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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Star Trek Star LeVar Burton Unloads on American Airlines. But What Don’t His Twitter Fans Know?

airline seat
Jun 13 2017

American Airlines has been flying more widebody aircraft domestically. It’s not a huge change, but they’ve scheduled a Boeing 787-8 on Chicago – Los Angeles along with 7 to 8 narrowbody aircraft a day.

Sunday American substituted a Boeing 777-300ER on the route, which in my opinion is an upgrade. But it led to problems on social media.

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Buy American Miles for 1.72 Cents Each (Plus Get a Set of Steak Knives Just Pay Shipping & Handling)

Jun 12 2017

For Black Friday American offered to sell miles for as low as 1.77 cents, improving on the bonus they were already offering. Then since December is the New Black Friday they ran it again for December and through January 3.

Since American now runs AAdvantage more or less like US Airways Dividend Miles, regular price for miles exists only to show big discounts.

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Review: Al Wadi Desert Resort (Ritz-Carlton Partner Hotel Outside Dubai)

Jun 12 2017

Last year I stayed at Al Maha, which features standalone Bedouin villas with private infinity pools looking out at the desert. That was discounted from its 60,000 Starpoints per night price down to 39,000 Starwood points. Of course it’s all-inclusive, and inside its own nature preserve.

Al Wadi, though, is just 40,000 Marriott points per night. And since Starwood points transfer 1 to 3 into Marriott Rewards, that means I was able to use just 13,333 Starwood points per night for my three night stay.

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