Hopefully you’re familiar with super-traveler & blogger extraordinaire Chris Guillebeau but if not, now’s the time to start.
But this post isn’t just to kiss his butt, it’s to share his great eBook titled Frequent Flyer Master.
I don’t buy many eBooks because I’m one of those stubborn fools who would rather spend 30 hours researching things myself than pay somebody $5 to teach me them in one hour. Silly, I know but I’m starting to open up to the idea and have purchased a few products like this over the past few months.
Despite thinking I knew all there was to know about mileage programs and reward travel I went ahead and ordered Frequent Flyer Master after reading Chris’ 25,000 mile (one domestic round-trip airline ticket) guarantee. Earn an extra 25,000 miles after reading it or he’ll gladly refund your money. That’s a good enough guarantee to me and 25,000 miles is well worth the cost of the program.
Within two months of purchasing it I’m due to receive about 90,000 frequent miles and have only taken one flight (which I ironically didn’t earn any miles on due to my poor attention to booking details).
What can 90,000 frequent flyer miles get you?
- How about more than three round-trip domestic tickets in the USA?
- Or almost two round-trips to Europe.
- And my personal favorite, two round-trips to Central America with enough left over for a domestic trip.
What did three years of constant business-travel get me?
- Around 20,000 miles on Delta
- Around 13,000 miles on American Airlines
- Around 4,000 miles on United
- Around 2,000 miles on US Air
- A sore back
I’ll take the 90,000 frequent flyer miles for almost zero work!
Even a stubborn guy like me still has a lot to learn and Chris is the MAN for teaching me that.
One of the bonuses that isn’t exactly advertised is the Frequent Flyer Master email list. If you’re on any of Chris’ other email lists you’ll know he loves to send great info out to his readers (he’s about the only one who doesn’t drive me crazy with spam – every email is worth reading). Well if you purchase, you’ll get an early, or sometimes exclusive, heads up on promotions and info regarding adding up even more miles.
Of course your mileage may vary (no pun intended) but for me, it has already paid for itself tenfold.
How much does it cost?
I guess it’s time to talk dollars and cents (or sense, if you have any).
The Frequent Flyer Master eBook / program costs just $49. If you read it and earn a quick 25,000 miles, it’ll be the cheapest airline ticket of your life!
You might also consider bundling the Becoming a Travel Ninja guide for a total of $79 which I also found extremely useful. Some of the knowledge on Round-The-World (RTW) airfare in that guide alone is worth its weight in gold.
Full Disclosure
The links on this page are affiliate links. I’ll earn a few bucks if you decide to purchase any of the Unconventional Guides through my links. I joined with Chris to promote this after I bought and read both guides on my own dime, without any plans to sell them to anybody. After spending the time to read them though and earning some serious frequent flyer miles very quickly, I realized this stuff has to be shared!
If you end up purchasing them through this page, please leave a comment below. I’d like to send you a special thank you in the near future.
Thanks for the kind review! I’m so glad to hear you we’ve taken you to 90k miles with no sore back. :)
Me too! :) Thanks Chris
I’m sorely tempted to check that out on your recommendation. Before you spend your miles, consider one thing (which may or may not already be in the book, I don’t know since obviously I ain’t read it yet).
We recently booked tickets to fly across the country at thanksgiving. Amounts shown are approximate, but real $$ are very close to this ..
– United was cheapest non-stop price at $500 x 2 tickets = $1000.
I had just over 32,000 United miles so I figured it would be cheaper to use them. Result?
– 1 ticket at $500 + 1 ticket for 25K miles = $500.
But here’s where the magic happened. I tried to book the same flight for 2 people using my miles, and here’s the result ..
– 2 tickets at $125 each plus 15K miles each = $250!
Now that’s what *I* call a result!
That is a heck of a deal! I’m glad it worked out that way for you.
I don’t recall anything about that exact tactic in the guide but one thing’s for sure, the more you get involved in mileage programs and toying with them, you realize there are so many factors involved that you’ll never wrap your head around them. But you will test more things than you can count and sooner or later, you find a crazy deal, or loophole maybe, like you did.
I love when random things workout like that!
While there’re no shortage of ways to earn free redeemable miles, my problem is I can’t find opportunities to use them! Last year I spent about 150,000 miles on a last minute flight to Machester, UK during Christmas(I simply couldn’t afford the $2000+ they were asking), and a flight to Amsterdam for a wedding. The year before I spent 175,000 miles on 2 flights to Egypt. This year, I am finding myself stuck with well over 200,000 miles and I can’t use them and it pains me as they sit there devalue…
Here’s my dilemma: I am an elite member on 3 major US airlines belonging to 3 different alliances. The most enticing thing airlines have to offer is EQM’s, not RDM’s. Why do I say this? Because as an elite, I don’t pay baggage fees. I also get upgraded to First Class about 60-70% domestically and 100% to Central/South America, and once in a while on a transatlantic. Coach to Asia? Talk about a sore back!! If I spend my miles on a flight then I am not eligible to earn EQM’s, making it hard for me to keep my elite status for next year. I also would not be eligible for an upgrade to First Class! I’ve found that it’s much more worth it to spend $$ on flying simply for earning the EQM’s. Plus, you earn a lot more RDM’s as an elite and then it becomes a never ending cycle or what the heck am I gonna do with all my miles?? I have even gone to the extremes of doing mileage runs just to keep my status!
I think this year I will be giving my miles as gifts…I feel like I’m just hoarding a big pile of miles and not using them!
I don’t know what you’re going to do with all those miles (you might be giving Chris a run for his money in the mileage stockpile department!) but I’ll gladly take some off your hand any time you feel you have too many ;)
Absolutely! I’m going to give miles away as wedding gifts, so let me know when you’re getting married(you’ll probably have to invite me to the wedding…and make it a destination wedding)! =)
I’ve never been into redeeming miles but this seems like a really good way to save money. Thanks for enlightening me!