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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DEAL: Use American or British Airways Miles for Business Class To Europe Next Summer Without Big Fuel Surcharges

stock airline bed
Sep 10 2016

Booking Europe awards with American miles can be tough. American releases very little space on its own flights, and their primary transatlantic partner is British Airways — and British Airways fuel surcharges can be truly choke-worthy.

On odd occasions American offers great spurts of availability on their own flights, then it dries up. Fortunately there’s Iberia… Iberia business class award space for two passengers is fantastic for summer next year.

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Here’s Why We’re Seeing More Deep Discount Airfare Flash Sales Than Ever Before

Sep 10 2016

It’s been over a decade since I’ve regularly seen roundtrip coach fares to Southeast Asia for under $600. Now they seem to be popping up all the time. Sometimes they’re even under $400. I don’t even bother posting fares to Europe unless they’re under $500… preferably under $400.

Airlines have a hard time telling the difference between business and leisure travelers. Airlines are doing their best to figure out how to price in a way that picks up the cheap leisure travelers who won’t buy at a higher price…

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The Book Your Award By Email Trick for Space You Can’t See Online

Sep 09 2016

In some ways Star Alliance frequent flyer program Avianca LifeMiles has one of the best offerings in the world.

There are a couple of major drawbacks: not all connections are bookable the website won’t show every possible itinerary and if you call agents are only going to see what you see online, and telephone customer service is challenging and not great English usually either. It turns out there’s a trick.

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