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 »

How to Fix an Award Ticket that Your Airline Screws Up

by Gary Leff

Jan 16 2016

Reader Susan contacted me about a problem with an award ticket she had booked. She had business class awards flying Denver – Los Angeles – Honolulu – Sydney with travel to Honolulu on American connecting to Qantas.

She tried to rebook onto Qantas San Francisco – Sydney which was showing available. The agent changed her reservation and queued the award tickets for re-issue. When the tickets didn’t get issued, she called and learned that her reservation was cancelled.

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Flight Attendants Trained to Report Asian American Women to the Police Because See Something, Say Something

by Gary Leff

Jan 15 2016

Earlier in the week I wrote that the Department of Homeland Security wants hotel desk clerks to snitch on guests as possible sex traffickers based on a set of behavior that could match that of plenty of guests.

It turns out that they want flight attendants to do this also, and so a married couple was detained at New York JFK because the crew thought they fit the ‘profile’.

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Hurry: Great Qantas Business Class Award Space San Francisco – Sydney with American Miles

by Gary Leff

Jan 14 2016

Qantas has started flying San Francisco – Sydney now that American has picked up a Los Angeles – Sydney flight as a part of the joint venture between the two airlines.

And Qantas has now released business class award space on the route for two passengers in February, March, and Apri. You won’t see the space on American’s website, however…

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How (Not) to Make Airplanes Safer

by Gary Leff

Jan 14 2016

Here’s a video on Facebook that’s gotten more than 10 million views since yesterday. (HT: Rob R.) It mocks up a concept that’s supposed to enhance aircraft safety.

There’s a breakaway cabin that can be detached from the rest of the plane when the aircraft is going down. Presumably the pilot would emergency-eject the passengers (I guess the captain goes down with the ship), who ostensibly float to safety while the rest of the aircraft goes down in a ball of mess.

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How Hyatt Status Matches Work Now

by Gary Leff

Jan 14 2016

Hyatt elite status matches and challenges were originally meant to be tools for Hyatt’s sales team to use in bringing business over. As they became public in social media Gold Passport publicly acknowledged and welcomed members into them.

A little over a year ago, Hyatt eliminated their fast track elite status methods. Then they brought them back as tools for Sales only. That’s because only a small percentage of people went on to maintain the status they were granted through these offers.

In June Hyatt began offering fast track to Diamond status again but without granting Diamond status during the challenge period.

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