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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HURRY: Air New Zealand Business Class Award Seats Available This Summer!!

by Gary Leff

Jun 11 2016

Historically awards between the US and New Zealand has been one of the toughest things to book. Years ago Air New Zealand used to open up business class awards 60 days prior to flight. Then they stopped. There really hasn’t been meaningful Air New Zealand business class award space in years except for a brief span back in February.

Right now though there are a handful of dates over the summer where 2 business class awards are available using Star Alliance miles (e.g. United, Aeroplan, LifeMiles) between several U.S. cities and New Zealand on Air New Zealand.

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What the New American Airlines Revenue-Based Frequent Flyer Program Really Means (and How They’re Deluding Themselves)

by Gary Leff

Jun 11 2016

American Airlines announced that August 1 is the date they’ll begin to move to a revenue-based frequent flyer program with the method for earning miles on American’s own flights changing on that day.

The airline’s President, Scott Kirby, has told investors that the revenue-based frequent flyer program will drive higher revenues. That’s unlikely to be true.

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British Airways, Cathay Pacific and oneworld Have Found a New Way to Screw Customers

by Gary Leff

Jun 11 2016

The oneworld alliance no longer requires to through-check luggage onto partner airlines when passengers are traveling on more than one reservation.

Cathay Pacific has announced that they are not only ending through-checked luggage on separate reservations, they are going a step further and will no longer provide protection during irregular operations to passengers traveling on two different reservations.

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St. Louis is a Dying City to Every Airline But Southwest

by Gary Leff

Jun 11 2016

The demise of TWA is often blamed on investor Carl Icahn who acquired the airline in 1988 through a leveraged buyout. But the reason it was an attractive buyout target even then was because its assets were of greater value than the airline.

The biggest strategic problem that TWA faced was St. Louis. While other airlines were making money in the late 90s, TWA wasn’t, and that was largely a function of their home market. St. Louis didn’t have nearly the percentage of high yield business passengers as other airline hub cities.

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American Says They Aren’t Ending Through-Checked Baggage on Separate oneworld Reservations

by Gary Leff

Jun 10 2016

On June 1 the oneworld alliance (which includes airlines like American, British Airways, Iberia, Cathay Pacific, Qantas, and more) changed its policies so that member airlines no longer had to check bags to their final destination for passengers traveling on more than one reservation on a oneworld airline.

Member airlines also wouldn’t be required to check customers in to their final destination on the second reservation, either.

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