How to Fly 35,000 Miles, Visit 4 Continents, 9 Countries, and 15 Cities for $418

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.<p>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 <i>not</i> 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).<p>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').<p>"If I were to pay for this adventure with cash and book individual flights, it would cost almost $6,000"<p>I'm guessing there was a lot more than $6k spent on 'stuff' to get this.

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).<p>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.

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

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.

If you're flying a fair bit anyway, I recommend you look in to doing an AA Platinum Challenge.<p><a href="http://www.flyerguide.com/wiki/index.php/Challenge_(AA)" rel="nofollow">http://www.flyerguide.com/wiki/index.php/Challenge_(AA)</a><p>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.

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).<p>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.

Important caveat:<p>"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."

I can't help but be reminded of "hacking" casino comp systems. Please.<p>In truth, this trip cost well in excess of $418 due to the other purchases and time tie-ins involved.<p>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 &#38; 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.<p>At least he got some follow-on web traffic for his efforts.

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

So he's Tim Ferriss Jr?

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 <i>hurt</i> his credit score! I wish he'd write a follow-up about what happened to his credit after this experiment.

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

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

Sounds like fun but the guy must shop to get to the following points in 11 months:<p><pre><code> 130,000 American Airline miles 105,000 British Airways Miles 40,000 Starwood Preferred Guest points 25,000 American Express points </code></pre> 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.<p>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.

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

How does a stunt like this affect your credit rating?

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

$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.

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

and be personally responsible for nearly 7 tons of CO2 emissions