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 »

More articles by Gary Leff »

Mother May I? US Reminds Europeans to Ask Permission 72 Hours in Advance to Come Here

by Gary Leff

Dec 18 2018

U.S. travelers are certainly aware of the challenges of dealing with visa applications to visit certain countries, and how much simpler it is to visit somewhere that either doesn’t require a visa for U.S. citizens or allows for visa on arrival.

The U.S. won’t allow foreigners without approved visa or ESTA to board aircraft headed for the U.S. That raises the transaction costs of coming here, which makes doing business with the U.S., spending tourism dollars, and supporting U.S. industry more difficult for little security benefit in exchange.

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Heartbroken Woman Forced By Southwest to Leave Pet Fish Behind

by Gary Leff

Dec 18 2018

Everyone eventually has a fish story. Now Southwest Airlines does, too, since one of their passengers is telling the story of how the carrier separated her from her pet fish in Denver, a pink male beta fish named Cassie. She says she travels with it everywhere, but on this day the Southwest employees she ran into wouldn’t allow it. And she loved her fish.

Earlier this year Spirit Airlines told a cancer patient she’d have to flush her emotional support hamster down the toilet if she wanted to fly that day out of Baltimore. While the TSA was happy to screen the pet, Spirit Airlines is just too classy to carry rodents on board or as cargo.

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Why You Never Get Stuff Back You Leave on a Plane: Delta Cleaning Crew Steals Passenger Laptop

by Gary Leff

Dec 18 2018

If you leave something behind at a security checkpoint you’re better off searching for it on eBay than at lost and found.

At American no one will retrieve your missing items because helping customers gets in the way of their operation.

Apparently the reason you don’t get your stuff back if you leave valuables on a Delta flight?

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The Ridiculous Reason We Haven’t Learned More About the Lion Air 737 MAX Disaster

by Gary Leff

Dec 17 2018

Lion Air flight JT610 from Jakarta to Pangkal Pinang crashed 13 minutes after takeoff on October 29. 189 passengers and crew were killed in the disaster.

The aircraft’s flight data recorder was recovered last month, and provided useful information to allow for a preliminary report. The cockpit voice recorder has not yet been recovered. Unfortunately investigation of the Lion Air Boeing 737 MAX crash is stalled.

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oneworld CEO Make an “Impassioned Plea” for Qatar Airways to Stay in the Alliance

by Gary Leff

Dec 17 2018

Two months ago Qatar Airways threatened to leave the oneworld alliance, a threat that their CEO Akbar al-Baker has repeated several times.

Qatar’s CEO did not attend the alliance’s annual meeting in New York where their existing partner Royal Air Maroc announced its pending entry into oneworld. Any exit would logically have been announced at that meeting, though Qatar has mentioned a Christmas deadline for a decision.

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Have Elite Status With an Airline or Hotel? You Can Have SkyTeam Status, Too.

by Gary Leff

Dec 17 2018

Right now SkyTeam member and Delta partner Aerolineas Argentinas is promoting an aggressive new status match offer. They will give you a year of elite status based on the status you have with another airline (that is not a part of the SkyTeam alliance) or a hotel chain. Willingness to match against, say, Hilton Honors is unique, easy, and aggressive.

SkyTeam elite status makes travel easier on Delta.

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