
How to Fly 35,000 Miles, Visit 4 Continents, 9 Countries, and 15 Cities for $418 - vamsee
http://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/2010/12/09/how-to-fly-35000-miles-visit-4-continents-9-countries-and-15-cities-for-418/
======
mgkimsal
It's certainly cost this person a lot more than $418, because most of this
seemed to be earned with credit card reward points. Spend $4k in 6 months and
get 75,000 points, etc. So.. great. Spend a lot of money (possibly buying more
than you intended to) and get a reward.

I guess being on the other side of the table - a merchant - I resent the whole
'rewards' racket. A) I end up getting charged more as a merchant, and I can't
_not_ accept your card. B) It's encouraged a culture of chasing after rewards
that often aren't really something you need or end up being hard to use for
most people (airline miles).

Yes, there are a few people who can really 'make out' (like this guy) but in
the end this is mostly just another way for banks to make extra profits off
people's greed ('something for nothing').

"If I were to pay for this adventure with cash and book individual flights, it
would cost almost $6,000"

I'm guessing there was a lot more than $6k spent on 'stuff' to get this.

~~~
dlnovell
If you put _everything_ you buy on your card it's not hard to rack up points
really quick - especially if you can find a way to get your landlord to put
your rent on your credit card. My wife and I are flying to NYC soon for free
on this year's miles.

~~~
AdamTReineke
As a student, I'm curious to see if I can put my tuition on a card... That
would be useful. :-)

~~~
LiveTheDream
The interest on that expense would completely wipe out the benefit of frequent
flier miles or cash-back and would stick you with a drastically higher total
payment (credit card rate =~ 19%, student loan rate =~ 5%). If you have enough
cash to pay off college tuition within the payment period, I stand corrected.
Most people don't.

~~~
elai
You pay with the card, and then you pay off the card with the student loans.
Many colleges don't accept credit cards for tuition, and a local one stopped
recently.

~~~
LiveTheDream
Wow that was obvious. Thanks for pointing it out; I was not thinking clearly.

------
travisp
If you spend 250,000 frequent flyer points on a vacation, it's not free. This
is not just because you had to spend money to get those points (which might
have been spent on cash back credit cards for example), but because those
points have value (almost as a separate currency) that could be spent on other
things (and not just flights).

But, he still got a great deal using the OneWorld Awards program and it's
definitely a great option for those who have the free time to do this.

------
acgourley
I feel it takes so much mental energy to hack rewards cards that it's a net
loss. He's obviously bright, I'm sure he could have used his time simply
earning enough money to take his dream vacation.

As far as rewards go, amazon's reward card gives a good return without
cognitive effort.

~~~
sanj
If he's enjoy it, which he appears to be, then he's having fun hacking as well
as getting a near-free vacation.

I'm certain that fiddling with my 30 year old pinball machine is a net loss.
But I'm going to do it anyhow.

~~~
acgourley
Fine about about this: instead of creating value he's extracting value.

------
ssharp
I thought this was going to be about some super-ineffcient international
route, featuring multi-day layovers that was offered for $418 by a carrier.

------
goatforce5
If you're flying a fair bit anyway, I recommend you look in to doing an AA
Platinum Challenge.

<http://www.flyerguide.com/wiki/index.php/Challenge_(AA)>

It'll help you get bonus miles for flights you're doing anyway, and AA is
actually not a bad airline when you have decent status with them.

~~~
ben1040
This was the best advice I was ever given before taking a job that had me
traveling 4500 miles a week.

If I didn't do the challenge, I would have left 50,000 bonus miles and a bunch
of upgrade stickers on the table. At the time it was free to do, so there was
no downside, but if you're going to fly enough to qualify for platinum or
executive platinum anyway the fee for the challenge is well worth it to get
the bonus miles and priority boarding that much sooner.

~~~
goatforce5
I'm a little taller than average, so being able to prebook exit rows for free
even when travelling on the cheapest economy ticket was worth it's weight in
gold (or platinum. Ho ho!). I was doing a lot of transatlantic at the time, so
it really was a big deal.

Your status must come up when you book ("Oh, you travel with us a lot. We'll
just ignore the overweight bag fees today then...") and on the passenger
manifest (more than once I had free drinks given to me, or better brands of
drinks brought back from First).

Now that I have no status they don't go out of their way to do those things,
despite having a ton of miles i'm slowly working through, and a bunch of
unusable upgrade stickers. Meh.

The recent flight to Hawaii paid for with some of my miles made up for that
though.

------
stevenwei
Cool scheme. For that amount of travel I feel like he should have collected
more miles and gone for the first class award (280,000 airline miles required
for the same distance flown).

Sure, it requires twice as many miles, but if you're going to be flying
multiple transcontinental flights, first class is nothing to scoff at. The
total cash value of that many first class flights is going to be far north of
$100k, so in some sense you're also getting more value out of it.

------
snewe
Important caveat:

"I’m not kidding when I say that I spent probably more than 24 total hours in
the past three weeks having a blast on this thing creating itineraries,
checking mileage, and figuring out where the heck I could go without going
over the limit."

~~~
salvadors
The "having a blast" part is important. I've built similar trips myself, and
playing with all these tools, finding interesting routes etc can be great fun
(like discovering a way to get from Kyrgyzstan to Austria via Ethiopia and
Jordan at no additional cost). It's a form of hacking that can be just as
addictive as any other, and has the added benefit of helping you see lots of
the world cheaply!

------
bonsaitree
I can't help but be reminded of "hacking" casino comp systems. Please.

In truth, this trip cost well in excess of $418 due to the other purchases and
time tie-ins involved.

I'm all for leveraging advantages, but there's leveraging, and then there's
outright "gaming". The former can yield value when you factor in your time &
attention, reasonable workflow safety margins, and compliance with spirit of a
policy. The latter is merely a mental exercise to optimize a series of
transactions around a single parameter, in this case the present dollar cost,
to the complete exclusion of externalities.

At least he got some follow-on web traffic for his efforts.

------
xutopia
I heard about a hack that allowed you to purchase bonds or something with your
credit card and then reselling those bonds while racking up air miles.

It was all possible until there was a crack down. This guy essentially did
just that.

~~~
steveb
For a time you could buy U.S. savings bonds online with a credit card. So the
common trick was:

1) Get a rewards credit card (Citi had at 5% rebate card at the time if you
wanted cash, but there were also other rebate cards like frequent flier
miles.) 2) Purchase bonds at treasurydirect.gov. (I bonds were a favorite at
the time, the fixed rate was over 1%.)

The ability to buy savings bonds with a credit card was ended in 2003.
<http://www.treasurydirect.gov/news/faq/faq.htm>

~~~
babblefrog
Another possibility is buying US dollar coins at the US Mint website for face
value.

------
AlfaWolph
So he's Tim Ferriss Jr?

------
chrisaycock
He gets most of his points for sign-up bonuses. He doesn't say the exact
number, but it looks like he registered for at least four cards in the span of
a year. Applying for a lot of credit in a short amount of time is a great way
to _hurt_ his credit score! I wish he'd write a follow-up about what happened
to his credit after this experiment.

~~~
Estragon
The US fetish with credit scores mystifies me. (I've lived in the US for 15
years.) Especially with the economy in its current state, why would you _want_
credit at the moment?

~~~
tertius
Because credit cards are free if you pay them off. And you get benefits which,
my friend, are also free.

\- Miles/Cashback. \- Free international travelers insurance. \- Free car
insurance. \- Free 1 year warranty on most electronic goods above a maximum 1
year warranty from the manufacturer effectively doubling your warranty. \-
Concierge if you have a really good score. \- Discounts on car rental. \- Free
access to airport lounges (high credit score + relatively frequent flying). \-
Purchase price protection: If you bought an item recently and someone else is
selling it for cheaper, get your invoice + ad together and get a refund for
the difference (up to a limit).

(not an exhaustive list)

There is no need to be in debt to have a good credit score. Also, the higher
your credit score the less interest you have to pay if you ever decide to get
into debt (house/student/car).

TL;DR

Having credit available doesn't mean you have to use it and it comes with a
lot of free perks.

~~~
Estragon
I don't think the kind of hit you'd take from this kind of credit card game
would have sufficient impact on your credit score to diminish those benefits.

------
Edmond
Maybe he travels for work...easy to do if you charge expenses to your personal
card and get reimbursed.

------
aeurielesn
Unfortunately, I am not my own boss so I am more concerned on how to get those
6 months to spent.

------
kondro
Sounds like fun but the guy must shop to get to the following points in 11
months:

    
    
      130,000 American Airline miles
      105,000 British Airways Miles
      40,000 Starwood Preferred Guest points
      25,000 American Express points
    

I'm only guessing at the spend required for that many points but surely that
is $200k - $300k in spend. Surely this blog post isn't accessible to everyone.

Having said that, I admire his sense of adventure to just pull-up stops from
his life and travel the world for 9 months. It is something I really need to
get around to myself.

~~~
JacobAldridge
Not if you play the system, particuarly 'sign-up bonuses' designed to lure new
customers (who will then not be bothered to switch). The OP uses an example -
AA Citi Cards currently give you 75,000 miles if you spend $4,000 in 6 months.

Using that as a base measurement (even though I'm now probably stretching the
math too far in the other direction) he could rack up 300,000 miles spending
$16,000. Very easy, especially if you also have some business expenses.

~~~
kondro
Seems like reward points programs are much better in the USA than in Australia
-_-

~~~
JacobAldridge
I'm pretty sure they are, especially now due to the greater economic disparity
between the two countries.

On a completely unrelated note, it's great to see a fellow Qlder on HN.

~~~
kondro
There's more of us than you'd think ;)

------
megaframe
It's anice idea... If I could only take a 9 month vacation and retain my job
:-(

------
rjett
How does a stunt like this affect your credit rating?

~~~
JimboOmega
Every time you apply for a new card, you lose a few points; it falls off after
a couple years (2 or 3, I forget).

There are people who make a game of applying for cards as fast as their credit
rating will allow (I think 700 is roughly the floor, below which you stop
applying).

If the company tries to charge an annual fee, you call them up, try to
negotiate out of it, and if they won't, you cancel the card.

Having too many cards isn't that bad of a thing (as long as they are with
different issuers). It can be a good thing, because part of your credit score
is the amount of credit you are using out of your total credit.

Like everything else, you game your credit score... there is no real value to
having it be perfect high, you just need "good", so you get approved.

Also, the miles that are best come from getting new CCs... not from spending.
There is usually a minimum spend to get the initial bonus... but after you do
that, you can move on to another card, and get far more than $1/mile.

For instance I got a card that gave me 75k miles for $1500 in spending.

------
noodle
huh... interesting post, because i'm in the process of building up miles in
order to do the exact same thing. glad to know it works

------
gregparadee
$5000 to the winner? Wasent Facebook Chat developed my an intern? I would
assume $5000 and a chance to work for Facebook would be a better price.

------
ashconnor
Refferal code in the ebook link, you have to be kidding me.

------
jsvaughan
and be personally responsible for nearly 7 tons of CO2 emissions

~~~
joelrunyon
fairly sure the planes would be going to the destinations regardless of
whether he redeemed his FF miles or not.

~~~
dotBen
yes this is a whole another argument that as a geek I get frustrated about.
Not flying on a given trip doesn't reduce the amount of CO2 because the plane
will fly anyway and either the weight reduction difference will be negligible
in terms of CO2 or they'll just take more freight.

Then the counter argument to that is that if enough people don't fly the
airplane won't fly at all... But that would just make it commercially
infeasible to operate many routes and in turn whole airlines and then we just
have a complete deterioration of the airline industry.

~~~
jsvaughan
I'm surprised that this got downvoted, and you're both wrong; your argument is
equivalent to saying that there's no point voting as you're only one vote in a
big population.

Do people really care this little about the environment?

~~~
dotBen
so yes, I do care about the environment. Air travel is something that concerns
me, but of all the contributors to green-house gasses it is one of the ones
that I see hardest to change/decrease. Case in point - I come from London but
live in San Francisco and there is no other _(reasonable)_ way to travel
between the two cities other than by air.

I don't get how my argument is like voting. If we all vote together then
something positive happens (change). If we all 'vote' by not flying then the
airline industry collapses - which is not positive. If I've miss-understood
your example + argument please elaborate.

