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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Will This Be One of the Biggest Stories of the Year: The End of Europe’s Passport-Free Travel?

Jan 04 2016

The free movement of people and goods is a fundamental idea of the European Union, and one that’s driven tremendous economic benefit to the region (not to mention the individual benefit from unburdening travel). It’s embodied in the Schengen Agreement and in other agreements.

When you enter a European country you go through passport control. If you connect at an airport to elsewhere in Europe you’re generally taking what amounts to a domestic flight. Travel within Europe, for the 400 million people inside the Schengen Area, is like travel inside the U.S.

Sweden has now imposed border controls with Denmark and Denmark with Germany.

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2 Quirks About British Airways Upgrades: I Steal Premium Cabin Space From Elites

Jan 03 2016

Yesterday I wrote about snagging a first class upgrade on British Airways. I have an upcoming paid business class roundtrip from the ‘deal of the year’ airfare sale. And British Airways even lets discount business class tickets upgrade with miles (and most discount economy and premium economy tickets as well). There are no cash co-pays.

British Airways may be hesitant to release first class upgrades, when it would make sense for other airlines to do so, since they don’t have separate upgrade and award buckets. But if they do, I’m likely to score the upgrade even with a full business class cabin of folks who would have a higher priority than me on another airline.

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