Post: #1

Meet the Man Who Flies Around the World for Free


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Ben Schlapping
Ben Schlappig is a master of flying around the world — at no cost to himself. Bryan Derballa

Up in the Air: Meet the Man Who Flies Around the World for Free
Last year, a young man walked into the Seattle airport and took the next flight to anywhere — and he hasn't come down since
By Ben Wofford July 20, 2015

The boarding procedure has barely started at Chicago O'Hare, and Ben Schlappig has already taken over the first-class cabin. Inside Cathay Pacific Flight 807 bound for Hong Kong, he's passing out a couple of hundred dollars' worth of designer chocolates to a small swarm of giggling flight attendants. The six suites in this leather-bound playpen of faux mahogany and fresh-cut flowers comprise the inner sanctum of commercial flight that few ever witness. They're mostly empty now, save for two men in their twenties who seem even giddier than the flight attendants. The two stand to greet him. "This is so cool!" exclaims one, and soon Schlappig is ordering champagne for everyone.

This sort of thing happens to Schlappig nearly everywhere he goes. On this trip, his fans will witness Schlappig's latest mission: a weekend jaunt that will slingshoot him across East Asia — Hong Kong, Jakarta, Tokyo — and back to New York, in 69 hours. He'll rarely leave the airports, and when he does he'll rest his head only in luxury hotels. With wide ears, Buddy Holly glasses and a shock of strawberry-blond hair, Schlappig resembles Ralphie from A Christmas Story if he'd grown up to become a J. Crew model. Back beyond the curtain in business class, a dozen jowly faces cast a stony gaze on the crescendos of laughter and spilled champagne — another spoiled trust-fund kid, they've judged, living off his parents' largesse. But Schlappig has a job. This is his job.

Schlappig, 25, is one of the biggest stars among an elite group of obsessive flyers whose mission is to outwit the airlines. They're self-styled competitors with a singular objective: fly for free, as much as they can, without getting caught. In the past 20 years, the Internet has drawn together this strange band of savants with an odd mix of skills: the digital talent of a code writer, a lawyer's love affair with fine print, and a passion for airline bureaucracy. It's a whirring hive mind of IT whizzes, stats majors, aviation nerds and everyone else you knew who skipped the prom.

Schlappig owes his small slice of fame to his blog "One Mile at a Time," a diary of a young man living the life of the world's most implausible airline ad. Posting as often as six times a day, he metes out meticulous counsel on the art of travel hacking — known in this world as the Hobby. It's not simply how-to tips that draw his fans, it's the vicarious thrill of Schlappig's nonstop-luxury life — one recent flight with a personal shower and butler service, or the time Schlappig was chauffeured across a tarmac in a Porsche. But his fans aren't just travel readers — they're gamers, and Schlappig is teaching them how to win.

"I'm very fortunate in that I do what I love," says Schlappig, stretching out in an ergonomic armchair as we reach 30,000 feet and just before the mushroom consommé arrives. In the past year, since ditching the Seattle apartment he shared with his ex-boyfriend, he's flown more than 400,000 miles, enough to circumnavigate the globe 16 times. It's been 43 exhausting weeks since he slept in a bed that wasn't in a hotel, and he spends an average of six hours daily in the sky. He has a freewheeling itinerary, often planning his next destination upon hitting the airport. Just last week, he rocketed through Dallas, Dubai, Oman, Barcelona and Frankfurt. Yet for all his travel, it would be a mistake to call Schlappig a nomad. The moment that he whiffs the airless ambience of a pressurized cabin, he's home.

"An airplane is my bedroom," he says, stretching to reach his complimentary slippers. "It's my office, and it's my playroom." The privilege of reclining in this personal suite costs around $15,000. Schlappig typically makes this trip when he's bored on the weekend. He pays for it like he pays for everything: with a sliver of his gargantuan cache of frequent-flyer miles that grows only bigger by the day. Hong Kong, he says, is his favorite hub, and "the only city I could ever live in." The 16-hour trip has become so routine that it's begun to feel like a pajama-clad blur of champagne and caviar — or, in Schlappig's terminology, a "two-hangover flight."

As the sun descends over the polar circle, a recumbent Schlappig loses himself in a 2 Broke Girls marathon playing on a free-standing flatscreen. "The fact is, we are beating the airlines at their own game," he said last year at a gathering of the Hobby's top talent. "The people who run these programs are idiots." Then he paused. "And we'll always be one step ahead of them."

Schlappig wasn't so much introduced to his fixation as he was raised by it. Born in New York, he became obsessed with airplanes as a small child, endlessly reciting aircraft models and issuing flight announcements from the back of his parents' car. "Benjamin was always different than my two other boys," says his mom, Barbara. "Teachers told me, 'He's ahead of everything.' He was bored."

Around age 13, he discovered the website FlyerTalk, a massive free-for-all forum of all things airline, where users meet to strategize over deals, test for cracks in the bureaucracy and share the spoils. There, Schlappig found a global community playing a massively complex game set upon three basic components.


One of the fundamental steps a Hobbyist can take is choosing an airline to compete for top-tier loyalty status; Schlappig chose United. Nothing was free up front — the object of the game was a return on investment. A Hobbyist doesn't spend unless he can get the same or greater value in return. It took Schlappig about a year to master the dozens of convoluted techniques, exploiting mistakes in ticketing algorithms and learning the ins and outs of the frequent-flyer programs airlines had created after deregulation in the late 1970s. The second leg of the game is credit cards — collecting and canceling as many as possible, and deploying a series of tricks to reap the reward points that bank-and-airline-card partnerships would virtually give away. As he delved deeper, Schlappig learned about a third level, a closely guarded practice called Manufacture Spend, where Hobbyists harness the power of the multitudes of credit cards in their pockets. Airline-affiliated credit cards award points for every dollar spent, so over the decades, Hobbyists manipulated the system by putting purchases on credit cards without ultimately spending anything at all. At its simplest, this included purchasing dollar coins from the U.S. Mint with a credit card and immediately using them to pay off the charge. Schlappig read one detailed post after another that insisted Manufacture Spend was the only true way to fly for free — like sliding a coin into a slot machine and yanking it back with clear string.

Eventually, the best way he learned to visualize this bureaucratic gamesmanship was to see it as a series of table games on a sprawling casino floor — and if the airlines were the house, Schlappig realized, the Hobbyists were the card-counters.

Exceptionally bright and equally motivated, Schlappig saw a way of convincing his parents: by showing them how they could visit family in Germany paying less in first class than flying economy. From there, his parents grew to fully indulge his obsession. By the time he was 15, they were delivering him to the airport on Saturdays and retrieving him Sunday nights at baggage claim. "It was an interesting hobby," says his dad, Arno, as cicadas chirp outside the St. Petersburg, Florida, condo their son bought them after the blog took off. "I said, 'Hey! Keep it up. It's better than smoking pot.' " On a typical weekend, Schlappig would hopscotch to the West Coast and back — Tampa, Chicago, San Francisco, L.A., never exiting the airports. "Some of his friends knew," Arno says. "The teachers I don't think were aware of it."

Despite his high IQ, Schlappig was an apathetic student. He attended an all-boys Catholic school, where he struggled to fit in. "When his homework was done, he went back to his room on FlyerTalk," Arno recalls. "And he just posted and posted." Hobbyists say the game takes years to master. But at 16, Schlappig became the first known member to fly across the Pacific Ocean six times in one trip — Chicago, Osaka, San Francisco, Seoul and back again — in July 2006. By his 17th birthday, he'd logged half a million miles. That year, Schlappig was elected to FlyerTalk's governing TalkBoard; in 2009, he ascended to vice president, second to Gary Leff, now 40, one of the Hobby's most popular bloggers. (Schlappig calls Leff "the Godfather" of the Hobby; the two e-mail each other daily.)

Post: #2

The travel forum mascot?

G

Post: #3

(07-26-2015 09:37 AM)Geomann180 Wrote:  The travel forum mascot?

Not if he never gets laid.

Post: #4

I know Ben pretty well, and he should never be the travel forum mascot. He is gay and sits in hotels rooms all day and doesn't go outside to see the sights when he travels. Literally he gets more excited about getting an upgrade at a Hyatt than eating street food and partying in Bangkok.

He also pays for a large percentage of his travel, so it's kind of misleading. He doesn't do anything that anyone in the travel forum doesn't do, except we try to live a sane life and don't have a prominent miles and points blog.

I'd imagine that all of us would make for a better Rolling Stone article, but it would be too politically incorrect.

'Last year, 3 men set off for a tour of Asia where they would stop in Bangkok, Saigon, Hong Kong, and Taipei. Their goal - To rack up as many notches as possible and collect at least 3 new flags.'

Post: #5

They try and make it seem like this guy has an awesome life just because he goes first class when he flies. How "cool" is it to spend most of your life flying to another part of the world and just hang out in the airport before flying again to another city to do the same thing? This sounds like misery to me. Even first class how does he not get stir crazy on 16 hour flights? Adjust to jet lag? Deal with annoying people on airplanes that you have to sit next to for hours on end?

Post: #6

(07-26-2015 09:50 AM)elcidcampeador Wrote:  I know Ben pretty well, and he should never be the travel forum mascot. He is gay and sits in hotels rooms all day and doesn't go outside to see the sights when he travels. Literally he gets more excited about getting an upgrade at a Hyatt than eating street food and partying in Bangkok.

He also pays for a large percentage of his travel, so it's kind of misleading. He doesn't do anything that anyone in the travel forum doesn't do, except we try to live a sane life and don't have a prominent miles and points blog.

I'd imagine that all of us would make for a better Rolling Stone article, but it would be too politically incorrect.

'Last year, 3 men set off for a tour of Asia where they would stop in Bangkok, Saigon, Hong Kong, and Taipei. Their goal - To rack up as many notches as possible and collect at least 3 new flags.'

It would herald the coming of a million thirsty dicks.

Post: #7

(07-26-2015 09:50 AM)elcidcampeador Wrote:  He also pays for a large percentage of his travel, so it's kind of misleading. He doesn't do anything that anyone in the travel forum doesn't do, except we try to live a sane life and don't have a prominent miles and points blog.

Ben pays for most of his travels, and sometimes he gets some travels for free... which resulted in a dishonest title to this article

Post: #8

Nearly ten years wasted for a few free flights. Id rather go the Gringuito approach of actually building something of value that would then allow me to fly whenever and however I want without worrying about the cost.

These kid seems smart but he is burning through his two biggest assets, time and focus, for free flights. Something that most business guys scratch up to as a regular business expense. Any half decent flyer miles plan mixed in with a business that does a lot of purchasing will see plenty of free flights every year.

Besides its not free if you spend huge chunks of time chasing down the deal. Spend 20 hours looking for a free flight that costs $400 - you value your time at $20 an hour.

This kid should be working for the airlines - use those skills to improve their pricing and purchasing systems and actually bank some proper coin.

Quote:On this trip, his fans will witness Schlappig's latest mission: a weekend jaunt that will slingshoot him across East Asia — Hong Kong, Jakarta, Tokyo — and back to New York, in 69 hours. He'll rarely leave the airports, and when he does he'll rest his head only in luxury hotels.

Sounds like living hell.

Post: #9

(07-26-2015 10:42 AM)Atlantic Wrote:  Nearly ten years wasted for a few free flights. Id rather go the Gringuito approach of actually building something of value that would then allow me to fly whenever and however I want without worrying about the cost.

Rolling Stone Wrote:"It was an interesting hobby," says his dad, Arno, as cicadas chirp outside the St. Petersburg, Florida, condo their son bought them after the blog took off.

Sounds like he did build something of value.

Post: #10

I wouldn't live life as he does, always on the road and never at one place, however he probably built a successful online-business: A goal of a few people here.

He has his own award-booking service (http://pointspros.com) with his own staff.

His blog onemileatatime.com probably brings in a nice revenue, due to all the Credit Card referrals.

So, we can disagree with his lifestyle choice, but business-wise, he did it probably right.

Post: #11

I stand corrected. I suppose my point would have better put that spending this much effort into getting free flights for the average guy is a misuse of time. If he has managed to build a business marketing this to others then power to him. That site above is actually quite interesting for a quick read.

Post: #12

I see zero value in flying to anywhere and barely leave the airport even if I'm flying via private jet. As Atlantic wrote this kid is wasting his most valuable asset: his time.

I'll pass.

Post: #13

What a weird dude. I hate airports, I can't imagine just flying for the sake of flying and hanging out in them.

Post: #14

I would love to know some of his advanced manufactured spending techniques. Interesting that he is gay, because Brian Kelly, the guy who started The Points Guy is also gay.

Post: #15

(07-26-2015 03:28 PM)speakeasy Wrote:  I would love to know some of his advanced manufactured spending techniques. Interesting that he is gay, because Brian Kelly, the guy who started The Points Guy is also gay.

He doesn't do Manufactured Spending. He does 3 things:

1. Buys miles when they are on sale at a good price, such as the US Airways 100% bonuses ---> Cheap OneWorld flights or Lifemiles 200% bonus ---->Cheap Star Alliance flights
2. Buys paid business routes when they are on sale. Ex: Cairo - USA on Qatar for $1300 or so. That's why he's always flying Etihad or Qatar it seems from Colombo or Cairo or somewhere no one really wants to visit.
3. Runs all of the taxes and fees associated with his award booking business through his personal credit cards ---> An extra few miles, maybe up to a million a year or more depending on the economy.

There is nothing free about what he does, and certainly he is spending a whole lot more money than he indicates. That's what I don't like, as he misleads his readers into thinking that they can fly for free with a credit card (where he adds his CC affiliate links), then they can't find any flights with the miles so he directs them to his award-booking service.

All the hating aside, his business is quite successful, even if it is based off of soft selling the consumer on credit cards that may not be a good fit for their needs. There are a lot of 'newbies' in the points and miles game that are as clueless as the newbies that find their way to this forum.

I would say that he is spending at least 25-50k USD on miles or paid tickets a year, which currently is not an issue with his readership.

Post: #16

(07-26-2015 03:06 PM)Vacancier Permanent Wrote:  I see zero value in flying to anywhere and barely leave the airport even if I'm flying via private jet. As Atlantic wrote this kid is wasting his most valuable asset: his time.

I'll pass.

I remember reading some of your posts about travel a few years ago. What has changed?

Post: #17

If I didn't have rent to pay i'd do it for a while.

On the gay note he's probably meeting tons of guys in first class and in all the fancy hotels. He's probably racking up tons of rainbow flags.

Post: #18

(07-27-2015 06:52 AM)storm Wrote:  

(07-26-2015 03:06 PM)Vacancier Permanent Wrote:  I see zero value in flying to anywhere and barely leave the airport even if I'm flying via private jet. As Atlantic wrote this kid is wasting his most valuable asset: his time.

I'll pass.

I remember reading some of your posts about travel a few years ago. What has changed?

Absolutely nothing. There's a huge difference between [I]travel[/] and simply spending time on airplanes just to prove a point.

As forum members, we travel because there are fresh flags to capture at the end of that long, uncomfortable flight.

Post: #19

I'm not going to fly around the world as a hobby...

But maybe there's some valuable travel tips we can get from these weirdos.

Post: #20

Yea I don't see the point in flying the world. For most of the flight all you see is clouds.

I'm sure there are valuable things to be learned though from this guy about how to save $$$ on flights/ obtain upgrades.

Post: #21

I expect the real reason he does it is so he gets to bugger lots of different gay male flight attendants in the airplane loo.

A Gay, mile high club player.

Post: #22

Continuing with their renowned editing standards, Rolling Stone did not allow him to read the article before it hit the press. He even comes out and says on his website that the article was not reflective of him.

I think there are a few things worth thinking about from this article:

1. I don't think he's asking you to fly around the world.

2. It's his job at this point. He turned a passion, an obsession, into something profitable. His website is clean, organized and a money maker. He is a hell of a good blogger. He's not burning time and money at all.

3. I fly frequently and oftentimes use information he provides me to make decisions about my own travel. If I'm going to read and act on something, I sure as hell want it from a guy who travels professionally. I don't want to read a travel blog by a guy who sits behind his computer all day.

Post: #23

One of the things he does is use credit cards to buy $1 coins from the US mint at face value,then depositing the coins to his account.
This has been mentioned elsewhere.
Seems like a lot ofwork to lug the coins to the bank to get milesworth maybe 1% of face value. $5K of coins = $50 at 1%. Not a good use of histime.

Post: #24

I'm a long time reader of his blog and have met him several times at frequent flyer seminars and in lounges. Really bizarre how this RS article is on the opposite end of the spectrum of his "aw shucks" vibe he puts out on One Mile at a Time. The truth is probably somewhere in the middle, although he always seemed well mannered and down to earth to me.

I definitely don't travel as much as he does, but I've used a lot of his trip reports to scout different first class cabins and hotels that I've enjoyed through points/miles.

Post: #25

(07-27-2015 08:37 AM)Suits Wrote:  

(07-27-2015 06:52 AM)storm Wrote:  

(07-26-2015 03:06 PM)Vacancier Permanent Wrote:  I see zero value in flying to anywhere and barely leave the airport even if I'm flying via private jet. As Atlantic wrote this kid is wasting his most valuable asset: his time.

I'll pass.

I remember reading some of your posts about travel a few years ago. What has changed?

Absolutely nothing. There's a huge difference between [I]travel[/] and simply spending time on airplanes just to prove a point.

As forum members, we travel because there are fresh flags to capture at the end of that long, uncomfortable flight.

Suits,...
Or there to capture fresh flags after emerging refreshed (except for a scotch/champagne hangover) after a longhaul flight in first/biz with lie-flat seats on a premium airline.

Ben's been quite clear, he spends a lot on travel. He gave a breakdown a few months ago about how he comes across his points (maybe in March or April). He buys a shit load of miles (like many of you should be doing on Alaska in the next week or so), and does sign ups for about 500K a year - that's probably a month's worth of flying premium for him (or less). I find his blog, while occasionally annoying and effeminate, one of the two or three most useful out there. Perhaps the main reason is that while he travels to move, and I travel to go see a place and experience it, we both will spend a little extra to have a better experience (first class, suite upgrades, etc.). He's in my RSS feed and I don't expect to delete it. Take away from it whats useful to you, and don't worry about the rest.

It is a bit annoying with all the new readers that they're rehashing basics, but I just skip those articles.