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 »

More articles by Gary Leff »

New USAirways Credit Card Coming

by Gary Leff

usairways
Jan 02 2006

I’ve written previously about USAirways dumping Bank of America in favor of Juniper Bank (over $400 million cash infusion from the new bank certainly helps with that decision). The credit card was supposed to be available January 1, but the website still shows a ‘coming in 2006’ graphic. I’m anxiously awaiting details like annual fee, signup bonus, and elite qualifying miles for reaching a spending threshold, but I do know that it will offer 1.5 miles per dollar spent for the first 12 months of cardmembership and it will give 3 miles per dollar spent with USAirways (industry standard is 2).

Continue Reading »

WestJet to Get its own Independent Frequent Flyer Program

by Gary Leff

I just noticed that the Air Canada Aeroplan forum has a subforum for WestJet “Passenger Perks” which is odd since WestJet doesn’t have it’s own frequent flyer program. WestJet participates in AirMiles. I assume Randy Petersen knows something about what’s coming down the pike, I look forward to seeing what the program offers!

Continue Reading »

ANA Offers Star Alliance Award Search Online

by Gary Leff

I have an Air Canada Aeroplan account with zero miles in it. I use it only for checking award availability — Air Canada lets you search awards on all of its Star Alliance partners. Then I claim the awards with United or USAirways miles. I just noticed that ANA now offers Star Alliance award searches (login required) and their tool, though a bit more complicated, also seems more powerful. I’ll be testing it today. A big thumbs up to both Air Canada and ANA for offering powerful award search tools online — as far as I can tell, well ahead of any other airlines in any global alliance.

Continue Reading »

Free Cow

by Gary Leff

cows
Dec 30 2005

The first 100,000 people who sign up will get a Chick-fil-A® Peach Bowl Plush Cow and a coupon for free chicken.

Continue Reading »

Damaged Luggage: Handle at the airport or long distance?

by Gary Leff

In helping a customer get compensation for their checked artwork that was damaged in transit, Chris Elliott recommends dealing with baggage issues at the airport rather than going home and dealing with customer serviceI probably would have stood my ground at the baggage claim office, rather than waiting until I got home to file a complaint. Once you leave an airport and begin dealing with an airline’s customer service department, your chances of resolving a problem plummet. Supervisors are authorized to offer compensation, and I suspect that you might have gotten as good a deal from the baggage claim office as you did from getting me involved. It’s always better to deal face-to-face whenever possible, especially if a sufficiently empowered agent is on hand to assist. And it’s usually better to call an airport’s baggage…

Continue Reading »

Travel & Leisure Readers on Crack

by Gary Leff

I love ‘best of the best’ hotel lists, and this year’s Travel & Leisure‘s 500 best hotels around the world — as voted on by readers of the magazine — is no exception. (Hat tip HotelChatter.) This one, I love to hate. While there are lots of wonderful properties on the list, the rankings are truly bizarre. If you believe this list, there are more top luxury hotels in the United States than in Asia, Africa, the Middle East, Carribean, Australia, New Zealand (and the rest of the South Pacific) combined. This has to be a function of the limited travel experience of T&L readers. Some of the stranger U.S. listings: The St. Regis isn’t the best hotel in Manhattan. And the Pierre isn’t better than the Ritz-Carlton Central Park, the Peninsula, and the Mandarin…

Continue Reading »

Travel & Leisure Readers on Crack

by Gary Leff

I love ‘best of the best’ hotel lists, and this year’s Travel & Leisure‘s 500 best hotels around the world — as voted on by readers of the magazine — is no exception. (Hat tip HotelChatter.) This one, I love to hate. While there are lots of wonderful properties on the list, the rankings are truly bizarre. If you believe this list, there are more top luxury hotels in the United States than in Asia, Africa, the Middle East, Carribean, Australia, New Zealand (and the rest of the South Pacific) combined. This has to be a function of the limited travel experience of T&L readers. Some of the stranger U.S. listings: The St. Regis isn’t the best hotel in Manhattan. And the Pierre isn’t better than the Ritz-Carlton Central Park, the Peninsula, and the Mandarin…

Continue Reading »

Travel & Leisure Readers on Crack

by Gary Leff

I love ‘best of the best’ hotel lists, and this year’s Travel & Leisure‘s 500 best hotels around the world — as voted on by readers of the magazine — is no exception. (Hat tip HotelChatter.) This one, I love to hate. While there are lots of wonderful properties on the list, the rankings are truly bizarre. If you believe this list, there are more top luxury hotels in the United States than in Asia, Africa, the Middle East, Carribean, Australia, New Zealand (and the rest of the South Pacific) combined. This has to be a function of the limited travel experience of T&L readers. Some of the stranger U.S. listings: The St. Regis isn’t the best hotel in Manhattan. And the Pierre isn’t better than the Ritz-Carlton Central Park, the Peninsula, and the Mandarin…

Continue Reading »

Asia Hotel Rate Glitches on Orbitz

by Gary Leff

Orbitz has the Intercontinental Tokyo Bay for 374 JPY per night (~ US$3.19) and other hotels have glitches as well, e.g. Crowne Plaza Shanghai for 123.16 Chinese Yuan (US$15.24) pre-paid. Apparently conversion issues are affecting the Intercontinental Coex Seoul as well, with rates from 187 Won instead of the usual 187,000 Won. There’s plenty of availability. When you pull up the hotel, you’ll see “From $XXXX” and that will show the correct rate. Choose the hotel anyway and you’re given a list of rates including the mistake rate. In the case of the Seoul property you’ll have to choose to display more rates than then all rates in order to get Won pricing rather than US dollar pricing. This was posted on Flyertalk a bit after 10pm last night but wasn’t sent out on fare…

Continue Reading »

Furlough Notices Have Been Received at Independence Air

by Gary Leff

Final disposition is pending the outcome of the auction next week of course, but it sure looks like they’re going to sell just a few pieces of the airline and shut down. A thread at ACA-LOUNGE.COM, a bulletin board for the airline’s employees (and a place rife with rumors), indicates that pretty much everyone has gotten their furlough notices: Dear Flight Attendant ######: As you know, FLYi, Inc, the holding company for Independence Air, has been actively engaged in securing inverstors in, or purchasers of, the Company as it attempts to reorganize under Chapter 11 of the United States Bankrupcy Code. The Company expects that is it is unable to secure significant external investment or a sale of all or substantially all of its operations before January 7, 2006, it will permanently cease all operations…

Continue Reading »