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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The Book Your Award By Email Trick for Space You Can’t See Online

Sep 09 2016

In some ways Star Alliance frequent flyer program Avianca LifeMiles has one of the best offerings in the world.

There are a couple of major drawbacks: not all connections are bookable the website won’t show every possible itinerary and if you call agents are only going to see what you see online, and telephone customer service is challenging and not great English usually either. It turns out there’s a trick.

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Delta Opens the Award Availability Floodgates to London from Nearly All US Gateways

Sep 08 2016

Delta SkyMiles is offering fantastic premium cabin award availability between the US and London. They’re doing it for at least 4 passengers on a broad selection of flights, and that’s true not just for one or two US cities but across their entire network — making it as easy as it’s ever been to get saver awards between the US and Europe out of SkyMiles.

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One Way Non-Elite Upgrades Now Take Priority Over Complimentary Elite Upgrades at American

Sep 08 2016

About six weeks ago I covered American’s new domestic first class upsell program where they e-mail non-elite flyers with offers to sell first class seats if still available the day before departure.

These upgrades are after elite upgrades the day before departure, so they don’t trade off with elite upgrades that are confirmed at least a day in advance however they certainly can trade off with available inventory for elite upgrades closer-in. We now know that in the event of a flight cancellation they have a higher priority than elite upgrades.

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