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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Free computer

I just checked online and my order for a free desktop computer has been sent to the vendor – so I expect shipping in about a week. Not bad for a few minutes work. See this post for a discussion of the economics fo the deal. See this post for a discussion of how to complete the requirements of the offer as easily as possible and at no cost. And of course you can also get a free iPod and free flatscreen TV as well.

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Were they afraid he might sing to us?

TSA diverts United flight from Heathrow as a security precaution because Cat Stevens was onboard. Meanwhile, in another incident of paranoia unrelated to actual security, a Midwest Airlines flight was cancelled when a passenger found Arabic writing in an inflight magazine.

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$50 Off Packages at Onetravel.com

Consolidator Onetravel.com is offering $50 off packages which include air travel.Enter discount code 50PBBF in the special requests field. The discount won’t be taken right away, but rather sent to the purchaser as a rebate check. Booking must be made by October 31, 2004 and travel complete by November 30, 2005.

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Assault With a Deadly Bookmark

I feel so much safer now. Kathryn Harrington was flying home from vacation last month when screeners at the Tampa, Fla., airport found her bookmark. It’s an 8.5-inch leather strip with small lead weights at each end. Airport police said it resembled a weighted weapon that could be used to knock people unconscious. So the 52-year-old special education teacher was handcuffed, put into a police car, and charged with carrying a concealed weapon. Charges were dropped, and the teacher says she’ll never take her bookmark to an airport again.Update: This longer story has a picture of the menacing $10 bookmark: Truly appalling. The TSA hasn’t even apologized as far as I can tell. The sad conclusion is that we’ve created an arrogant bureaucracy that terrorizes passengers instead of promoting security.

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12-hour sale to London

Go-Today.com will be offering a special London package for $299 per person (double occupancy) including air, six nights hotel, and Continental breakfast daily. It will only be available from 9am – 9pm Eastern time on Monday, September 20th.The fare is valid from New York, with other cities slightly higher (Washington, DC will show up at $399 for instance). The price doesn’t bring luxury accomodations, but you’ll get a clean, convenient hotel property at an excellent price.

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Iraqi Airways

Iraqi Airways has resumed flying. As of Saturday, Iraqi Airways will fly once daily to Amman and Damascus, Aghabi said. Another route to the United Arab Emirates will be added later, he said, without specifying when. An Iraqi Airways Boeing 737, flight number IA164, left Amman’s Queen Alia International Airport at 8:30 a.m. bound for Baghdad Airport, Aghabi said. He declined to say how many passengers were on board. Round-trip airfare from Amman to Baghdad is $750, he said. The airline is currently operating a new Boeing 737, though it must do so across treacherous skies:Iraqi insurgents have taken aim at some commercial and military flights over Baghdad, firing rockets at aircraft flying to and from the airport, which also is used by the U.S. military. To avoid rocket fire, planes are forced to make…

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Delta Membership Rewards Transfer Bonus

Between October 1 and November 15, Delta is offering a 15% bonus on transfers from American Express Membership rewards of 75,000 points or less and a 20% bonus on transfers of more than 75,000 points. Registration required. Note that the fine print of the promotion says that pre-registration begins September 20th, though the website is taking registrations now. If you intend to use the promotion I’d go back and re-register in a couple of days. The fine print also says the offer begins October 1, even though the large print says it begins “now”. This is really annoying, but just be aware that you should wait until October 1 to do any transfers to Delta from Membership Rewards.

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Hilton Sweepstakes to Hawaii

Hilton has a sweepstakes with 10 trips for two to the Hilton Waikoloa Village for six nights including roundtrip airfare and 69 3-night Hilton stays. You can enter once per day. US residents only, but residents of Florida, Rhode Island, and Puerto Rico are not eligible.

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