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 »

More articles by Gary Leff »

How Starbucks And Uber Are Now Driving Airline Credit Card Signups

by Gary Leff

free starbucks
Apr 01 2023

When airlines partner with third parties so that customers earn miles for transactions outside of travel, we normally think of the non-travel partner renting the frequent flyer program to help sell their product. The partner buys miles and is paying for the reward they give to customers, for access to the airline’s customers, and for use of the frequent flyer program’s intellectual property.

But there’s a benefit to the loyalty program beyond the direct revenue for the miles sold.

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Woman Gets Drunk At Strip Club, Disputes $10,000+ In Charges With Chase

by Gary Leff

credit cards
Apr 01 2023

A woman says that she ran up more than $10,000 in charges at a strip club, but doesn’t think she should be responsible for the transactions on her Chase Freedom and Chase Sapphire cards. She says she “had one too many drinks and/or I was drugged” and has filed disputes with Chase.

She was given temporary credits on her Sapphire card. However she’s been denied credit for her disputes on the since-closed Freedom card.

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20 Years Ago The Chicago Political Machine Broke Federal Law And Shut Down An Airport

by Gary Leff

Mar 31 2023

In the early morning of March 31, 2003, Chicago Mayor Richard Daley ordered city bulldozers to gouge the surface of the single runway at Meigs Field airport adjacent to downtown Chicago with large X’s in the surface. He had announced his intention to close the airport 9 years earlier and finally decided to just destroy it, since he couldn’t close it.

The next day he announced that he was just trying to create a smooth process, and save the city money. There was no longer a reason to spend money litigating the issue in court, since there was no more airport to save.

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