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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How Hot is Too Hot? Should Airlines Refuse to Board Aircraft When Cabins Heat Up Over the Summer?

by Gary Leff

Jul 03 2015

Planes can get pretty hot on the ground during the summer, especially when they’re not running the air conditioning with auxiliary power.

Passengers are often asked to close the shades upon landing, keeping out the sun keeps the cabin from heating up as much. On boarding all the windows are closed and most passengers leave them that way. Once the engines start running, and the plane gets up in the air, things cool down quickly.

American Airlines will board a plane if the temperature is less than 90 degrees, though as always this is at the discretion of the pilot. US Airways’ policy has been an 85 degree maximum…

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When Airlines Talk About Restricting Capacity at Conferences, You Know They’re Probably Not Breaking the Law

by Gary Leff

Jul 02 2015

In the New York Times, James Stewart thinks that the airlines’ public statements demonstrate collusion to restrict capacity and thus raise prices as the Department of Justice is investigating.

Except that if there was actual collusion, the last way they’d be able to successfully pull it off would be for the CEOs of major airlines to signal their plans in a public forum. If all that existed were public statements, that would be highly suggestive there wasn’t any collusion.

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How Well Do Starwood’s New Keyless Rooms Work? Review of the W Times Square

by Gary Leff

Jul 02 2015

I needed to be in New York on Monday for meetings, so I flew up Sunday night. I spent less than 20 hours in the city.

My plan was a hotel near my first meeting of the day. And the W Times Square was both reasonably close and priced ~ $180 on a ‘AAA Hot Deal’. I hadn’t ever stayed there, so figured I’d give it a go.

I used Starwood’s app and was happy to see the hotel come up as ready for their new ‘keyless’ option — you check-in with your phone, your phone acts as a room key, and you can bypass the front desk entirely. At about 10pm, wanting to get sleep before morning meetings, that appealed to me.

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How to Book Cathay Pacific Award Space that American Tells You is Unavailable

by Gary Leff

Jul 02 2015

Cathay Pacific first class award seats especially have gotten much tougher to book in recent months. Cathay still regularly makes unsold seats available in the week and even day prior to travel, but advance award availability can be scarce. Business class awards aren’t as easy as they used to be, but aren’t as restrictive as first class.

…[W]hen you see award seats available online using the customary sources for this data — the Qantas frequent flyer website and the British Airways site — but an American telephone agent says it isn’t available, it’s natural to think that the space is being blocked (either on the American side, or that Cathay is imposing point of sale restrictions to prevent American’s members from booking the space).

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Have Airline Elite Status? Get Priority Services Flying Delta and Other Skyteam Carriers

by Gary Leff

Jul 01 2015

Last week I showed you a foreign airline in each of the 3 alliances that will match your current elite status. That’s useful because it may get you free lounge access (even on the airline you usually fly), or at least airport priority like check-in and boarding when flying an airline that isn’t your usual carrier.

Skyteam member and Delta partner Alitalia now has an official website detailing their offer to give you complimentary elite status.

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Federal Government Launches Investigation of U.S. Airline Collusion

by Gary Leff

Jul 01 2015

Scott Mayerowitz and David Koenig broke the story that the Department of Justice is demanding copies of communications between major airlines as part of an investigation into unlawful collusion to limit capacity and increase airfares.

..In the face of the double whammy of recession (which kept people out of the air) and high fuel prices, the airlines developed capacity discipline as a means of survival. It’s conceivable there were unlawful communications or signaling along the way and no doubt the Department of Justice will find that.

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