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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“Every Cheap Domestic United Fare is Now Basic Economy Now… Includ[ing] Connecting Fares”

by Gary Leff

airport boarding
May 29 2017

While United claimed these new fares were a benefit for customers, they were in a very real sense lying because Basic Economy fares were (as American Airlines candidly put it describing their own Basic Economy offering) merely ‘new attributes’ for the lowest fares, and not new lower fares at all.

In other words, Basic Economy fares give you fewer benefits at the same price you used to pay. The goal is to make these fares unpleasant enough that you’ll spend more to avoid them.

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Here’s What It’s Like to Travel (With And) Without Elite Status

by Gary Leff

May 29 2017

I usually try to avoid travel over major holiday weekends like this one. The bookends of long weekends are ‘amateur days’. Airports are crowded, planes are full (they are most of the time nowadays anyway) and lines are longer.

Very frequent flyers can get frustrated with once a year (or less) travelers but really shouldn’t. The skies — and the airports — do not belong to us. We put in our time, and we get our perks, we know the drill and it comes easier for us anyway with PreCheck for security, club lounges to wait in, and priority boarding so we don’t lose overhead bin space.

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Delta Rolls Back Fuel Surcharges on Virgin Atlantic Awards (and How Not to Protest SkyMiles Devaluations)

by Gary Leff

people walking through airplane cabin
May 29 2017

Delta quietly devalued their miles again over the holiday weekend adding fuel surcharges to Virgin Atlantic business class awards departing the U.S..

A year ago a business class roundtrip on Virgin cost 125,000 Delta SkyMiles. Yesterday it cost as much as 205,000 miles and a $956 cash co-pay. But this change has been rolled back.

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7 More Airlines Just Joined PreCheck, Make Sure Your Known Traveler Number is Up to Date

by Gary Leff

people walking in airport
May 28 2017

Back in September Lufthansa became the 19th airline set up with TSA PreCheck. By joining Air Canada, Etihad, Aeromexico and WestJet, what was once US airlines only — and not even all of them at that — the massive US data-sharing, surveillance and passenger-convenience program had gone global.

In January 11 more airlines joined including Spirit, Virgin Atlantic, Emirates and Avianca to bring total participation to 30. Now 7 more airlines have joined.

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