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 »

More articles by Gary Leff »

Dear American Airlines, Please Don’t Create Even More of a Hodgepodge Fleet With a New Internet Provider

by Gary Leff

Feb 18 2016

To be the airline that American wants to be, they need to offer a high quality product and they need to do it consistently. In other words they need to offer the same high quality product every time.

One area where they once led, but have lagged behind in recent years, is inflight internet. Fortunately American Airlines wants to improve internet speeds onboard. That’s fantastic. They exercised a contract right they have with Gogo to start the clock terminating their contract for about 200 aircraft. This allows American to seek a bid from a competing provider (so far disclosed as Viasat) while also obtaining a bid for better service from their current provider, Gogo.

But it would be bad for both customers and the airline to add a new internet provider.

Continue Reading »

Hilton and American Airlines Trade Elite Customers

by Gary Leff

Feb 18 2016

Delta and Starwood introduced Crossover Rewards, an attempt to share each others’ best customers — they will tell you that Starwood customers fly Delta more and spend more with Delta, for instance. Marriott and United got into the act together.

That’s left American and Hilton as the only remaining possible dance partners. Hyatt has too small a footprint to be the major partner of the world’s largest airline, and IHG Rewards Club doesn’t have a meaningful elite program.

Continue Reading »

More Levels May Be Coming to the Top of American AAdvantage, “Segmentation is the Word”

by Gary Leff

Feb 18 2016

“Segmentation” isn’t the word customers want to hear. It’s not “relationships,” “value,” or “loyalty.” It generally suggests extracting more revenue, and providing less value except to a subset of members.

American brings thousands of employees to Dallas for a day of presentations from senior executives about the direction of the airline and opportunities for networking. Some outsiders attend as well.

We get word out of American’s Leadership Conference that we can expect more segmentation at the top of AAdvantage in addition to the bottom of American’s customer base.

Continue Reading »

Airline Puts Delayed Passengers in S&M-Themed Hotel, Makes Them Share Room

by Gary Leff

Feb 17 2016

When I experience flight delays that force an airport overnight, I make my own hotel booking and send the bill to the credit card company I used to buy the ticket.

I don’t stand in line and wait for the airline to give me a voucher for a hotel of their choosing. Because it’s highly unlikely to be a hotel I’d choose.

That’s a lesson learned by two women whose flight was delayed on Valentine’s Day.

Continue Reading »

American Opening New Flagship Lounges With More Access and Introducing Sit-Down Dining

by Gary Leff

American is introducing new sit-down dining options for their premium Flagship lounges, adding new lounges and renovating others, and making their first class lounges available to more customers. Currently American has two primary types of lounges: Flagship lounges. These are American’s first class lounges, for those flying international first class (and 3-cabin first class transcon) and that American’s top tier elite members can use when flying internationally. Admirals Clubs. These are most of American’s clubs. Members buy access, use a premium Citibank credit card to gain access, or have access based on the class of service of their ticket. The “Flagship” name has an interesting history. American opened the very first airport club lounge in 1939. New York’s Mayor LaGuardia was criticized for having too big an office at New York LaGuardia airport so he…

Continue Reading »

30% Off Delta Awards to Europe, Business Class from 87,500 Roundtrip

by Gary Leff

Feb 17 2016

Delta e-mailed elite frequent flyers and co-brand credit card holders about an award sale yesterday. It’s advertising a pre-sale on award travel. In the past Delta has opened up award sales in advance to elites and cardholders before rolling the sale out to everyone. So I wouldn’t be surprised if the sale is bookable by all SkyMiles members shortly.

The advertised sale is for 30% off saver awards between the mainland US and many cities in Europe — 42,000 miles roundtrip in economy. However there are reports of business class also pricing 30% off for some routes (so 87,500 roundtrip).

Continue Reading »