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 »

New York LaGuardia is About to Become One of the Biggest White Elephants in History

by Gary Leff

Jul 27 2015

New York LaGuardia’s biggest problem is congestion. They could use more takeoff and landing space for sure but primarily it’s New York airspace that’s the issue. Without fixing air traffic control, there’s little that can be done to the physical plant that will truly solve problems.

LaGuardia has been slated to get a new Central Terminal in 2021 and I never believed the timeline.

Now, instead, Vice President Biden and New York Governor Andrew Cuomo today announced a whole new plan for the airport instead.

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Hurry! Jump on These $0, $2, and $6 Fares! The Airline Won’t Even Claim They’re a Mistake.

by Gary Leff

Jul 26 2015

Against a backdrop of airlines handling mistake fares badly — cancelling tickets after months rather than hours — the DOT issued rules in 2012 that explicitly required airlines to honor mistake fares.

That’s because DOT prohibited ‘post purchase price increases’ of any kind — cancelling a ticket and requiring that a consumer buy a new ticket at then-prevalent rates would constitute raising the price of travel for that consumer after they had made a purchase.

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Kuwait Airways Pilot Lets Porn Star Play With Controls During London – New York Flight

by Gary Leff

Jul 26 2015

Just a month ago pilots were fired when a voluptuous model flirted in the cockpit throughout a commercial flight and took a video of it.

And that wasn’t even the first time something like that happened within a matter of months.

You’d think that the memories would be fresh enough that other pilots wouldn’t do the same thing, at least for another few months. You would be wrong.

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Dangers Lurk in the Airport Men’s Room.

by Gary Leff

Jul 26 2015

There are certain things you shouldn’t need to be warned about before using the bathroom in an airport. For instance, Sam Elliott’s character in Road House says the bar he’s working at ‘has a sign hanging over the urinal that says, “don’t eat the big white mint.”‘

Another thing you shouldn’t need a warning about is not to use the shower as a toilet, or one warning you about someone reaching out and grabbing you in that most sensitive of moments.

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Strong Earnings Don’t Mean Airlines are Doing Things Right

by Gary Leff

Jul 26 2015

You’re never as smart as you think you are when times are good, nor as dumb as you look when they’re bad.

If the price of fuel hadn’t dropped United would be on its next CEO by now. Ironically, if the Continental board hadn’t pushed out Larry Kramer prior to the merger it would probably be a different story. He was a great student of Gordon Bethune — who incentivized and inspired the best from his employees and drove everyone to operational excellence.

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