17-year-old trades working in McDonald’s for flying First Class and reveals how you never need to travel in Economy again
Zac George from Brisbane, Australia, travels on intercontinental flights twice a month using air miles
AT JUST 17 years old Zac George has done more flying up the pointy end of the plane than most of us will in a lifetime… and most of the time, he doesn’t even pay a penny.
Until recently, the savvy teenager worked part-time in McDonalds around school to be buy Business and First Class tickets, making up the difference in price with an enormous bank of frequent flyer points.
The young man from Brisbane, Australia, is a genius when it comes to earning air miles, proving that you don’t have to be a millionaire or even have a full-time job to sit among the VIPs on flights.
He said: “Since I was 13 or 14, I’ve been absolutely obsessed with flying and I was flying on the weekends just from Brisbane to Sydney to take photos of aircraft.
“It got quite expensive and I needed to find a way to do it cheaper so I started looking into credit card points, and how valuable they are.
"They’re almost like a currency.”
Nowadays, he has turned his passion into a full-time job, earning cash from a professional blog and by marketing deals with airline companies.
With ten credit cards to his and his parents’ names, Zac is an expert in frequent flyer points and knowing which loyalty programs provide the best deals.
He said: “It’s expanded into a job for me — I do this full time, 12 hours a day.
“I have a blog and do affiliate marketing, and then I use that income to buy points and that enables me to continue flying.”
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As well as choosing a credit card that offered the best points-for-spend return, Zac signs up to as many loyalty programs as possible so he can take advantage of various promotions.
He said: “I always sign up for promotions — even if I don’t end up taking advantage of them.”
“Virgin Australia currently has a billion points giveaway where you get 15 per cent more points for converting eligible credit card and flybuys to Velocity points.”
As well as loyalty programs, Zac also buys points at a discount from various airlines.
This tactic helped to boost his air miles to the two million a year that he needs to fund his twice-monthly overseas trips.
He said: “A lot of people don’t know about buying points, but Alaska Air is probably the best to buy them from.
"There’s no real limit on how many you can buy and they can be redeemed on multiple airlines like Emirates, Qantas, LATAM, Cathay Pacific and Japan.
“If you buy Alaska points on sale, for about £1,091 you can get enough points to fly first class from Sydney to LA on Qantas — that’s about one-tenth of the actual price."
ZAC’S TIPS FOR COLLECTING FREQUENT FLYER POINTS
* Don’t be afraid to have multiple credit cards - just be sure to pay them off in full each month.
* Double points by using credit cards for other goods and services that attract points like restaurants, fuel, groceries.
* Sign up for promotional points giveaways even if you’re not sure you will take advantage of them - at least be registered in case an opportunity arises.
* Use points earned from airlines as soon as possible. Loyalty programs change regularly and it may well be a case of, if you don’t use them, you’ll lose them.
* Points earned on credit cards have more longevity, and cards like AMEX allow points transfers between airlines.
* Investigate buying points. Airlines like Alaska Air have regular points sales for mileage club members which is free to join. American Airlines also sells points relatively cheaply.
* Don’t burn points on domestic flights - keep them for international travel.
* The best use for points is for upgrades - where their value is maximised.
* All frequent flyer programs are not equal. Join the free ones that have good airline partnerships.
A version of this article originally appeared on .
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