taken by quarantine inspectors and concludes that it must be a Chinese airline because of Chinese characters on the headrests.

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United Cracking Down on Sale of Chase Club Passes Starting Next Month

by Gary Leff

Oct 14 2017

The change will make passes easier to use, customers won’t have to remember to bring them and won’t lose them.

It will also make them harder to sell, although no doubt some will print them and try. That’s riskier to the seller, since a pass is tied to a specific account. And that’s riskier to the buyer since there’s no way to know if a given pass being purchased was already sold and used by someone else.

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