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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American Airlines Has A New Design Template For Its Admirals Clubs, And That’s Fantastic

Aug 04 2022

The current ‘new design’ of American Airlines Admirals Clubs feel very institutional, from the lighting to the furniture. The perfect example of this is the A concourse club in Dallas which I think of as having hospital lighting. The smaller club in Charlotte follows this same motif.

Great news – they’re walking away from that design in upcoming new builds and renovations with a much more attractive template!

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Department Of Transportation Proposes New Rules For When Airlines Must Provide Refunds To Passengers

Aug 03 2022

The Department of Transportation has published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that would codify circumstances in which a passenger is entitled to a refund for their ticket, and rules for a future pandemic making passengers entitled to a voucher if it’s inadvisable for them to travel for public health reasons. DOT even wants to pre-write customer refunds into future pandemic bailouts of the airlines.

Mostly the rule would formalize current practice, after several airlines broke with convention during the pandemic and held their customers’ money hostage. There is much to like here, as a result of bad actors among the airlines and how tilted the law is in favor of air carriers. But there’s also some overreach as well.

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Delta Flight Attendants May Unionize Even Though Unionized Crew Are Deeply Unhappy Elsewhere

Aug 03 2022

Airlines are one of the most heavily unionized industries in the country. That works out well for customers and investors at Southwest, but less well at other airlines. Delta, the other historically strong performer, is mostly non-union. Their largest unionized work group is their pilots. Delta’s dispatchers are also unionized.

The biggest flight attendants union is working hard to change that – even as they publish data that 97% of flight attendants they represent at United are deeply unhappy.

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