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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Qatar’s New Atlanta Flight is Doing Swell — But it’s Great for Award Availability

by Gary Leff

Aug 03 2016

The CEO of Qatar Airways said he was launching service from Doha to Atlanta ‘to rub salt in the wounds’ of Delta which sought to shut Qatar, along with Gulf carriers Emirates and Etihad (but not Delta partner Saudia, or Delta partner Alitalia which is controlled by Etihad) out of the US market and raise prices on consumers.

Delta President Glen Hauenstein argues the flight will inevitably fail because “the Atlanta-Doha market has fewer than five people a day.” Yet it’s running with an almost 85% load factor. The flight from Atlanta isn’t as full as the one to Atlanta and offers amazing business class award availability.

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United Announces New Award Change Fees, Limits on Free Stopovers

by Gary Leff

Aug 03 2016

United just announced changes that will go into effect on October 6.

They are introducing a new, better online award booking engine; imposing new restrictions on free stopovers on roundtrip awards; eliminating round the world awards; and revamping award change fees (to be mostly higher and more restrictive). But the changes actually could have been a lot worse.

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American Runs Fake Mileage Sales, 2 Cents Apiece is the New Regular Price

by Gary Leff

Aug 02 2016

A month ago American was offering to sell miles at the lowest price I’ve ever seen from the AAdvantage program. At 1.72 cents apiece it was even less than US Airways Dividend Miles had been selling for during their promotions for the past couple of years of that program.

Clearly with US Airways management in charge of the merged airline, their view of monetizing miles has taken hold — and there are mileage sales at least as often as there aren’t sales now. (And non-sale periods must only be to retain the illusion that there’s a higher price and make it seem like lower prices are limited-time offers.)

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