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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Three Passengers Popped Aircraft Slide, Hit the Tarmac, and Ran Away…

May 21 2015

They booked one-way tickets from Algiers to Istanbul via Rome. They boarded their onward flight to Turkey, and then bolted. Three Algerian illegal migrants found a quick way to avoid deportation last week – they jumped off a moving Alitalia plane at Rome’s Fiumicino airport and ran for it. …the three Algerians, who had been refused permission to stay in Italy, decided to do so anyway. They forced open a door while the plane was moving from the gate towards the runway, activated the exit chutes, slid down onto the tarmac and sprinted into the distance. A major manhunt for the trio has been launched and an investigation opened… The plane returned to the gate, and passengers offloaded onto another aircraft. Though hardly their fault, Alitalia needed to blame someone so they “called for stricter…

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Delta Playing Hardball With Online Booking Sites, About to Get Boost from the Government

May 21 2015

Delta has been pulling its fares off of some websites.

I don’t worry so much from a consumer standpoint, the average consumer searches about 10 sites when booking a trip. This is about tug-o-war over data, how ancillary services will be sold in the future, and distribution costs. In other words, a business-to-business scuffle.

But the Department of Transportation is considering rules that would require a website to highlight airlines that are not shown in their searches. ..which will tip the scales to Delta in moves like this.

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American’s President Can’t Wait to Make Changes to the AAdvantage Program and to Copy Some Competitors

May 20 2015

At the Wolfe Research Global Transportation Conference, American Airlines President Scott Kirby shared the things he’s looking forward to once integration is complete. There are lots of projects that have been put off given the single-minded focus on combining American Airlines and US Airways.

Among those, “we would have loved to make some modifications to the frequent flyer program” and he talked about more ancillary revenue and ‘shamelessly copying’ come of their competitors…

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My Deeply Troubling Miles and Points Dreams

May 20 2015

Last night I dreamt I was in the American Airlines Admirals Club in Los Angeles (although the woman sitting at the desk was one of the gems from the Washington National club.

I watched as a passenger had the agent there run her credit card to fund a bank account. I was a little bit excited for a moment, thinking you could charge bank deposits at American Airlines lounges when I woke up.

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