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 Wine Sales Exceeded 400,000 Bottles In 3 Days Amidst Record Web Traffic

by Gary Leff

wine glasses on table
Feb 03 2021

I shared a week and a half ago that American Airlines was selling off wine that it had in storage with fewer flights and customers in premium cabins. American partnered with Vinesse, a company known for offering lots of frequent flyer miles to reward customers’ buying bad wine, to handled the sales.

At American’s “State of the Airline” event following Thursday’s earnings call, Chief Customer Officer Alison Taylor was asked about the program, and joked that there must be a correlation between her being Australian, and being asked to talk about alcohol.

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American Airlines Bringing 1000 Flight Attendants Back April 1, As They Threaten April Furloughs

by Gary Leff

Feb 03 2021

American Airlines says they have too many employees to service passenger demand. The latest round of subsidies allows them to furlough again April 1. They haven’t sent out WARN Act notices yet. So they continue to being flight attendants back in for duty, with 1000 more told to begin April 1. They could find themselves working for just a matter of days.

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Hotels.com Will Send You Fictional Booking Confirmations For Valentine’s Day

by Gary Leff

Feb 02 2021

Hotels.com is offering fictional booking confirmations. If you’re not traveling anywhere, that doesn’t mean you can’t book a stay – without cost and without risk. And it doesn’t mean you can’t book a stay for someone else that they don’t have to travel for.

What Hotels.com wants you to do is send a fictional hotel booking to an ex- for a stay in a dumpster. Wait, what?

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Passenger’s Reported “African American African Service Charge” Was Capital One Coding Error

by Gary Leff

Feb 02 2021

I have to give a lot of credit to Capital One for owning up to this, and in the process teaching me something about their debit cards I didn’t know before.

An African American passenger, checking in for an American Airlines flight at a kiosk in Charlotte, got hit with what they saw on their statement as an ‘African American service charge’ for their checked bags. It was an awkward coincidence involving data matching and good intentions.

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Southwest Has A Credit Card Offer That Comes With Companion Pass. Is It The Best There Is?

by Gary Leff

Feb 02 2021

The card that comes with a companion pass is a great deal – but – consider the current 80,000 point offer that ends February 8.

Meet the spending requirement and you’ll have a minimum of 90,000 Southwest Rapid Rewards points. These count towards companion pass. As long as your Southwest Rapid Rewards account was open in 2020 you’ll only need 10,000 more qualifying points for a companion pass that’s valid longer – through 12/31/22 – and you have a lot more points.

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United Airlines Rolls Out A Process To Skip Wearing A Mask On Board

by Gary Leff

Feb 02 2021

Federal mask rules mean more loopholes to avoid wearing a mask inflight, not more masks. That can’t be called an unintended consequence because it’s been obvious for months this would be the result.

United Airlines has shared that it now has a mask avoidance process, too, although they haven’t put out a press release on it. Those who are looking to skip mask wearing for medical reasons should contact United directly in advance.

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