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 Bring Back Espresso For Boeing 777 Business Class

Jan 01 2025

American Airlines stopped catering the espresso machines on board their Boeing 777, Boeing 787, and Airbus A321T aircraft during the pandemic. The “frothing wands, cups, saucers, brewing pods” were taken off of planes, according to the airline.

This returned to some aircraft in spring 2022. However, Boeing 777-200s didn’t get catered, and Boeing 777-300ERs only got espresso in first class. That’s changed!

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Help: I Need 100,000 Miles and 50 Nights to Requalify for Elite Status

Jan 01 2025

Today is the most democratic (small d) day of the year in travel. That’s because it’s January 1, and in many programs everyone’s elite status counters get reset to zero (except for those squirrely foreign programs that have membership years based on the date you joined, and American that has extended the elite earning year by two months).

I have exactly the same number of elite qualifying miles and nights as everyone else today.

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‘The Lavatory Is Not Your Litter Box’: Southwest Boots Passenger After Kitten’s Accident—Then Lets Them Fly Anyway

Dec 31 2024

A Southwest Airlines passenger’s 7-month-old kitten had a potty accident after getting scared during a rough landing. She cleaned up the mess, but the crew on the continuing flight segment closed the lavatory due to the smell, confronted her, and removed them from their next flight on the same aircraft.

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