Get a Refund on Exorbitant UK Aviation Taxes, 500 Free Miles, and Which Politicians Fly Coach…

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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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Comments

  1. aargh … yes. remember having to pay NZ outbound fee at the airport. Many of us stuck in a long queue. Horribly inefficient, for not so much $$.

  2. For the record, if you click through, it turns out Mr. Carter was in fact in F. He just walked through the plane to shake hands with everyone, likely as a kind of apology. (I don’t know what it’s like to fly on a plane with Secret Service protection, but I’m guessing it involves some disruption for the regular passengers.)

    Since nearly all US politicians are rich, flying coach is simply some combination of pandering and penny-pinching. I don’t find it admirable and it seems like only politicians who are worried about getting re=elected do it.

  3. What a horrible idea (an extra step to pay departure taxes at airports)! Thank goodness that’s bundled into the costs of tickets in any reasonable country. Like we need one more queue, one more hassle, one more opportunity to figure out how to make payments, one more delay, one more receipt to keep track of. I travel internationally several times a year and haven’t had such an experience for a long time.

    Not all politicians are rich, and to stay in touch with their districts many fly back home just about every weekend (or their next opponent will hold it against them in the next election if they don’t). Most fly coach most of the time, though probably not those few with Secret Service protection.

  4. I don’t think the issue is who flies first vs coach. It’s who flies commercial or not. I have no idea but I don’t think I’ll see any of the Bush former First Ladies flying commercial.

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