Gary Leff, Author at View from the Wing

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 »

Devaluing the Paypal Debit Card

by Gary Leff on April 2, 2005

Apr 02 2005

New Paypal debit card users will receive 1% cashback, down from 1.5%. Current debit card members will be grandfathered at the 1.5% rate.Eligibility for the PayPal Preferred Rewards Program will become easier, however: Under the previous guidelines, only qualified eBay sellers designating a preference for PayPal in their eBay listings were eligible for the program, but beginning today eligibility will be expanded to include all merchants who promote PayPal as their preferred online payment method, whether operating on eBay or off.

Change to Mailing List Version of View from the Wing

by Gary Leff on April 2, 2005

Apr 02 2005

Well over a thousand people currently receive each day’s postings by email. I can’t tell you how great it makes me feel that so many folks opted for that. This site is a labor of love and I really appreciate all the great feedback that I get. I hope that you like the new format of the website. I really do, and appreciate the work that the tech folks put into it. I find it much more readable, and also easier to work with. One consequence, though, of moving from a home grown system to Movable Type is that I no longer have the ability to send out each day’s content by email. Everyone has still been getting the content because I’ve manually been double-adding the entries into the old system in addition to the…

10,000 American Miles for Earthlink Still Available

by Gary Leff on April 2, 2005

Apr 02 2005

The standard American Airlines offer for Earthlink internet is 6,000 miles after three invoices. Reader John points out that if you go to Earthlink directly, add internet service to your shopping cart, and enter promo code 1018865 the cart will display 10,000 American Airlines miles which will be awarded after six invoices.

Getting Upgrades at Hotels

by Gary Leff on March 31, 2005

The Bay Area’s ABC TV station ran a piece on getting hotel upgrades. The sum total of their advice: ask. That’s actually good advice as far as it goes. More than anything else, style and mojo matter. I’ll usually say something at checkin like, “I’ve heard really great things about this hotel, so I’m pretty excited. I was hoping you might have a room with one of your special views?” More often than not the person at the desk will try to comply. It really doesn’t cost them anything. It makes me happy. And it avoids putting them in the position of either disappointing me in person or getting an earful (I’m not rude, but many guests are). If I have a reason to explain that a particular stay is ‘special’ I might send a…

New Hilton Alarm Clocks

by Gary Leff on March 30, 2005

Mar 30 2005

Via Tripso.com, Hilton is introducing alarm clocks with an iPod plugin and related sweepstakes. The clocks are supposed to be especially easy to set. Unfortunately this probably won’t solve the need to make sure the alarm clock isn’t already set when you check in — there’s little worse than being woken up in the middle of the night because the last guest thought it would be funny to boobytrap you by setting the alarm to go off at 3am.

IRS To Tax Foreign Pilot and Flight Attendant Wages

by Gary Leff on March 27, 2005

Mar 27 2005

The IRS is apparently seeking to tax Latin American airlines for wages paid to flight attendants and pilots during the time they spend working over US airspace. (Link via Today in the Sky.) Critics of the move point out that other countries might respond by doing the same to U.S. airlines. Anyone with thoughts on why the IRS is focused on Latin American carriers — and not European or Asian carriers — feel free to offer them in them in the comments.

Amusingly Named Mileage Offer

by Gary Leff on March 27, 2005

Mar 27 2005

One of the more amusingly named mileage offers (via Free Frequent Flyer Miles) has to be The Danny Schurman Homeselling System:This written guarantee will give you the assurance that if your home doesn’t sell within 120 days, we will give you up to 2500 Airmiles. Gary Steiger says these are Alaska miles and wonders what the phrase up to is doing there. This may be of limited interest to those readers in Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada.

Completely off-topic: committing a crime with impunity in a small part of Idaho

by Gary Leff on March 27, 2005

Mar 27 2005

I just an an really interesting piece to be published in the Georgetown Law Journal (shocking itself, it’s also a good read) that argues there’s a 50 square mile area in the U.S. where felonies can’t be prosecuted: the portion of Yellowstone National Park which is in the state of Idaho. The Constitution’s 6th Amendment requires that juries be picked from the same district and state in which a crime is committed. Federal law sets the district governing all of Yellowstone as Wyoming — logical, as the park is 91% in the state of Wyoming. The districts of Montana and Idaho exclude the park.So juries must be chosen from the District of Wyoming to prosecute crimes committed in the park. However, if the crime is committed in that part of the park that is in…

Northwest Visa Offers

by Gary Leff on March 25, 2005

Mar 25 2005

Northwest has new offers up for their co-branded credit cards issued by US Bank. I’ve previously mentioned that US Bank is one of the biggest sticklers for one signup bonus per customer. However, a recent exchange with Gary Steiger (of Free Frequent Flyer Miles, where I came across this offer) made me realize that their limit is per card type. I first signed up for the Platinum Visa a few years ago when the offer was for 25,000 bonus miles over 2 years, requiring $500 in spending with Northwest for part of those miles. That signup qualified me for the 2002 Fly Free Faster promotion that netted another 10,000 miles. In 2003 I signed up for the Northwest Business Visa for 10,000 miles to qualify for that summer’s Fly Free Faster promotion. That was a…

Free $25: ING Direct Online Savings Account

by Gary Leff on March 25, 2005

Mar 25 2005

ING Direct is offering 2.8% on their FDIC-insured online savings account.That’s a pretty good rate for a savings account (my local bank is offering a similar rate on 12-month CDs). What’s more, ING Direct offers new customers $25 just for opening the account when referred by an existing customer (the referrer gets $10). There are no account minimums and no fees. You can open the account with $1 and get credited an additional $25. They’ll make you wait some time, I think a month, before you can withdraw their $25. Other than that, no restrictions. There was once a $50 referral offer, I haven’t seen that in a couple of years though. I signed up at $25, pulled my money out, but then a couple years later realized I still had the account (with 17…

	Bilt Mastercard® Earn Points Paying Rent (up to 100,000 each year) plus earn 3x at restaurants; 2x on travel; as long as you make at least 5 purchases per month. No annual fee.
	Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card Earn 75,000 bonus miles when you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months (See rates and fees)
	Citi® / AAdvantage Business^TM World Elite Mastercard® Earn 65,000 American Airlines AAdvantage® bonus miles after spending $4,000 in purchases within the first 4 months of account opening. AAdvantage miles are the currency I've redeemed most.[See rates and fees]

About Gary Leff

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About Gary Leff