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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The Airline Industry’s Lobbyist Says Mileage Programs Should Be Able to Change Their Terms on a Whim. He’s Wrong.

Apr 17 2015

The airline industry’s lawyers and lobbyists continue to push the envelope for rights to utterly disregard their members. Some programs are worse than others in terms of their actual behavior, but here the industry as a whole contends there are no restraints at all on changes to mileage programs that might occur — no need for advance notice to members at all.

That is an untenable position, and it needs to be shouted from the rooftops.

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Family “Forced” to Sit in Vomit on United Flight: Is It United’s Fault… or Theirs?

fake barf
Apr 16 2015

A truly disgusting story, and I feel for this family, who found vomit at their seat. I’ve had similar things happen, and the airline handled things in real-time. United didn’t, they offered only that the family could travel the next day. United handled things badly, I think, but was the family really ‘forced’ into anything?

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$50 Off Flights Between California and Hawaii or Mexico

Apr 16 2015

Alaska Airlines will e-mail new members who register for the MileagePlan program with a California address a $50 e-certificate discount code valid on flights between California and Hawaii or Mexico. The person who signs up for the account must be the traveler, so if you have several make sure each passenger signs up for their own account to get an emailed discount code. The certificate is valid for a discount on paid travel departing California to any Alaska Airlines city in Hawaii or Mexico. Travel is permitted between April 1 and June 30 and between September 8 through November 19. Ticket must be issued by August 24. *Offer Terms: The $50 Discount Code offer is valid for new Mileage Plan™ member sign-ups only. Must be a resident of California to qualify. Offer is valid for…

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British Airways Business Class New York – Paris Less Than $1000 Roundtrip Using a Sale and These Two Easy Tricks.

Apr 16 2015

American, British Airways, and BA’s ‘OpenSkies’ are matching cheap business class prices to Paris. The fares are even cheaper when 2 passengers travel together. BA offers discounts to AARP members (anyone can join) and to British Airways Visa co-brand cardholders. These discounts stack.

I’ve never seen non-mistake fare business class tickets to Europe cheaper for just one passenger. But when two passengers travel together and stack these discounts, the price is $984 apiece. Wow.

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