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 cigarettes

Print out form here. If you don’t smoke, you can trade ’em for cool stuff on the inside. While you’re at it, you can get free Reach Access Dental Floss, free dog treats, free Habanero HOT sauce, free Claritin and free Advil Allergy Sinus.

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A New Hyatt in Afghanistan

Via Instapundit, a new Hyatt Regency will be built in Kabul, Afghanistan. Currently reasonable accomodations are more or less limited to the Hotel Inter-Continental. While it doesn’t look bad, on-line booking is limited to an email query form on the Ariana Afghan Airlines website. Interestingly the Hotel Inter-Continental is not in any way related to InterContinental Hotels & Resorts. Similarly in Iraq, there’s a Sheraton in Baghdad and Basra. Sort of. (The Basra Sheraton was bombed last year. Here’s a photo of the looting. The Baghdad Sheraton was attacked last month.) The hotels aren’t part of the Sheraton hotel chain which is owned by Starwood Hotels and Resorts, and you won’t be collecting Starwood Preferred Guest points there. It turns out that the properties were ITT Sheratons prior to the Gulf War. They continued to…

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I won’t be flying to Tampa anytime soon

This story offers a local Tampa, Florida perspective on airlines scaling back domestic first class. United will serve Tampa only with its all-coach Ted, and much of Delta’s service will be by all-coach Song. USAirways’ 757s offer only 8 first class seats, down from 24. (Separately Continental has been downsizing domestic first class cabins as well.)

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Amtrak Bonus

Two roundtrips on Amtrak’s Acela Express or Metroliner by June 15 will earn a free round of golf and free spa treatment. All city pairs are included, so if anyone knows a routing that will allow two roundtrips for less than $108 please let me know. Update: A reader suggested BWI airport (BWI) to Baltimore (BAL). Same-day roundtrips on Acela Express and Metroliner run ~ $35 each ($30 on Saturday with promo code V745). Two of those are enough to qualify for the promotion plus the usual Guest Rewards points on top. Just make sure the coupons will be useful to you before booking!

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Feeling safer all the time

Reuters reports that an air marshall left a gun in a restroom at Cleveland Hopkins airport. A passenger found the gun and turned it in to authorities. The marshall has their gun back and remains on the job.

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