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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Northwest Ups the Offers to Elites

nwa-planes
Jan 30 2007

Northwest has finally improved the offerings of its elite program. It doesn’t bring them up to par with American and United, which both offer a substantial international upgrade benefit to their top tier flyers, but it’s a move in the right direction. The Flyertalk discussion is here. After flying 60, 90, 120 and 160,000 miles Northwest is offering elites the choice of new benefits (much as United has been doing the past couple of years). Choices include bonus miles, the ability to give away lower tiered elite status, lounge memberships, and most importantly — starting at 120,000 miles flown — international upgrade certificates. Now, Northwest only offers 2 at 120,000 miles and 2 more at 160,000 miles flown (compared to 6 for United and 8 for American at 100,000 miles) but Northwest’s certificates appear to…

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Looking Forward to Khao Lak

I’m terribly glad that the Le Meridien Khao Lak Resort is honoring its mistake rate which published prices in Ugandan Schillings rather than US dollars. Some on Flyertalk speculated that it would be cheaper to get the government of Uganda to revalue its currency than to honor the deal. In the end I won’t be paying in ‘UGX’ nor will they offer up the rooms for 60 US cents (roughly the currency conversion). Instead, for US$50 a night including tax with 3rd night free (thus $33/night) the hotel is honoring the room types booking as well as complimentary breakfast. Someone who recently returned from the property sent along pictures of the private pool and backyard view from the resort’s Presidential Oceanfront Villa. Wow.

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Baby Steps Towards Elite Recognition at Avis

I usually think of car rentals in four categories. There’s Avis and Hertz at the high end, then the Budget/Thrify/Dollar/etc in the middle. I don’t really count the Foxes and Paylesses of the world, though they’d be a category of discount off-airport agencies. And there’s the ubiquitous Enterprise, who I’ll do anything to avoid, if only because I hate to do the mandatory “walk-around” and hear the speech about how they’ll hold me responsible for every last scratch and how I really need to buy their collision damage waiver even though I’m renting with a Diners Club card. Frankly I like the service of Avis and Hertz, a car already ready with printed contract most of the time at airport locations and they both tend to be a bit less persnickety with normal wear and…

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Free Copy of Freakonomics

Free Copy of Freakonomics
Jan 25 2007

Signing up for an email newsletter nets you a free copy of Freakonomics.After completing the form I get the following message: Your copy of Freakonomics will be on its way to you shortly. Plus, you’ve been entered for a chance to win a Magellan® eXplorist™ 500 LE handheld GPS*.

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The New (Not Quite Finished…) Westin Dawn Beach St. Maarten

The brand new Westin Dawn Beach on St. Maarten opened in December to much controversy on Flyertalk, both because some folks dislike ‘spoiling’ a public beach with a new resort, and because others claimed it had opened too early — rushing things to take advantage of the high season while not nearly ready for prime time. Since I was going to be in the Carribean anyway, I decided to check it out for myself. Turns out to be on the verge of becoming a lovely resort, but it certainly wasn’t ready — by a long shot — in the middle of this month. This is going to be a very beautiful property. Emphasis on going to be. The small strip of beach in front of the hotel has great white sand. The color of the…

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Buy 3, Ride Free

Taking a cue from recent airline promotions, Amtrak is offering Buy 3, Ride Free on Acela. 3 roundtrips or even 6 one-ways on the Acela Express by May 19 earns an Acela Business class or Regional Coach class roundtrip. Registration is required. And in one of the more annoying clauses I’ve seen (for folks like me looking for every angle), they’ve pretty much ruled out the possibility of doing the promo cheaply or quickly: Minimum spend of $75 per qualifying trip one-way or $150 per roundtrip. Limit of one qualifying roundtrip or two one-ways per member per day. Grr.

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Flying the St. Croix First Class Mistake Fare on USAirways

usairways
Jan 21 2007

Back in August I posted about a first class fare glitch to St. Croix and I took the trip earlier this month. The deal was Harrisburg, Pennsylvania to St. Croix, so I drove up the night before (could easily have done it same day, but the newly converted Wyndham is a Sheraton at just 3,000 points a night and they give breakfast in the restaurant to Platinums when the club lounge is closed on weekends). Satellite parking for the week ran $35. Shuttles very frequent in both directions. This is such a great airport, it’s almost laughable… huge, new, expansive, but only a handful of flights and gates. The old terminal still stands and there’s a banner encouraging people to suggest uses for it. Flights were standard domestic service. Harrisburg-Charlotte was booked as an Airbus,…

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Starwood Commercials

I may get mad at Starwood Preferred Guest from time to time, such as because they’re adding a new highest level for redemptions starting February 1 and the points price of better than a quarter of all their hotels will be going up at the same time. But I do have an emotional attachment to them, and I’ve already scheduled redemptions for over 25 hotel nights so far in the first half of 2007. So it’s no surprise, perhaps, that I’m addicted to the What Color is Your Dream? video that I watch over and over in a loop on SPGtv in my room, stay after stay… And boy does that Sheraton “We Belong” commercial tug at the heartstrings! (Thanks to Flyertalk member tjk1976 for the YouTube links.)

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Amtrak Mastercard Update

The Amtrak Mastercard is on hold — no new applications are being accepted. Amtrak and Bank of America are ending their relationship. Only purchases that are posted prior to the closing date of the May 2007 statement will earn Amtrak points. Presumably a new bank will partner with Amtrak over the next few months, but there’s currently no new partner in place.

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