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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One Day Left to Pay Any Bill With a Credit Card for Just 1.5% Fee and Earn Miles, Meet Minimum Spend

by Gary Leff

Oct 12 2015

I’ve written about the different offers from Plastiq to pay bills with your credit card (they charge your card, mail a check to your payee).

Their offer of just a 1.5% fee (their usual fee is 2.5%) when making any payment of $500 or more with a MasterCard ends tomorrow (Tuesday October 13). You can schedule as many future payments as you wish, however, and receive that 1.5% fee — as long as you do it by tomorrow. Plastiq says this is their last currently-planned promotion.

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Delta Flight Lost a Wheel and Brake Parts on Takeoff From Tel Aviv, Landed Safely

by Gary Leff

Oct 12 2015

A Delta flight apparently lost a back wheel and part of the braking system on takeoff at Tel Aviv last week. The flight in question is apparently Delta 469 on October 3 from Tel Aviv to New York JFK.

The control tower received a warning about debris on the runway and attributed it to a system malfunction, only discovering the parts on the runway visually come daylight.

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New Ritz-Carlton Signup Offer of 2 Free Nights

by Gary Leff

Oct 11 2015

The Ritz-Carlton credit card has a new offer of two free nights at your choice of most Ritz properties after $3000 spend in 3 months.

Here are the benefits of the card – including concierge, lounge access, and hotel stay credits – and how that plays into the positioning of the Ritz-Carlton brand overall.

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Cathay Pacific Upping Its Lounge Game in North America

by Gary Leff

Oct 10 2015

Airlines that offer a strong ground experience usually do so in their home markets, and sometimes to a lesser extent in a few key other markets, but rarely in outstations. And rarely in the United States.

But Cathay Pacific’s new Senior Vice President for North America has a charge to bring the experience here up to the standards of Asia. We can expect changes in San Francisco, then Vancouver, and perhaps New York.

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