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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When Your Hotel Room is Disappointing That’s a Great Opportunity for an Upgrade

Mar 16 2017

I checked into the Park Hyatt Sydney where I’ve had mixed luck at best with upgrades.

I arrived early on my first stay there and was told that my pre-assigned room wasn’t ready — but that if I wanted to pay an extra AUD$100 per day I could have an Opera View room. This wasn’t even a larger room, just an upgraded view, and if it was available I should have been offered it as a complimentary upgrade as a Hyatt Diamond.

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Do You Know All the Hidden Benefits Your Credit Card Gives You?

Mar 16 2017

Premium credit cards offer a dizzying array of benefits you probably didn’t even realize you had — or if you knew at one point, you probably forget when there’s an opportunity to use them.

Break a new electronic device, smash your rental car, run into a merchant who won’t take a return… or the price of something you recently bought drops after you already bought and started using it… there’s something that your credit card company can often do and you get started with a simple phone call.

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American Airlines CEO Gave a Talk to Investors Yesterday That Was… Strange

cockpit with pilot
Mar 16 2017

Yesterday American Airlines Chairman and CEO Doug Parker spoke at the J.P. Morgan Aviation, Transportation and Industrials Conference and it was… strange.

The crux of his talk was that American is worthwhile as a long-term investment, returning to his ongoing theme that investors should take a ‘leap of faith’ which of course isn’t what investors think they should generally be doing.

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Surprising Absolutely No Readers of This Blog, 2 US Airlines Pull Out of Cuba

beach
Mar 15 2017

The US gets to offer 20 daily flights to Havana, and 10 daily flights to each of Cuba’s 9 other international airports. There weren’t very many requests to fly to other cities, so all of those were granted as-requested back in June.

Some airlines saw Cuba as a new Gold Rush. Southwest’s Chief Commercial Officer said “I wouldn’t call this a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, but it’s pretty close.”

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