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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Man Steals Pizza Hut Delivery Truck to Get to the Airport (And Gets Away With It)

Mar 23 2016

A tourist in Jackson Hole, Wyoming stole a Pizza Hut delivery truck because he needed a ride to the airport.

The crack detectives figured out the scheme, and worked with their counterparts across jurisdictions to try to find him. However police were too late to catch him at his connection in Denver. Instead the game plane was to meet his gate on arrival at his destination in Chicago. But the cops went to the wrong gate and missed him.

Neither Uber nor Lyft are available in Jackson Hole as of this writing.

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Buy Up to 144,000 Hilton Points at Just $0.0056 Apiece

Mar 22 2016

Through February 8th Hilton is offering a bonus of 80% on purchased points.

Hilton usually charges a penny apiece for points, so with this bonus is selling points for a little over half a cent each. That’s not the absolute cheapest I’ve ever seen (back in June they offered a 100% bonus). Here they’re selling points for just a little over what they’re worth.

This will certainly appeal to newly minted Hilton Diamonds who took advantage of the end of year status match opportunity…!

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CONFIRMED: Hyatt’s New Promotion Up to 75,000 Points (Very Valuable, Yuge Even)

Mar 22 2016

Earlier today One Mile at a Time detailed what was ostensibly going to be Hyatt’s new spring promotion, shared with him via a reader, although caveats “The above comes from an unofficial source, though does seem to be Hyatt’s second quarter 2016 promotion. If that’s in fact the case, I’m sure it will be announced shortly.”

I’ve confirmed the details with Hyatt, between April 1 and June 30 Gold Passport members will be able to register and stay for up to 75,000 bonus points.

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Terrible Thoughts on Today’s Brussels Airport Bombing

Mar 22 2016

There were two explosions in the Brussels airport departure hall around around 8 a.m. local time today. There was also an explosion at a subway station near EU headquarters. Flights were suspended. US flights to Brussels landed safely. Intra-european flights were diverted or returned to their origin.

As of this writing at least 13 have been reported dead at the airport and 15 at the subway station. Although some of what we will read and see on television reported today will turn out to be wrong.

One of the airport explosions is reported to have been near the American Airlines check-in counter, the other near the check-in desk for Brussels Airlines. American confirmed their “employees and contractors are accounted for with no reported injuries.”

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Just How Bad is British Airways Club World Business Class?

Mar 21 2016

British Airways business class is a controversial product. It’s fully lie flat, which is better than angled, but it’s probably the worst lie flat product out there. The airline often sells business class at a deep discount through sales, and so the product can be a good value (albeit not as much on award tickets where you’re paying fuel surcharges).

When it’s substantially cheap than the competition it’s value for money. But it’s far from top shelf. It’s also worth knowing that some seats are better – and worse – than others.

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American is Still Working Through Whether to Abolish Reservation Holds in Favor of 24 Hour Free Cancel

Mar 21 2016

Yesterday I wrote that American planned to eliminate 24 hour reservation holds in favor of 24 hour free cancellation.

I reached out to American for comment, and for clarification of how such a policy would work for bookings made within 7 days of travel (US airlines aren’t required to offer refunds within 7 days, but other airlines do it) and whether it would be a true 24 hour refund (as required) or ‘until midnight the following day’ (as is more generous but also more standard).

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