View from the Wing Archives.
Rove Miles now transfers 1:1 to Qantas Frequent Flyer, with a 50% launch bonus through August 14 and live Qantas award searches on Rove’s website. Qantas members receive access to additional seats unavailable through American, Alaska or British Airways, plus unique partners including El Al and Aircalin.
These 16 guerrilla travel tactics can save miles and cash across flights, hotels, rental cars, and rideshare, from throwaway award segments and partner-booking tricks to backup tickets, schedule-change plays, fuel dumps, hotel repricing, off-airport rental pickups, and leaving the terminal before calling Uber. Some are fragile or gray-area, but each reflects a real way travel pricing often works beneath the surface.
Miles and points are not just about getting yourself a better seat. The most meaningful redemptions are often the ones that let you take care of people you love: sending a grandmother to see family in first class, giving kids memories without raising them to feel entitled, or extending loyalty benefits to someone else. That is where travel programs create the deepest loyalty.
Air France La Première may be the best airport lounge in the world, but almost nobody can access it. These are the lounges I’d actually build a trip around, from Qatar’s museum-like Al Safwa lounge and Cathay Pacific’s The Pier to Qantas First in Sydney, American Flagship First Dining, Capital One Landing, Air Canada Signature Suites, and Lufthansa’s First Class Terminal.
American Airlines has quietly improved more than many passengers realize, from new lounges and better coffee to free Wi-Fi, Starlink plans, better cabins, improved standby rules, a stronger app, and major airport investments. But the airline still needs a coherent premium vision, more widebody aircraft, better cabin maintenance, seatback screens, and a clearer identity if it wants passengers to believe the turnaround is real.
United is working with Customs and Border Protection to expand programs that let international connecting passengers skip reclaiming and rechecking bags at their first U.S. airport. The airline already has this on Sydney–San Francisco, and broader adoption could cut customs delays, missed connections, and one of the worst hassles in U.S. international travel.
Award seats are not gone, but the way most people search for them is broken. After redeeming billions of miles over more than 25 years, the rules that still work are the same ones most travelers resist: be flexible on dates, routes, gateways, programs, and prices; book the workable trip first; and keep improving it as better space opens.
While I write about lounges a lot, I didn’t always have access. In fact the first time I ever entered one as an adult, I snuck in. It was a United Airlines lounge back 24 years ago, and it’s part of my early travel educating me about what airport lounges were all about and why I wanted to use them. It’s also the story of my first international premium cabin award redemption, which I used to visit my family in Australia, so my ‘sneaking in’ holds extra significance to me.
I spent three hours in an American Airlines coach middle seat from Washington National to Dallas — and got two and a half hours of real work done. That should not feel revelatory, but after years of chasing upgrades and paying more for domestic first, it made me rethink when the extra space is actually worth the money.
A rideshare driver allegedly used AI to fake car damage, but left the logo in the photo. Also: Jessica Simpson’s first class while her kids sit in coach explanation, another Hyatt devaluation surprise, and American’s broken first-class tray tables.
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 »
