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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American Express Losing El Al As A Transfer Partner

Oct 04 2020

If you want to redeem miles to fly El Al, the best option is usually using Qantas miles. Qantas is a transfer partner of American Express, Citibank, and Capital One. If you’re flying El Al, it’s usually best to credit flights to Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan.

There’s very little use case for using El Al’s own Matmid Club.

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How American Airlines Handles Drunk Passengers

Oct 04 2020

Bringing people together in a stressful time inside a metal tube has meant plenty of passengers behaving badly. American Airlines just sent out a note to its employees letting them know what to look for in passengers who may be inebriated (or are high), and what to do when they encounter passengers who shouldn’t be boarding their planes.

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A Simple Guide To American Airlines Trip Credits, Flight Credits, Vouchers And Gift Cards

Oct 04 2020

American Airlines recently introduced ‘trip credits’ which are electronic and have different rules from the ‘flight credits’ they’re replacing. Both forms of payment you can use towards a new ticket, but the rules are different. And they work differently than a payment voucher – and a gift card.

Fortunately American Airlines has created a comparison chart for their own employees to use. This was published internally for employees on September 26.

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United’s New Newark-Johannesburg Non-Stop Business Class Awards For Four Passengers

first class seats
Oct 03 2020

United will start flying Newark – Johannesburg March 27, 2021. You wouldn’t be taking a holiday there now, but five and a half months is a million years in Covid time and mileage redemptions are especially flexible – a much better idea than paying cash for an international ticket right now.

The route will feature United’s new business class, and there’s excellent award availability right now.

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Kauai Rebels Against Hawaii’s Re-Opening Plan

Oct 03 2020

Hawaii has required everyone arriving in the state to quarantine for 14 days. They’ve put off plans to re-open tourism until October 15. At that point they’ll allow visitors with a negative Covid test within 3 days of arrival to skip quarantine.

The island of Kauai, though, isn’t satisfied and doesn’t want to participate.

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