Gary Leff - View from the Wing

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 »

America’s Next Top Model Winner Blasts United Airlines Over Wheelchair

by Gary Leff on February 18, 2019

Feb 18 2019

American’s Next Top Model winner Nyle DiMarco claims United Airlines had a wheelchair meet him on arrival because he’s deaf, as though that means he’s unable to walk through the airport on his own. The man also won Dancing With the Stars.

Oddly this keeps happening to DiMarco and he can’t strictly speaking just blame United here. In December he made news when Delta did the same thing. Which suggests to me the airline isn’t likely the one deciding on their own to assist him with a wheelchair.

Credit Card Rewards Have a Bright Future as Visa, Mastercard and Discover Prepare to Raise Merchant Fees

by Gary Leff on February 18, 2019

Feb 18 2019

I’ve argued that the biggest threat to rewards credit cards is that interchange fees, the percentage of each transaction that the banks and payment networks take, will fall.

However the opposite seems to be happening. TVisa, Mastercard, and Discover are set to raise interchange rates slightly this spring.

American Explains How Their Winning Move at New York JFK is Not to Play

by Gary Leff on February 18, 2019

Feb 18 2019

At an employee question and answer session with American Airlines leadership this past week American’s Vice President – Planning, Vasu Raja, talked about my post about the airline’s service cuts at New York JFK. He defends focusing on flying to hubs, a limited number of international destinations, and smaller cities where they have a strong customer base.

American has withdrawn from being a player in the New York market, with each retrenchment helping to accelerate the next retrenchment. American can no longer compete for the wallet share of business customers, and is only able to pick up business on a limited set of routes. As a result customers can’t remain loyal to the carrier and pay a revenue premium to go out of their way to do so, but choose it when they represent the best choice (with their limited schedule or based on price) on a one-off basis.

Avatar Airlines Has a New CEO and is Looking to Source 14 Boeing 747s on Social Media

by Gary Leff on February 18, 2019

Feb 18 2019

Family Airlines started about 27 years ago. The idea was fly 747s between Las Vegas and Los Angeles as well as Newark, later adding cities like Miami and Honolulu.

The government refused to process an application for service, reportedly insisting that founder Barry Michaels give up control of the project. Nonetheless, he continued raising money and the SEC filed suit over a securities offering.