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 »

Jackson Hole Airport Decides To Close For Two Months

by Gary Leff

Nov 10 2020

Jackson Hole, Wyoming is going to close its airport from April 2022 through June 2022 for runway reconstruction. No commercial or private air traffic will be permitted.

While Jackson Hole isn’t heavily populated, it’s home to a number of resorts for people looking to enjoy the incredibly scenery – places like Amangani, Teton Mountain Lodge and the Four Seasons. June is the start of peak season, though May is actually a lovely time to visit most years. The airport closure will affect this, as the next-closest commercial air option is nearly two hours away.

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Flight Attendant Claims They’re A “Government Official,” Threatens 20 Years Prison For Misbehavior

by Gary Leff

flight attendant with brass knuckles
Nov 10 2020

One Spirit Airlines flight attendant went on a bizarre rant, pre-emptively warning passengers about the consequences of bad behavior – including failure to wear masks – by letting everyone in the cabin know that they are a government official, commercial aircraft are government property, and they can write anyone up that they want simply for acting out of character. That comes with 20 years (or life!) in prison and a $250,000 fine.

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Get $50 Gift Card Made From A Retired DC-9 When You Buy A $500 Delta Gift Card

by Gary Leff

Nov 09 2020

There was a lot of excitement recently over the ability to buy Alaska Airlines gift cards at a 10% discount via Costco ($500 gift card for $450). Delta Air Lines is offering a 10% bonus but there’s something unique about the bonus. It isn’t an electronic gift card. Instead it’s “a limited-edition $50 Delta Gift Card made from a retired DC-9 aircraft“

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The 50,000 Pounds Of First Class Nuts United And American Quit Buying? We Bought Them All!

by Gary Leff

Nov 09 2020

Stuck with huge inventory that airlines weren’t buying during the pandemic, the small business that supplies first class nuts to United and American was on the verge of going under. The owner said they had “50,000 pounds of nuts American Airlines and United didn’t want!”

Word got out where to buy the nut mixes and grounded frequent flyers bought them all!

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Guest Smashes Truck Into A Pond Over Lack Of Hotel Breakfast

by Gary Leff

Nov 09 2020

Hotel breakfast is one of the most important elite benefits and something that’s considered standard, ironically, at most non-full service properties. But what happens when a guest expects to receive breakfast and doesn’t, either because of a change to the loyalty program or as a cost saving measure gussied up as ‘protecting guests and workers during Covid-19’?

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The Pfizer Vaccine Looks 90% Effective, Great News For Travel!

by Gary Leff

Nov 09 2020

Pfizer reports their Covid-19 vaccine, in conjunction with BioNTech, so far appears 90% effective. With 94 people in the clinical trial having gotten Covid-19 so far, that means people in the control group receiving the placebo were about 10 times as likely to get the virus as someone who had received the vaccine.

The drug maker could reach milestone of 2 months since the second dose for half of trial participants in order to apply for Emergency Use Authorization next week. They report no ‘serious’ side effects in the trial. That’s great news, great progress. And it means we should have great optimism for travel.

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