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 »

Spanish Government Prepared To Shoot Down Flight From London

by Gary Leff

Jul 05 2022

A teenager on board an easyJet flight from London Gatwick to Menorca, Spain posted “a fake bomb threat to social media.” The Spanish government set a fighter jet to intercept the aircraft making its 808 mile flight on Sunday.

While this could have ended badly – they wouldn’t have sent the jet outside of a precaution in case they’d decided they needed to shoot it down – the military aircraft ultimately “escorted the easyJet plane all the way to its island destination.”

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300,000 Lufthansa Miles, Lounge Access And Hotel Elite Status For $5350

by Gary Leff

airport pick up
Jul 05 2022

ASMALLWORLD is supposed to be a networking organization for ‘the elite’ but I don’t know anyone that’s ever found it to be useful. They have a 75 euro membership, with free trial but their membership is also a way to buy a lot of frequent flyer miles and elite status thrown in at a higher price point.

Normally their 5200 euro membership comes with 250,000 Lufthansa Miles & More miles, but they’re currently offering 20% more, 300,000 miles. And that’s in addition to hotel and rental car elite status.

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Emirates No Longer Able To Book JetBlue Business Class Awards

by Gary Leff

Jul 05 2022

A year ago Emirates introduced the ability to book award travel on JetBlue. Awards could be booked online, and over the phone they’d even put award space on hold for you to transfer points. And all the major credit card currencies transfer into Emirates Skywards plus they have their own U.S. credit card.

The pricing was good – cheaper, for instance, than using American AAdvantage miles on JetBlue. Routes like New York JFK – Los Angeles (or LA-Miami or Boston – San Francisco) ran 52,000 miles each way, while New York JFK – Aruba would be 40,000 miles.

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Review: Qantas Business Class, Gold Coast – Sydney

by Gary Leff

Jul 04 2022

I flew Sydney to Gold Coast on Virgin Australia, and then back to Sydney on Qantas. That gave me a taste of two different Australian domestic options on the same route, and they were remarkably similar. (Jetstar and REX also fly between the two cities.)

While there wasn’t any award space on Qantas for my trip up to Gold Coast from Sydney, for our Thursday morning return there was plenty available. In fact the short flight can be booked in business class for just 9000 British Airways Avios one-way per person and $76, which is a nice value against a ~ $525 fare.

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Review: Virgin Australia Business Class, Sydney – Gold Coast

by Gary Leff

Jul 04 2022

Normally I’d be inclined to pick up Qantas tickets in coach for the short 1 hour 20 minute flight, using my American AAdvantage status for priority check-in and boarding, lounge and extra baggage. But those were pricing at around $300 in economy for the one way trip while Virgin Australia was asking $200 for business class.

And I was really curious to see what Virgin Australia was like after having been acquired out of bankruptcy (“administration”) by private equity.

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Review: Hyatt Regency Sydney

by Gary Leff

Jul 04 2022

My overall Hyatt Regency Sydney review is that everyone was friendly, and service was fine. It’s in a good location, with small rooms, but the ability to upgrade to a suite here was a real advantage. Sadly the club lounge was still closed.

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