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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American Airlines Now Offers Free Checked Bag Lottery When Checking In For International Flights

Sep 06 2024

American Airlines wants you to check your bag. Fewer carry-on bags speeds up the boarding process, since passengers don’t take a few seconds each to stow their bag. And at the very end of boarding they don’t find that they’re out of bin space and have to race to gate check carry-ons. Anything they can do to reduce that time before departure is a win.

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Breaking: New Government Investigation Demands Airlines Expose Frequent Flyer Devaluations

Sep 05 2024

The Department of Transportation has just sent letters to United Airlines, American, Delta and Southwest demanding significant information about their frequent flyer programs – how they’ve changed the price of awards, whether they give advance notice of program changes to members, and how the value of their points has changed over the past six years.

United has consistently devalued its miles since eliminating award charts in 2019. Delta will charge more than 4 times as many miles for the same exact seat compared to its partners. Southwest has devalued its points 43% in twelve years.

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