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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New York City Will Allow Restaurant Covid Surcharges, Defrauding Customers And Employees

by Gary Leff

Sep 18 2020

New York City’s council passed a law allowing restaurants to add up to a 10% ‘Covid surcharge’ for eat-in dining. Mayor Bill de Blasio is expected to sign it. It is stupid. Restaurants can already raise their prices.

This accomplishes two things: it lets restaurants charge a higher price than they advertise on their menus, and since customers are willing to pay a certain amount for their meal the surcharge reduces tips. It shifts income from restaurant workers to owners.

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Mideast Peace: Emirates Airlines Sets Up Kosher Food Facility

by Gary Leff

Sep 18 2020

Kosher Arabia should be up and running in January, and will serve Emirates as well as other airlines operating from Dubai. The Dubai-based carrier will no longer have to use a contract caterer to source Kosher meals. Emirates is even exploring opening Kosher restaurants both in Dubai and throughout the region.

For anyone not dedicated to the destruction of Israel, I think, this seems unambiguously a good thing – at least as long as Emirates doesn’t displace some of its fine wines with Manischewitz.

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Commerce Secretary: Not Giving Airlines Another $25 Billion In Taxpayer Money Is “Punishing Them”

by Gary Leff

Sep 18 2020

You wouldn’t buy the basic economy tickets airlines were selling, but they’re going to take your money anyway.

President Trump’s Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross said on Friday that not giving airlines another $25 billion, after providing $25 billion in payroll support and another $25 billion in subsidized loans, is akin to punishing them:

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Earn A Southwest Companion Pass And 125,000 Points To Spend

by Gary Leff

Sep 18 2020

Chase has one of the most lucrative credit card offers we’ve seen for the premium Southwest Airlines business card. It’s a great card as I’ll show you in a moment but let’s first look at the initial bonus offer for the card, meant to make a really big splash and it does with up to 100,000 points as an initial bonus, which in 2020 is enough to earn a Companion Pass. When you earn the bonus you have enough points for a Companion Pass even under standard rules that return in 2021.

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Fare Alert: US to Europe From $82 [$1 Base Fare]

by Gary Leff

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Sep 18 2020

Star Alliance member TAP Air Portugal, known for its cheap business class fares, has deals right now from the U.S. to Europe starting at just $82 one way and $229 round trip. And that’s not just East Coast to Europe, but even from San Francisco as well.

And while most people in the U.S. cannot travel to most destinations in Europe now, at least without quarantining on arrival (U.K.), this fare is available through next summer and at these prices it may be worth taking a flyer.

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Four Reasons ‘Payroll Support’ Is Really A Bailout For The Airlines

by Gary Leff

Sep 17 2020

Politicians from both sides of the aisle, along with the President, have publicly supported a second airline bailout in the form of a ‘clean extension of CARES Act payroll support.’ That would mean another $25 billion over 6 months to the airlines in exchange for holding off on employee furloughs.

However this hasn’t happened because it’s caught up in negotiations over a larger package, that some observers say is now unlikely to happen. Since furlough restrictions expire after September 30, some airlines are expected to let go of workers starting October 1. That’s seen as a deadline for Congress to act (or for the President to take some form of executive action, as he’s suggested he could).

October 1 isn’t really a hard deadline, though.

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