I got into this pretty late, about 4 years ago; I've managed to hit almost every airlines first class cabin (most of them many times).
Just a few left; gotta catch 'em all!
I always assumed people on HN would be all over this kind of thing, it's a total minmax optimization problem. Especially back when this was even more of a game, with the US Airways Grand Slam through 2011. The puzzle there is worth reading about. You'd get up to 100,000 bonus miles for completing 36 'partner activities' (bonuses are only awarded in groups of 4 activities -- 1,2,3 you get nothing and at 4 you get all the miles for that group -- and the number of miles awarded for each group of 4 increased from nominal to significant. I spent weeks optimizing and figuring the marginal cost. After minmaxing the hell out of your strategy, you execute; fill in surveys, buy the cheapest thing on Skymall (in my case, a toilet lock for a child I didn't have), book phantom rides on the super shuttle. Maybe spend a few bucks and splurge on a bamboo plan. Ended at 140K miles for $700 -- at the time just short of 2 round trip business class tickets from North America -> Europe -> Asia -> North America.
Once you get into it, your average getaway is better than most peoples' honeymoons; I flew Etihad apartments to the Maldives for a weekend for 75K miles and $100. And that was just one of the many.
Agreed, lucky is one of my favorites. I actually got started with The Points Guy but the quality has gone downhill so much, and the blog has become a shill for card signups even if they don't make sense. My other favorite is Matthew at upgrd and Efficient Asian Man.
I always assumed people on HN would be all over this kind of thing, it's a total minmax optimization problem. Especially back when this was even more of a game, with the US Airways Grand Slam through 2011. The puzzle there is worth reading about. You'd get up to 100,000 bonus miles for completing 36 'partner activities' (bonuses are only awarded in groups of 4 activities -- 1,2,3 you get nothing and at 4 you get all the miles for that group -- and the number of miles awarded for each group of 4 increased from nominal to significant. I spent weeks optimizing and figuring the marginal cost. After minmaxing the hell out of your strategy, you execute; fill in surveys, buy the cheapest thing on Skymall (in my case, a toilet lock for a child I didn't have), book phantom rides on the super shuttle. Maybe spend a few bucks and splurge on a bamboo plan. Ended at 140K miles for $700 -- at the time just short of 2 round trip business class tickets from North America -> Europe -> Asia -> North America.
Once you get into it, your average getaway is better than most peoples' honeymoons; I flew Etihad apartments to the Maldives for a weekend for 75K miles and $100. And that was just one of the many.
Agreed, lucky is one of my favorites. I actually got started with The Points Guy but the quality has gone downhill so much, and the blog has become a shill for card signups even if they don't make sense. My other favorite is Matthew at upgrd and Efficient Asian Man.