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 »

Man Uses Can Of Pringles Chips To Avoid Mask Requirement On Four Hour Flight

by Gary Leff

Sep 08 2020

A passenger on an easyJet flight from Manchester to Tenerife used what some might call the Ted Cruz exception, milking a single food or beverage item for the full flight to take advantage of airline rules allowing passengers to go maskless while eating or drinking.

He says he doesn’t actually have an issue with masks, it was just an experiment to see if he could get away with it: he bought a can of Pringles potato chips on the flight, and spread 100 chips out across the length of the flight, making each chip last two and a half minutes.

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Passenger Airdrops Porn, Delaying Flight To Phoenix

by Gary Leff

airline cabin
Sep 07 2020

On this delayed flight to Phoenix someone was airdropping porn from their iPhone. A flight attendant made an announcement telling parents to make sure kids with iphones have their bluetooth turned off, and that their setting won’t allow receiving files from people not on their contact list.

Airlines have delay codes for weather, mechanical, crew availability and a host of other reasons. This may be the first flight, however, that was delayed by porn.

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Man Sang “Trump, Trump, Trump” Over And Over As He Got Kicked Off An American Airlines Flight

by Gary Leff

Sep 07 2020

A passenger on Saturday evening’s American Airlines AA883 from Phoenix to Chicago O’Hare delayed all of his fellow customers by an hour when he refused to wear a mask and was removed from the flight.

As he was escorted off the Boeing 737-800, the man sang to himself and anyone in the cabin inclined to listen, “Trump Trump Trump Trump, Trump Trump Trump.”

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How Airlines Choose To Make Upgrades Available, And Why One Airline Can Do Better

by Gary Leff

alaska airlines plane
Sep 06 2020

Here’s how airlines decide to make confirmable upgrade space available. They project how many first class seats they may sell in the cabin, and leave a buffer.

Seats that they know won’t be sold for cash might be given away as upgrades – but they also want to make sure that frequent flyers don’t confirm upgrades instead of paying cash so they’ll limit upgrades even still (often to when first class seats are available inexpensively – then the revenue tradeoff isn’t great, and the temptation not to pay cash is small).

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Police Caught On Video Extorting Tourist In Bali

by Gary Leff

Sep 06 2020

In a video shot last year, that only recently went viral, Bali police officers are videotaped extorting a Japanese tourist.

The visitor was driving a motorbike without its headlights on, which is required both day and night in Indonesia. The maximum fine is less than US$7. However the officers demand one million Indonesian Rupees in cash (about ten times the maximum fine). Since the man didn’t have that much, they haggled and accepted a lower amount. And by the way the officers who approached him aren’t even traffic cops.

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