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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Air France Has A New Safety Video, And It’s The Least Covid Thing Ever

by Gary Leff

Feb 24 2021

Under normal circumstances I’d say it was serviceable, fine, but hardly interesting or innovative by modern standards. Yet there’s one salient feature to it: a 2021 safety video that makes no reference whatsoever to Covid-19. Nobody is even wearing masks. They’re crowded into a theater, for instance – a packed house – and no one is the least bit concerned about spread in such an indoor congregant setting.

Some might call that tough deaf, but I love it – a paean to normalcy:

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CEO Of Tunisair Evades Arrest And Now No One Knows Who The CEO Is

by Gary Leff

Feb 23 2021

On Monday the carrier reportedly fired its CEO Olfa Hamdi according to a note posted by the government to Facebook. Hamdi had been on the job for just over a month, and her announced dismissal came in the midst of a general strike by some of its 6500 employees fearful of not getting paid after the airline’s bank account was seized by Turkish airport operator TAV and also fearful that her turnaround plan might include privatization.

She says she’s still running the airline, though, after a failed attempt by the government to arrest her.

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American Airlines Confirms: UFO Contact Over New Mexico On Sunday

by Gary Leff

Feb 23 2021

Deep Black Horizon posted an air traffic control broadcast from American Airlines flight AA2292 on Sunday.

The aircraft was flying from Cincinnati to Phoenix and at 1:19 p.m. Central time, while over the northeast corner of New Mexico at around 37,000 feet, radioed Albuquerque Center about “a long cylindrical object that almost looked like a cruise missile type of thing – moving really fast right over the top of us.”

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Family Wins $3 Million Verdict After Alaska Airlines Killed Their Grandma

by Gary Leff

Feb 23 2021

A sued Alaska Airlines for killing grandma and won $3.19 million.

The 75 year old woman “tumbled down an escalator in the Portland, Oregon, airport in a wheelchair” giving her injuries which required surgeries, and ultimately three months later the woman died. She was supposed to have someone pushing her in a wheelchair but surveillance footage shows her moving herself through the terminal alone.

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It’s Time For Most Americans To ‘Jab & Go’

by Gary Leff

Feb 23 2021

Covid-19 will probably become endemic and manageable, rather than be eliminated. With advances in treatments and with vaccinations, the virus doesn’t seem likely to overwhelm the health care system again. And that means we should look to lifting restrictions, educating people about risks, and allowing them to once again make their own decisions. For some, that’ll mean ‘jab and go’ – precisely the airline message that has been banned in the U.K.

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American Airlines Standardizing Checked Baggage Allowances, Introducing Basic Economy To Asia

by Gary Leff

Feb 23 2021

American Airlines has a wide variety of policies for how many checked bags are offered free to customers. They’re simplifying their policies, which in a couple of cases means more free bags but in other cases means fewer.

They’re also adding basic economy fares to transpacific and Israel/India flights, but those fares will include a checked bag. So the major restriction is that these fares will not allow changes.

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Southwest Airlines Boeing 737 For Sale On Facebook

by Gary Leff

southwest plane
Feb 22 2021

A former Southwest Airlines Boeing 737-300 is being offered for sale on Facebook.

The plane was delivered to Southwest in October 1995 and named for the airline’s first Vice President of Maintenance Jack Vidal. It was parked in September 2017. It is currently stored in Victorville, California and it can be yours for an asking price of $550,000.

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Woman On Spirit Airlines Flight To Florida Announces She’ll Have To Be Physically Removed Over Her Mask

by Gary Leff

Feb 22 2021

A woman was removed from a Spirit Airlines flight to Florida on Thursday over her refusal to wear a mask. She told cabin crew that they were going to have to forcibly remove her – and that she didn’t have to wear a mask because she was eating. Back in September a man used a can of Pringles to avoid wearing a mask on an entire four hour flight.

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