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 »

New Best Program for Domestic Airline Redemption Pricing

Jun 28 2016

Japan Airlines already has one of my favorite programs, allowing redemption not just on oneworld airlines like American, Cathay Pacific, and Qatar but on other partners like Emirates, Bangkok Airways, and Air France as well as Alaska Airlines.

Japan Airlines Mileage Bank is a Starwood transfer partner. 20,000 Starwood points transfer to 25,000 JAL miles.

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100% Bonus, Up to 150,000 United Miles for 1.88 Cents Apiece

Jun 28 2016

United is selling miles with up to a 100% bonus through August 15.

This is a little more than what I value the miles at. But it’s closer than it’s ever been. I’m not going to buy the miles speculatively, but I would certainly buy to top off an account to the level needed for an award that I’d be interested in booking within the next few months.

And they have an interesting sweepstakes, too.

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Alaska Airlines Kills Our Revenue-Based “Plan B”

Jun 27 2016

Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan is fantastic because of its diverse partnerships. They are partners with many of the airlines both in the SkyTeam and oneworld alliances (and even some airlines like Emirates and Hainan Airlines that are in neither).

In the U.S. that means they’re partners with both American Airlines and with Delta, although with Delta they’re frenemies at best given the efforts Delta has made at building its own hub in Alaska’s home base of Seattle.

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HURRY: Amazing Transatlantic Airfares Have Spread, 50 Cent Base Fares!!

Jun 27 2016

This isn’t Brexit, there are deals between various US cities and across Europe. These deals have been coming up recently with increased regularity. With fuel prices still low, increased competition, and even more seats from low cost carriers across the Atlantic airfare sales have heated up.

Over the weekend I wrote about Delta attacking American hubs with transatlantic airfares from $442 roundtrip. The fare war has spread.

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