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 »

Earn 150,000 Bonus Miles With Just Ten Trips

by Gary Leff

Sep 24 2015

Panama City-based Star Alliance airline Copa, which used United’s MileagePlus as its frequent flyer program until this summer, is getting up and running. They’ve been aggressively status matching especially United elites and folks with Latin America mailing addresses and with status in competitor programs.

They’ve handed out free miles just for joining. And they have reasonable award charts.

Now they have a big 150,000 mile offer for flying to Copa’s ‘new destinations’.

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How to Get a Suite Upgrade on Your Next Hotel Stay

by Gary Leff

If you’re like me, you need a hotel suite upgrade and don’t really care what room you get on a short business stay. My only really strong preference is not to have a connecting room, those don’t tend to isolate sound very well, and what I want most is a quiet room. Most of the time my elite status gets me into club lounges, and ‘club level’ upgrades are nearly meaningless. With most city hotels I don’t much care about the views. My work-related stays are generally short. But traveling for leisure, I’m generally not alone, the stays are often a bit longer, and I really enjoy an upgraded room. A hotel suite upgrade matters. Some people don’t share me feelings in valuing that, and that’s cool, they think “I’m on vacation and I’m not…

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British Airways Website Showing Phantom US Airways Award Space

by Gary Leff

Sep 24 2015

One of the best ways to check availability on oneworld airlines (which are partners of American Airlines) is to use the British Airways website. That’s because BA.com shows the most partners online — including Japan Airlines flights that are not available on the other good site for award searches, Qantas.

Unfortunately the British Airways site is given to ‘break’. It will either not show entire airlines (for awhile US Airways flights didn’t show there but fortunately those show at AA.com!) or will show ‘phantom’ award space, it will appear as though awards are available but in the end the space isn’t bookable and will error out at BA.com (or if you call a partner airline, you’ll be told the space isn’t available).

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Why Airports Want So Much Expensive, High Volume Retail (Families Beware!)

by Gary Leff

Sep 23 2015

Reacting to the news that the moving walkways on United’s C concourse at Chicago O’Hare are being removed after the walkways in DFW’s D terminal were taken out in order to encourage more retail shopping, David B. e-mails,

“[Moving walkways are] already gone from Terminal C in Newark, makes traveling with the three kids much worse. And as much as foodies love the new restaurant selection in Newark, it’s terrible for families, expensive, slow, and not the sorts of food kids want to eat.”

Here’s why.

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Alaska Airlines Brings Back Icelandair Partnership (One of the Best of All Time)

by Gary Leff

Sep 23 2015

Alaska Airlines and Icelandair have brough back their partnership (which ended June 2013).

It’s usually best to buy tickets to Iceland rather than using miles. (And not even just when there’s a mistake fare.) Delta’s flight is almost always too many miles. Other frequent flyer programs mean a lot of extra flying via Europe. And the flights themselves can price reasonably. This gives us interesting new options.

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