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 »

All Travel Is Up In The Air Right Now, Only Spend Miles And Book Cancellable Trips

by Gary Leff

Dec 20 2021

I continue to travel, and I continue to make travel plans. But I’m doing the best I can to use miles whenever possible, and book cancellable itineraries. The next couple of months couple be touch and go. I’m not making a prediction of what happens, but I live my life on probabilities and make the best decisions I can given the knowledge I have at the moment. And right now I’m giving myself as much optionality as possible.

What I’m really saying is that many people seemed to have calmed after the initial scare over Thanksgiving about the Omicron variant, and I don’t think we’re really internalizing what the next couple of months could (not will) look like.

Continue Reading »

Airline Says They’ll Dock You Miles For Misbehaving In Airport Lounge

by Gary Leff

Dec 18 2021

The Ethiopian Airlines lounge at the carrier’s home airport in Addis Ababa has some basic rules. You cannot bring outside food in the lounge (for cleanliness) and you cannot take food out of the lounge (for cost). Don’t put your feet up on the furniture and – sadly this needs to be said – don’t lie down on the floor.

What’s unique is that they’ll penalize your frequent flyer account for breaking these rules.. It’s 2000 miles for a first offense, 5000 miles for a second offense, and dropping your elite status down to Silver for 6 months as a third offense.

Continue Reading »

JetBlue Rethinks Elite Status, With Jury-Rigged 2022 Program And Real Change For 2023

by Gary Leff

Dec 18 2021

JetBlue used to seem a bit half-hearted about its loyalty program. It was always a bit of a me-too effort, from revenue-based accrual and redemption to a single-tier elite program that doesn’t even offer free extra legroom seats to its top customers.

Now that they’re (1) expanding internationally and (2) in an alliance with American Airlines, using American slots in New York to grow and taking traffic onto their flights from American’s long haul operation, they’re in a whole new ballgame. They’re even relevant to corporate business. And how you treat premium customers matters – more than just inflight in Mint (their business class cabin, which is quite good). So they’re beginning to get serious about an elite program.

Continue Reading »