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 »

American Airlines On Criticizing Airline Subsidies While Taking Record Government Aid

by Gary Leff

Mar 11 2021

American Airlines CEO catapulted from securing Air Transportation Stabilization Board subsidies for America West, to taking over government-subsidized US Airways, to getting the federal Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation on the side of acquiring American Airlines from within bankruptcy. Then he spent all his time in D.C. realizing there’s more revenue in taking money away from taxpayers than selling to customers. U.S. airlines will receive over $79 billion in federal support in a year.

As I put it about anti-Gulf carrier coalition member Delta, the U.S. airlines have always believed in subsidies for me, but not for thee.

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American Airlines Cabin Crew Have New Incentive To Sign Passengers Up For Credit Cards

by Gary Leff

Mar 11 2021

With people thinking more about getting out more in the not too distant future, on board card promotion is back in a big way in fact for March and April they’re incentivizing this with additional cash and donations.

What’s perhaps most interesting though is the statistic they’re promoting, that only 14% of passengers on a given flight have an AAdvantage credit card.

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American Airlines Breaks All Records, Plans to Mortgage AAdvantage For $10 Billion

by Gary Leff

british tail plane
Mar 10 2021

American Airlines just boosted the amount they are borrowing against the AAdvantage program to a record-breaking $10 billion.

The blended average rate on this debt is 5.575%, paid by three subsidiaries that now make up AAdvantage based in the Cayman Islands. When the pandemic is over I’m encouraging American to throw a Members Only Party on board several flights to Grand Cayman where we can all visit our miles.

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Airlines Pick Your Pockets Again With Third Bailout Of The Pandemic

by Gary Leff

Mar 10 2021

Congress passed the American Rescue Plan which includes $14 billion for commercial airlines, and requires them not to furlough workers through September 30.

Previous bailouts included $50 billion in the CARES Act ($25 billion in payroll support and $25 billion in subsidized loans) plus suspension of the domestic air travel excise tax for 2020 and then an additional $15 billion in December 2020. This brings total commercial airline subsidies to $79 billion, separate from funds for airports, airline contractors, and cargo carriers.

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10,000 Free Hilton Points For Taking One Survey

by Gary Leff

Mar 10 2021

Taking surveys for miles was super lucrative twenty years ago. Now I very often don’t bother. The rewards tend to be much lower, and I’ve wasted too much time on screening questions to even qualify for a survey that don’t pay out at all, only to learn after that effort that I’m not eligible.

Here’s an exception to the rule. There’s a new offer to earn 10,000 Hilton points as a bonus for your first Guest Opinion Rewards survey, increased from just 1250 bonus points.

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14 Things American Airlines Told The SEC About The AAdvantage Frequent Flyer Program

by Gary Leff

british tail plane
Mar 10 2021

American Airlines is refinancing the mortgage it took on its frequent flyer program with the U.S. Treasury by raising $7.5 billion against AAdvantage in private financial markets.

As part of these efforts they had to make a ton of information public about AAdvantage in an SEC 8-K filing. Here are 14 interesting things that they had to share with investors and the SEC.

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Female Passenger Tied Down With Rope After Trying To Remove Her Underwear

by Gary Leff

Mar 10 2021

The 39-year-old woman would remove a piece of clothing and then put it back on, though gradually more and more of her clothes were off. While she wasn’t endangering other passengers by her stripping, she was described as ‘disoriented’ and flight attendants and passengers teamed up to restrain her using a seatbelt, a rope, and tape.

In video taken onboard the flight, the woman is seen tied up in her seat to prevent her from taking off her clothes.

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