Chris Guillebeau is the king of travel hacking. Picture: Chris Guillebeau / Facebook
THERE'S a secret group of people travelling the world for free. They're called 'travel hackers'. And they're laughing all the way to Timbuktu and back again.
Chris Guillebeau could be called the king of travel hacking. Author of the $100 Startup, his travel hacking blog has 80,000 regular readers.
So what is travel hacking? Essentially, it involves finding ways to earn Frequent Flyer Points to either fly for free or at a heavily reduced price.
Guillebeau stumbled on the idea when he was working as an aid worker in Benin, West Africa and wanted to travel back to America with his wife for Christmas.
"Economy tickets were about $1,500, but I discovered I could buy Frequent Flyer Miles on eBay. I was able to purchase enough miles to fly Business Class both ways... for only $1,200.After that, I was hooked."
So he began a quest to visit every country. He's made it to 193. At least 50 of them were for free, the rest at heavily reduced prices. He's 35-years-old.
Mr Guillebeau will do anything for frequent flyer miles.
He once rented a shopping cart from a homeless man to help him push $2000 worth of Sacagewea dollar coins to the bank. The United States Mint sold the coins at their face value as part of a marketing push. So Mr Guillebeau bought them with a credit card, deposited them straight into the bank, paid off the credit card later and kept all the miles. He made 30,000 Frequent Flyer Points at no other cost but his time – and the charge for the homeless man.
That's not the only crazy thing he has done for Points.
I've received a hair loss consultation in exchange for 20,000 Delta SkyMiles - that was certainly strange, since I was 32 at the time with a full head of hair."
So how do you get started?
Guillebeau says travel hacking takes time, but not too much. And for free flights, it's worth it.
"If you can devote 30 minutes a month to earning Points through regular follow-up, you should be able to earn enough Points for several free trips a year no matter where you live."
If you are truly keen to get started he suggests joining websites like his own blog or MilePoint.com community, which is free and welcomes beginners from all over the world.
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