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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1000 Delta Miles for any Skymiles Shopping Purchase

Via Frugal Travel Guy, registering for Skymiles Shopping and making a purchase yields 1000 bonus miles. From Fatwallet and there from Slickdeals comes an easy 1000 DL miles for registering with SkymallShopping. Here is your link Terms and Conditions: And a sample purchase for $1 Link Just what we all really want a Prince CD.   Go ahead and register. And then use the Skymiles shopping website to navigate to your store of choice (don’t just go to the Prince CD link above). I notice that that CD is backordered, and that the $1 mentioned above doesn’t include shipping. So take it as an example only.

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Another Generous Hyatt Promo: Up to 20 Southwest Credits

Similar to the Air Canada promo I posted this morning, Hyatt is offering progressively bigger bonuses for staying up to 8 nights through April 30 — this time as many as 20 Southwest Rapid Reward Credits are the prize, and registration is required. Stay 2 nights 4 nights 6 nights 8 nights Bonus Credits Earned 2 +4 +6 +8 Total Bonus Credits 2 credits 6 credits 12 credits 20 credits Not a bad return on eight nights, clearly Hyatt is looking to leverage their loyalty program to fill up someotherwise empty rooms. 

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1000 Mile Bonus for Joining US Airways Dividend Miles

US Airways Dividend Miles is offering 1000 miles for new signups. Usually these offers require some sort of flight activity before earning bonus miles. This one gives you the miles just for joining. So a good chance to join if you aren’t already a member.For a limited time, enroll in Dividend Miles online and receive 1,000 bonus miles. That’s right, all you have to do is sign up and we’ll automatically credit 1,000 miles to your account. The miles don’t count toward Preferred status, and you can’t combine this enrollment bonus with any other offers. Enrollments must be made on usairways.com and only one bonus is permitted per individual.

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Generous Hyatt Promotion: Up to 20,000 Air Canada Aeroplan Miles

Hyatt stays through May 3 accumulate significant Aeroplan bonuses. The bonuses grow with additional nights up to 8 total nights, as follows: 2,000 Bonus Aeroplan Miles (two nights) + 4,000 Bonus Aeroplan Miles (four nights) + 6,000 Bonus Aeroplan Miles (six nights) + 8,000 Bonus Aeroplan Miles (eight nights) = 20,000 Bonus Aeroplan Miles (And you still earn the standard 500 miles per stay as well.) The offer is valid at all Hyatt brands, and Registration is required.

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Air Tahiti Nui Cutting Routes, Perhaps Partnering With Delta?

Air Tahiti Nui is pulling out of the New York-JFK market. JFK-Papeete didn’t do especially well for them, even during high season, and they previous pulled out of JFK-Paris. They’ve also ended their Osaka service, and are pulling out of Sydney. This leaves Auckland, Los Angeles, and Tokyo from Papeete and Paris from Los Angeles (providing one-stop service from Tahiti, matching Air France’s offering and allowing their politicians to visit the administrative bosses while flying their state carrier). Fewer than 200,000 people visited Tahiti in 2008. I seem to recall a statistic (which I never validated) that more people arrive in Hawaii in a day than in Bora Bora in a year. While I don’t always trust with 100% certainty the accuracy of Tahiti Presse stories, there’s been some speculation amongst frequent flyers about what…

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Much Harder Way to Earn Status Than Flying

One Mile at a Time says the passengers from US Airways flight 1549 will get top tier elite status for a year. Unless US Airways did something wrong, I’m not sympathetic to lawsuits. Something really bad happened, people survived, from what we know at this point the pilot did a remarkable thing and the emergency response crews were outstanding. Thanks are deserved, not lawsuits. Still, going above and beyond is the appropriate response from US Airways. Sending out checks immediately for lost luggage in excess of the maximum permitted under the contract of carriage was a good immediate step. I’d have liked to see “free travel for a year” or “elite status for life.” Somehow top tier for a year (while nice) doesn’t quite feel the same or seem to get US Airways very much.…

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Link Your Northwest and Delta Accounts for 500 Bonus Miles, Transfer Points Instantly at Will

It was supposedly coming in February, they’re even a little bit early. You can now link your Northwest and Delta frequent flyer accounts and they’ll give you 500 bonus points for doing so by March 15 which will post to your Skymiles account 2-4 weeks after the end of the promotion (or 4-6 weeks, depending on whether you believe the transfer website or the e-mail confirmation after linking accounts). And then you can transfer points back and forth between your accounts, the transfer happens instantly. Excellent functionality!

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Continental to Switch to Star Alliance End of October, 2009

It’s certainly taken long enough, but we finally have some specifics on when Continental miles will become worth something (i.e. when Continental will leave Skyteam and join Star Alliance). From their mass email yesterday: Regarding SkyTeam, Continental intends to end its participation in the SkyTeam Alliance after the last scheduled flight on Oct. 24, 2009. We continue to work through the details of our planned exit from SkyTeam and entry into Star Alliance, but anticipate our participation in Star Alliance will begin promptly after we leave SkyTeam. We’ll have to wait until the end of October to learn whether Continental will provide access to awards throughou tthe Star Alliance the way that every other Star Alliance member except United does. If that’s the case, their miles will be worth more than United’s, assuming that they…

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Hilton New York Deals

With hotel bookings exceptionally down, and New York suffering both from the general decline in leisure travel expenditure and a drop in business travel tied to financial firm troubles, it’s unsurprising (yet pleasant) to see Hilton offering a New York-specific sale. A handy rate calendar offers specific prices on given dates at each participating hotel. Through April they promise: Hilton New York: Rates as low as $159 (code QO, 14 day adv. purchase Millenium Hilton: Rates as low as $159 (code P9) Waldorf=Astoria: Rates as low as $175 -(code QO, 14 day adv. purchase) Unsurprisingly, the Millenium Hilton down in the financial district is offering both a low rate and no advance purchase requirement. While these are advance purchase, non-refundable rates, they’re not much higher than one often finds on Priceline and of course qualify…

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