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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For Weeks, Air Serbia Has Been Losing Luggage, And The Bags Keep Piling Up

by Gary Leff

Jul 18 2023

Passengers flying Air Serbia in late June and early July were apparently having their bags lost at a very high rate. And many, perhaps most haven’t seen their bags since. Luggage is piling up at their hub airport in Belgrade. Reportedly only a couple of employees are processing large amounts of lost luggage for the Serbian national carrier, which flies to New York JFK and Chicago O’Hare, and nobody knows when or if they’ll work through the backlog.

People are literally calling the police in Belgrade to report their bags as stolen. Others are flying to Belgrade in search of their bags.

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Hilton Guest Wakes Up To Find Employee Standing At Foot Of Her Bed

by Gary Leff

Jul 18 2023

A guest at the DoubleTree by Hilton Los Angeles – Norwalk says that she woke up from a nap to find an employee “standing at the foot of [her] bed.” She screamed and he offered the excuse, “I called, but you didn’t answer your phone.”

She reports that she called the hotel six times asking to speak to a manager but no one called her back. She called the police.

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Beware The Google Airline Scam, Phone Number Search Results Are Corrupted

by Gary Leff

older gentleman taking a selfie with smartphone
Jul 17 2023

In the spring I wrote about scammers taking over an old Singapore Airlines phone number and pretending to be Singapore Airlines when customers call. The scammers charge high fees for basic services the airline would normally provide for free, like helping with seat assignments.

It turns out there’s another variation on this scam: the agency gets Google’s search results for the airline at a specific airport changed to display their phone number.

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