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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United Visa: Triple Miles on Fast Food

Between September 1 and November 30th, the United Visa is awarding triple miles for spending at ‘quick service’ restaurants, up to 30,000 bonus miles total. Details are here. Quick service is a Visa designation, and the website specifically cites examples as Wendy’s, Pizza Hut, and Quizno’s.

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Northwest’s 1-2-3 Free Promotion

Northwest has matched United’s reintroduction of ‘fly three, fly free’ and upped the ante. Northwest is offering international as well as domestic free travel, and most fares are eligible (although the lowest — L, T and K class domestically and V, L, T, and K internationally — are not eligible). Unlike United, Northwest will award credit towards this promotion when flying discount coach fares that include a Saturday night stay.Registration is required.

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More on the free electronics offers

A Wired article from last month outlines the economics of the free electronics deals, and is consistent with the explanations I’ve given here. Instead, they explained, Gratis Internet is paid a bounty for sending potential customers to sites like AOL, eBay or RealNetworks. “We’re a marketing firm,” said Jewell. “We’re sending these people to our advertisers. We cringe when we hear ‘pyramid’ or ‘scheme.’ We’re more closely associated with viral marketing, with the subservient chicken, than Amway.” …The company has sent out more than $3 million worth of free merchandise, Martin said, including 5 million to 6 million condoms. Since the launch of FreeiPods.com in June, the site has dispatched more than 2,500 iPods, Martin said, worth more than $1 million. But in the last few weeks traffic has exploded. Martin claimed nearly 1 million…

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