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 »

Chaos At Shanghai Pudong Airport As Cargo Workers Test Positive For Covid-19

by Gary Leff

Nov 23 2020

Knowing what kind of response to expect from the Chinese government, people react with chaos when news of fresh cases nearby breaks out. On Sunday night Shanghai Pudong airport “descended into chaos” after two cargo handlers there tested positive for Covid-19. Hundreds of flights were cancelled.

Authorities set up a testing site at the airport and ordered all airport cargo employees to be tested. Although passengers reportedly understood and feared that everyone was going to be tested and quarantined. That may have been the initial plan, scaled back as riots were feared.

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Airline CEO: You’ll Need Proof Of Vaccination To Fly

by Gary Leff

Nov 23 2020

Qantas CEO Alan Joyce says you’ll need proof of vaccination against Covid-19 to be able to fly his airline internationally, whether arriving or departing Australia.

His airline’s requirements may not be a bellwether for the world, but they do point to an expectation that travelers will need to be vaccinated in order to have access to the world. And this requirement is likely to last, when put in place by governments, for longer than is necessary.

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Virgin Atlantic Business Class Awards Just 23,750 Miles Each Way

by Gary Leff

virgin upper class seat
Nov 23 2020

Virgin Atlantic is running a fantastic business class sale from the UK at $1334 roundtrip on pretty much any route. Delta codeshares on Virgin may be even cheaper (from US$1083).

And incredibly Virgin Atlantic is running 50% off of award travel, too. That’s important because with taxes and fuel surcharges a roundtrip award ticket can still, at normal pricing, cost almost as much as a paid business class ticket under this sale.

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Revenue-Based Mileage-Earning No Longer Makes Sense

by Gary Leff

Nov 22 2020

Revenue-based frequent flyer programs have always been less generous. These programs were long popular with ultra low cost carriers, with low margins, where awarding customers little made sense.

When planes were full, rewarding customers less made some sense. Airlines didn’t need to spend as much marketing to fill empty seats when there weren’t many empty seats. The problem now is that revenue-based programs reward customers less in a low fare environment precisely when airlines need to invest more in marketing to fill empty seats, and it’s cheaper to offer award inventory than ever.

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Hotels Are Renting Out Whole Floors To Keep People Safe From Covid, But It’s A Total Waste.

by Gary Leff

loews
Nov 22 2020

Heads of State rent out entire hotel floors for security reasons but several hotels now, at lowest-ever occupancy, are offering to rent out entire floors for people looking for Covid safety. That seems entirely unnecessary.

There haven’t been any documented cases of spread between rooms either in hotels or office buildings. The virus doesn’t spread through walls.

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Airline Lobby Group Warns Something Entirely Normal May Happen If Governments Don’t Fork Over Money

by Gary Leff

depressed businessman leaning his head below a bad stock market chart
Nov 22 2020

The head of world airline trade group IATA says so far governments have provided subsidies to carriers totaling $160 billion. But that’s not enough and they believe governments need to hand over more.

And what’s the terrible thing that will happen if they don’t? Something that is entirely and completely normal and happens all the time during normal times: some airlines may go out of business. That’s ok.

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Remember The Woman Taken Off A United Express Flight In Just A T-Shirt? There’s Finally Video.

by Gary Leff

Nov 22 2020

The story made the rounds initially when the incident first occurred. The woman doesn’t necessarily deserve her second 15 minutes, but for some reason it took an inordinately long time for video to surface. Since so many readers asked ‘where’s the video’ Ms. McClinton gets a second round of attention. In all likelihood it will be her last.

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