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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Did You Ever Notice How Airports Make Us Want to Get Naked?

Feb 23 2016

A Tennessee man . On Sunday, though, he was “walking through the baggage claim area after he left his clothes in the parking lot.. [and] attempted to purchase a plane ticket before airport security apprehended him, returned his clothes..”

Back in October a flight was delayed 11 hours after a passenger became unruly, stripped naked, and requested sex from a flight attendant. In May a man, angry at US Airways for overbooking his flight to Jamaica, stripped naked and walked around the Charlotte airport for an hour to protect the airline’s overbooking….

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How to Get an Upgrade on Your Next Hotel Stay

hotel office
Feb 22 2016

Hotel upgrades have a great deal of discretion. While rooms may be pre-assigned to guests, the front desk agent can usually make a decision (within certain bounds set by the hotel — the best suites may require a manager’s approval).

There are many reasons they might upgrade you — your status, because you’ve been dis-serviced in some way, because you tipped them. Here are the techniques that work.

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Free SkyTeam Elite Status If You Have Status With Another Airline

Feb 21 2016

Air Europa launched its own frequent flyer program, Suma in December.

Like Copa and United, Air Europa decided to build its own program rather than renting the loyalty engine of a larger partner carrier.

Initially at launch they were offering to status match Air France Flying Blue elites. I wrote at the time, “We’ll see, once people start registering and submitting requests, whether they’ll status match elites from other programs as well.”

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United Successfully Uses Government to Halt Competition in DC

Feb 21 2016

With Delta’s Richard Anderson retiring, we lose the most cronyist airline CEO in the country, who seeks to use government to gain every possible advantage over competitors and sees taxpayers as his own bank account.

With his team simply being elevated, it’s possible that Delta stays this course. But there’s also an opening. And United may be looking to fill it. United successfully killed an effort to expand the ‘perimeter rule’ at Washington’s National airport from 1250 miles to 1475 miles. Because they don’t want competition to be allowed against their flights at Washington Dulles.

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Marriott Promises Members: Your Points are Protected

Feb 20 2016

Marriott is buying Starwood in a deal expected to close in June. Nothing will change right away. It took two years for Marriott to integrate 100 Protea hotels, and Starwood is more than 10 times the size. The data migration project alone is likely an 18 month IT effort. I’ll still be using my Starwood Platinum status in 2017, I’m sure.

Here are the winners, losers, and questions in the deal for customers — and what Marriott has to say to reassure them.

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Starbucks Rewards is Going Revenue-Based in April. Here’s How Stars Will Work.

Feb 20 2016

A brochure for the new Starbucks Rewards program going into effect in April was leaked on twitter.

The program will be going revenue-based. Break-even for status-earning in the new program is an average of $5 per Starbucks transaction. If you spend more than $5 per Star you earn now, you’ll earn status faster. If you spend less than $5 you’ll take more transactions to earn status.

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