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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“We’re Two People Who Get Turned On By Elite Status”

The theatrical trailer for Up in the Air is now out. The earlier teaser trailer and AAdmiral’s Club clip looked great, the trailer looks amazing. It’s the perfect script-based vehicle for George Clooney, and let’s face it for male frequent flyers who could possibly be better to cast as us? I have a feeling the movie is going to be much, much better than the book was. “All the things you probably hate about traveling are warm reminders that I am home.”

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The Best Hotel Promo I’ve Ever Seen: 13,500 United Miles and a Free Night for Every Two Cheap One Night Hyatt Stays

One Mile at a Time points to a Flyertalk post made by Hyatt which clarifies that the Faster Free Nights promo is valid whether you choose to earn Hyatt points or miles on your stays. And that means it is combinable with the current United Airlines promos. In addition to the usual 500 points earned for a one night stay, you can earn both a 5000 mile bonus and an additional 2500 miles for every 2 nights (up to 25,000 miles for 20 nights). So that averages 6750 United miles per one-night stay. Or 13,500 miles and a free night for every two one-night stays. There are a couple of Hyatt Place properties out near Dulles airport that I may need to flip back and forth between, as they offer rates around $60 on weekend…

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Hyatt’s Faster Free Nights is Back, With Elite Fast Track Kicker

Registration is finally available. From October 1 through January 31, 2010, Hyatt is offering your choice of 1 free night after every two stays (the traditional ‘faster free nights’ offer) or 3,000 bonus Hyatt every stay, starting with your second stay. The free nights are generally more valuable, provided you can use them during the October 15 through March 31 redemption period. I’m sorely tempted to pick up several Dulles airport area Hyatt place stays in the $60 range (frequently pricing for weekends) in order to redeem at Park Hyatts in major cities around the world. But if you don’t have a good clear use for the redemptions, it’s nice that this time they’ve decided to offer a backup choice of banking points. In addition to this bonus offer, Hyatt is offering double stay credits…

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Hacking the Priority Club Website to See Your Full Points History

The Priority Club website only gives you an option to see your account history back 6 months. But it turns out the data is all there, the website just doesn’t give you an option to query for it. A Flyertalk member posted a link that will allow you to go back farther. I can see my redemption history back to 2004, and my earning activity back at least to 2008. Here’s the link: https://secure.ichotelsgroup.com/h/d/pc/1/en/tpaccount?secure=true&secure=true&transaction=4000 Note that you’ll be asked to sign into your account, of course.

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30,000 British Airways Miles for Credit Card Signup

Chase has a new offer, which is the best one I’ve seen for a co-branded British Airways credit card: 20,000 bonus miles after first purchase and 10,000 more bonus miles after $750 in spend. The card also offers $50 off British Airways ticket purchases, and it comes with a $75 annual fee (not waived – but still worth it for the 30,000 miles in my opinion).

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Cheap Short-haul Award Tickets — As Low as 2400 Points Each Way!

Starwood points transfer 1:2 into LAN. Such generous transfer ratios used to be common, e.g. with Qantas (and the Qantas award chart used to be more generous to boot) so folks would transfer their Starwood points to Qantas and redeem for flights on the Concorde. Starwood transfer ratios have eroded in these few exceptionally generous cases over the years, but the 1:2 ratio with LAN remains. And Starwood doubles their transfer bonus as well, so 20,000 Starwood points yields 50,000 points in LAN. This used to be an exceptional value for constructing oneworld business class round the world awards. But then LAN introduced their new award chart, where they charge for each flight segment separately, and I wrote it off. It’s not longer good for connecting flights, to be sure, so no more oneworld round…

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New Links for American Airlines Credit Card 30,000 Miles Signup Bonuses

Old links are dead, but new links are available. The offer is no fee the first year and 30,000 mile bonus after $750 in spend. Mastercard, American Express, and Business Mastercard Visa (Thanks to this Flyertalk thread.) Of course these cards are churnable. Different folks have different experiences with how many cards you can get at one time, and how often you can get the cards. It varies more or less from one card every 60 days to some folks simultaneously applying for several and getting perhaps four at a time. (Frugal Travel Guy says to open up multiple applications in different browser windows at the same time, and hit submit pretty much simultaneously on each.) Grab the card, meet the minimum spend (Presidential coins, anyone?), watch your bonus post. After six months or so…

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