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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Open Letter to Fellow Passenger Goes Viral Thanks to Feet That Smelled Like ‘Anus of Satan’

by Gary Leff

May 13 2015

Via the UK’s Independent, a woman on an Air Asia flight from Singapore to Sydney wrote a letter to the passenger in 15A. What I had initially thought to be a routine flight turned out to be a once in a lifetime experience – and it was all because of you. …Despite my common economy seat, you offered me a full back massage by repeatedly kicking the back of chair. To date, I have yet to regain full mobility of the lower half of my body. But since I am single, I suppose I don’t have much use for it anyway. I did not pay for the in-flight entertainment package and I was worried that I might get bored. But my concerns were unnecessary. You were talking so loudly, as if your friend was seated…

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It’s Time for United and Southwest to Start Negotiating New Credit Card Deals With Banks. What Will That Mean for Frequent Flyers?

by Gary Leff

credit cards
May 12 2015

The Southwest and United card deals with Chase are coming up soon. These relationships are getting very expensive for the banks, Delta-Amex is a $2 billion deal.. and that renegotiation left American Express paying more and getting less. What will consumers likely see as more banks bid for relationships with these two major airlines?

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Wyndham Lets Some Members Use Their Choice of Award Charts, and Boosts Bonus and Retention Offer on their Credit Card

by Gary Leff

May 12 2015

Wyndham’s new award chart is now in effect. All Wyndham Rewards participating hotel properties now cost 15,000 points. They’ve rolled back the price increases of the past two years for the top end hotels and nearly tripled the price of the least expensive hotels. Wyndham is a large chain, with properties clustered at the lower end. They’re closer in size to Hilton, Marriott, and IHG than they are to Hyatt and Starwood. There are a limited number of top-end properties where this change will be of benefit, but for those it looks like a real win — while it won’t be much of a win for those who look for points to use at Baymont Inns and Days Inn properties. However for the next six months Wyndham Visa cardholders get the best of both worlds…

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SunTrust Kills Off Any Value in the Delta Debit Card Effective July 25

by Gary Leff

May 12 2015

The Suntrust Delta Debit card has been a lucrative mileage-earning tool for a long time. I’ve been writing about it since 2009.

Since it’s been a debit card that earned 1 mile per dollar charged, it’s been useful to many in the past buying money orders and depositing those back into a bank. And it’s been a highly efficient way to earn miles for paying taxes ..

Effective July 25 it appears the value of the card will be effectively over even for existing cardmembers.

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Here’s Why the Era of Mistake Fares Isn’t Over, Despite DOT Changes

by Gary Leff

May 11 2015

For the past few years the Department of Transportation has forced airlines to honor mistake fares. Now DOT says they will stop enforcing their own rules on this. There’s lots of suggestions that this means the era of mistake fares is over. But mistake fares are less common than they used to be already, mistake fares were honored before the DOT got involved, and hotels – not regulated by the DOT – regularly honor their own mistake rates.

Here’s what we can expect the DOT enforcement changes to mean for the ability to get ‘struck by lightning’ with an amazing airfare deal — and whether the era is mistake fares is *really* over.

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