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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There Are a Lot of Great Card Offers Out There. Here’s Why You Want the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card First.

sapphiretorch
Sep 25 2015

I’ve been a fan of the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card as an important tool for frequent flyers for a long time because:

  • It earns one of the most valuable points currencies, which transfer to a variety of airlines (including in all 3 major airline alliances) and hotels.
  • It earns points quickly, with double points on both travel and dining (what travelers tend to spend on most).

Recent reports are that Chase has only wanted to approve this card for new customers that haven’t applied for 5 new cards in the past two years.

That means three things…

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False Alarm: American Did NOT Just Gut Mileage Earning on Cheap British Airways Flights

Sep 25 2015

American published new mileage earning rates for flights on British Airways and Iberia effective October 1. But they only published the changes on non-US websites, and only when viewing those sites in their native languages.

It turns out that ending the ability to earn full mileage on British Airways and Iberia flights was something published in error and that has been reverted on the website.

One imagines this was at least seriously under discussion, and could come, given the reduced earning that the British Airways and Iberia programs offer for discount fares on their own flights. But that day is not today.

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Earn 150,000 Bonus Miles With Just Ten Trips

Sep 24 2015

Panama City-based Star Alliance airline Copa, which used United’s MileagePlus as its frequent flyer program until this summer, is getting up and running. They’ve been aggressively status matching especially United elites and folks with Latin America mailing addresses and with status in competitor programs.

They’ve handed out free miles just for joining. And they have reasonable award charts.

Now they have a big 150,000 mile offer for flying to Copa’s ‘new destinations’.

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