How one man used an air-miles loophole to book £40,000 worth of flights for £200
'If you can’t pay of your bills fully every month, please don’t do this game'
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.A man used a loophole in an air-miles scheme to book £40,000 worth of flights around the world for under £200.
Sam Huang used credit card schemes and the absence of routing rules in the flight booking system to secure the series of first-class flights with Emirates airline that included around-the-world stop-overs for just £196.
Like many other people before him, Mr Huang took out lots of credit cards with air miles and began racking up points.
Using seven of these cards, he collected his miles over a few months. However, calling himself the “infrequent flier”, he explained that he didn’t accumulate his miles by booking lots of flights.
The majority of banks have limitations on how often rewards bonuses can be earned, but Mr Huang found a loophole to get him stop-overs on a flight from Singapore to New York.
He used Bank of America credit cards, which had an agreement with Alaska Airlines, who are a Mileage Plan partner of Emirates.
After collecting around 100,000 miles, Mr Huang booked his ticket.
He told Mashable: “So most airlines, when you book a trip, they have a thing called routing rules to stop you from dong a crazy round the world.
“Basically Alaska’s computers until recently didn’t have routing rules.”
He went on to explain that, without these rules, you are able to ‘nest a layover’, meaning a stop-over of no longer than 24 hours en route.
“So I just started typing different city combinations. I nested a lot of 24-hour layovers – but in the computer it looks like Singapore to New York”, he said.
Mr Huang now spends his time teaching other people how to do the same, by writing guides on his website.
But he warns that people must have the sufficient funds in order to pay off the monthly credit, and you must be in a point in your life where having numerous credit cards is financially viable.
“If you can’t pay of your bills fully every month, please don’t do this game” said Mr Huang - who added that he currently had around 15 cards.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments