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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When You Buy Miles from a US Airline, You Can Get the 7.5% Tax Refunded!

Oct 30 2015

The federal government taxes miles purchased from US airline as though they are used to reduce the cost of domestic airfare, and thus the price of those miles is subject to the same 7.5% excise tax that applies to domestic airline tickets.

Did you know that if you buy miles and use them for something other than domestic travel that you can get the tax refunded?

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Leaked Details of the New Citibank-issued Costco Card

Oct 30 2015

It was earth-shattering in the payments world when Costco ditched American Express as their co-brand card issuer and signed on with Citibank. Citi offered them an amazing deal that gives Costco nearly free credit card acceptance.

It turns out that we know more than this, even though Citi won’t start issuing the card until April 2016. That’s because the Citibank Costco credit card deal was filed with the SEC and is publicly available online.

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Is Sex Better in a Hotel Bed?

Oct 29 2015

Two weeks ago I panned Hyatt Regency’s new marketing campaign. They say “it’s good not to be home” because the last thing I want — on the road more than a third of the year — is not to be home, and because it doesn’t really tell you why to choose Hyatt Regency over another brand.

It turns out there may actually be one good reason why it’s good not to be home: hotel sex is better than regular sex.

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Have Airline Mergers Actually Benefited Consumers?

Oct 29 2015

It turns out the case for whether mergers have been good or bad for consumers isn’t so clear either way. There are some benefits to stronger airlines, though low fuel costs and the state of the economy are bigger drivers of that than consolidation. We should be careful to remember, though, that correlation isn’t causation.

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