In the 19th century, the richest of the rich made friendly 20 thousand-pound wagers to see who could be the first to travel around the world in 80 days. I think there was even a movie about it. As flight technology has surpassed the sophisticated engineering of the hot air balloon, people are traveling around the globe in fewer days, but they usually still have to be pretty rich to do so.
That is, unless they are Sam Huang, the world travel addict who figured out a way to fly around the world—first class—for about the cost of a domestic round-trip ticket.
“This year I went on a $60,000 around the world on Emirates First Class… I booked my ticket for only $300,” the title card reads in a video Huang made documenting his epic journey.
It took Huang a year of research to figure things out. How did he do it? Frequent flyer miles—but for a self-proclaimed “infrequent flyer,” it takes way more planning and strategy.
“I’m the infrequent loyal flyer,” Huang toldMashable. “I don’t fly much at all on any paid flights.”
In a blog post, Huang explains that he signed up for multiple credit cards with Bank of America, highlighting their partnership with Alaska Airlines, Mashable reported. The airline is a mileage partner with Emirates.
It took Huang a year of research to figure things out.
Officially, the traveler booked a flight from New York to Sydney, Australia (a 20 hour flight on average), but took advantage of Alaska Airlines’ lax policy when it came to routing.
“So most airlines, when you book a trip, they have a thing called routing rules to stop you from doing a crazy round the world,” Huang said. “Basically Alaska’s computers until recently didn’t have routing rules. If you wanted you could nest a layover.”
"Many of our members have indeed redeemed Mileage Plan miles to take bucket list trips like the Emirates A380 First Class experience Mr. Huang describes," a spokesperson for Alaska Airlines told NTRSCTN. Anybody could ostensibly recreate Huang's global trip, they said, adding that "as long as it is a valid itinerary from [Emirates'] point of view, you can use our miles to book it." Although, passengers generally try to book the most direct route.
Alaska Airlines could not confirm the $60,000 estimation of Huang's adventure.
Judging from the video and photos, it looks like Huang had the time of his life as he bounced through Auckland, Brisbane, Melbourne, Milan, Rome, Dubai, Mauritius, Singapore, and for some reason, Houston.
Updated 6:11 p.m ET: The latest version of this story includes official comment from Alaska Airlines.
