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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Qantas Returning To New York Next Year With New Auckland – New York JFK Non-stop

skyline
Aug 24 2022

Stretched thin as they’ve rebuilt their route network, Qantas hasn’t restarted Los Angeles – New York. They’re planning to fly non-stop to New York using new Airbus A350-1000 aircraft potentially as soon as 2025.

Until then they have a new solution for serving the New York market. They will fly Sydney – Auckland – New York JFK starting in June 2023.

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Want To Visit The U.S.? That Will Be A Two Year Wait

passport getting stamped
Aug 24 2022

While the U.S. still has a vaccine requirement for non-residents to travel here, we’re coming out the era of pandemic restrictions generally. But we’re not becoming a friendly place to travel. In fact we’re largely becoming worse.

For those who need a visa the average wait times are mind bogglingly absurd. The wait time in Mexico City? Over 500 days.

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ExpressJet Files Bankruptcy, Shuts Down All Operations

Aug 23 2022

ExpressJet Airlines has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and ceased all flight operations. Among other things they blame high fuel costs and the inability to sell hotel travel packages. However if your business model isn’t resilient to sub-$100 fuel you were doomed to fail.

Last year ExpressJet, 49% owned by United, shut down its Embraer ERJ-145 operation, kept one plane and their operating certificate, and since the fall flew as aha! to 11 cities from a hub in Reno. As I wrote at the time, “using high seat cost regional jets on leisure routes. What could possibly go wrong?”

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