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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FARE DEAL: United Business Class to Asia From $1700 Roundtrip!!

Mar 10 2017

Last month I wrote that it’s the golden age of air travel with cheap fares all over the world. Most of those fares have been in economy, with sub-$400 roundtrips to Europe and Asia with amazing flash sales. I certainly prefer travel in business class, and readers have been asking for those deals, in the past month I’ve highlighted West Coast to several European cities from $2000 roundtrip, business class to several Asian destinations for $1954, West Coast to Africa from $2146 roundtrip, and Singapore Airlines Business Class to Europe or Asia for Less Than $2000 roundtrip. This last was the best deal of all. Airlines are more aggressively discounting business class than before, not just economy, even if most of the eye-popping sales are in coach (and even if $2000 is of course still…

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The Simple Reason for an About Face: Why Delta and Korean Are About to Form a Joint Venture

Mar 09 2017

In 2013 Delta eliminated SkyMiles elite qualifying miles earning when traveling on their SkyTeam partner Korean Air.

Scuttlebutt at the time was that this was Delta playing hardball with Korean — the Seoul-based carrier wouldn’t do a joint venture with Delta, at least on Delta’s terms, so they weren’t going to incentivize their customers to fly Korean Air.

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American Express Starts Limiting Access to Centurion Lounges

hotel lobby
Mar 09 2017

American Express Centurion Lounges are great. They’re stylish, offer complimentary real hot and cold food items and a complimentary tended bar. The Dallas Fort-Worth and Miami lounges have complimentary spas. There are kids rooms, showers in most. And customer service is great.

The challenge is that, to borrow from Yogi Berra, they’re so good I don’t go there anymore.

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Hawaii Flight Diverts Over a $12 Blanket

Mar 08 2017

This morning’s Hawaiian Airlines flight 7 from Las Vegas to Honolulu made it out over the Pacific Ocean, dumped fuel, and diverted to LAX because a passenger objected to being asked to pay $12 for a blanket.

He asked a flight attendant for the phone number to call the airline to complain.

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