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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American Airlines Literally Hasn’t Opened a Single Saver Award for 2017

by Gary Leff

Feb 20 2016

I’ve long said that it’s a myth that the best award availability is right when airline schedules load — the date for which varies, but is often midnight 331 days in advance of travel. People used to get up at midnight, call the airline, and when the space they want isn’t open think, “Drats! Someone must have beaten me to it!”

That’s not how it works at all. Some airlines do of course load some award space when they first add flights into their future schedule. Not all airlines do. And not all airlines load seats and call it quits.

What’s strange though is that it appears there’s not a single saver award in any cabin on any American flight yet for January 2017.

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Hyatt Made Four Changes to Gold Passport Terms & Conditions

by Gary Leff

Feb 20 2016

Hyatt Gold Passport has made several (minor) updates to its terms and conditions.

Those paying attention (to blogs like this one) are already aware of the new expiration rules for Diamond Suite Upgrades and restrictions on use of United Club passes coming down the pike.

Nonetheless, when a program updates its terms and conditions it should really tell members it has done so and provide a simple explanation for the updates. Gold Passport didn’t do it. Most programs don’t do it. And I don’t think that’s cool.

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How Couples Cope With Air Travel When Only One is a Frequent Flyer

by Gary Leff

Feb 19 2016

Scott McCartney‘s Middle Seat column is on frequent flyers whose other halves aren’t as adept at the airport.

Allow me to emphasize: Checked bags are evil. Not only do they get lost, but they mean you need to get to the airport earlier and you waste time on arrival at baggage claim. Multiply an extra hour per direction out over the course of 30 years worth of trips and you’re talking about a month of your life waiting on checked luggage.

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How to Transfer Chase Points to Airlines and Hotels

by Gary Leff

Feb 19 2016

The best use of Chase Ultimate Rewards points isn’t having them just buy you a ticket. It’s transferring your points to frequent flyer programs, to top off an account or just to have enough miles for an award outright.

Once you’ve found the award availability your looking for, you’ll want to transfer points. In many cases the transfer is instantaneous, which is great because that minimizes the risk of losing out on award seats pending a transfer.

Here’s long long points transfers usually seem to take:

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Expedia Now Charges Hotels to Skew Search Results and Sell You Rooms

by Gary Leff

Feb 19 2016

When you search for hotels through online travel agency sites, you only thought you were the customer. It turns out you’re the product.

Expedia now lets hotels bid to have higher placement in search displays. So Expedia monetizes your eyeballs, selling a better likelihood you’ll book a particular property to hotels with a product they call Accelerator.

Ultimately online travel booking consolidation can be seen less as exploitive and more as desperation. Hotel chains are consolidating, and they’re paying less. Booking sites are trying to figure out ways to extract revenue as their income per booking is declining and as they face new competition from Google and from other potential competitors in mobile. Still, it’s a risky move that Expedia makes. And the competing claims Expedia makes about it underscores that point.

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The End of Alaska Airlines Aeromexico Awards, or Just Long Term Hiatus?

by Gary Leff

Feb 19 2016

Alaska Airlines has removed its award chart for Aeromexico travel. You can no longer book Aeromexico awards using Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan miles or even change existing Aeromexico travel plans that were booked via Alaska Airlines.

I have no reason to suspect anything other than that this is due to technical issues. That’s Alaska’s story, and it’s certainly believable interfacing with Aeromexico’s IT (having dealt with both their computer systems and their human IT).

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Starwood Announces Hotel Category Changes for 2016, Redemption Prices Going Up and Down

by Gary Leff

Feb 18 2016

Starwood just announced changes to hotel reward categories going into effect March 1. (HT: SPG Champion As with Marriott there are no new higher redemption categories being introduced (Starwood introduced category 7 back in 2007).

As I understand it hotel categories in the Starwood system are determined based on projected average daily room rates for the year ahead. When rates are expected to drop, categories fall. With rates projected to be higher than they had been projected to be the year before, categories rise.

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