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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From Fresh-Baked Cookies To Cheap Pretzels: How American Airlines’ Cost-Cutting Backfired, Killing Its Premium Edge

Jan 10 2025

The biggest problem with American Airlines management is that they focus on costs instead of revenue. They think on-time performance is all they need to accomplish in order to succeed, and that might be true with commodity products but we’re less and less in a commodity product airline world. Products are differentiated, customers now choose on more than schedule, price and reliability, and American Airlines as a high cost airline needs to earn a revenue premium in order to be profitable.

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After Two Bottles Of Liquor, American Airlines Passenger Assaults Flight Attendant: “Kind Gesture To Say, Thanks, Man”

Jan 10 2025

A retired firefighter traveling on American Airlines flight 167 from New York to Tokyo Haneda forced a diversion to Alaska on January 5 after the business class passenger struggled with a lavatory door, began banging it from inside, and got confused about how the handle worked.

When the man finally made it out, he’s alleged to have grabbed a flight attendant by the lapels, which the crewmember considered aggressive and he called a “kind gesture.”

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