"The Hobby" - could you be bothered?

Jawgap

Rolling Stone have run a profile on Ben Schlappig - uber traveller!

Up in the Air: Meet the Man Who Flies Around the World for Free


For those not familiar with him, he games airlines FF programmes to essentially fly all around the place for free and generally in first and business class.

Much and all as I enjoy my flying, I don't think I could take it to this level (or anything close)!

L1011

This isnt even possible to that extent unless you live in North America. Requires "manufactured spend", stuff like buying gift vouchers to buy further gift vouchers with and having insane volumes of credit card sign ups every year. When the best payback credit card in Ireland is Tesco, it's not possible

DivingDuck

Having read the article, I chased up his blog, which is an interesting read... But as above, isn't really applicable to those outside of the continental US (and especially not for Ireland).

He also takes pains to point out that he never travels for free, only at discounts of varying steepness.

arubex

Rather the opposite of myself, and most people I know, who prefer to minimise contact with airports and airlines!

I'll fly if I absolutely must, but generally it's lower-stress to take the train and ferry. The only airliner flights that interest me are enthusiast-specials, and you can't game those with Air Miles...

deaddonkey15

Where did he get the money to start all this off in the first place? How does he make money now? Through his blog?

durandal01

Cracking article, thanks a lot.