In 2016, I blew past my previous record for miles traveled, went all in on gift card reselling, moved to Mexico, and picked up a handful of credit cards and bank signup bonuses along the way.
I flew just over 197,000 miles last year, a significant increase from my previous record of 125,000 miles in 2016. The change was mostly because I did a lot more flying across oceans – my 2015 trips were entirely in the Americas, but I spent a lot more time in Europe and Asia in 2016.
Some of my highlights included:
– traveling to Indonesia with one of my best friends on a super-cheap Delta/Garuda ticket (<$400 roundtrip)
– watching the Northern Lights in Fairbanks, Alaska with some other travel hackers
– visiting Palestine and Israel for the first time on a $250 KLM ticket
flying to Bangkok and Tokyo for the first time, by combining a super-cheap ANA ticket with a Thai award ticket and a JAL mistake fare
– spending a month in Honolulu, Tokyo, Osaka, and Hong Kong with my partner
– my first round-the-world trip (MEX-JFK-LIS-ZRH-VCE-IST-TPE-KIX-LAX-SMF//OAK-PHX-MEX)
– taking the United Island Hopper from Honolulu to Guam and getting an incredible behind-the-scenes experience with a group of Flyertalkers
– and of course, our holiday trip to Europe and Cancun for the holidays
By Tonei Glavinic