Here's How You Can Travel Around The World In First Class For Free
Do you want to see the world before you get too old to enjoy it? Do you want to fly first class to destinations as far as Asia, stopping everywhere you can think of along the way?
Do you want to do it all for free?
Well, follow in the footsteps of Andy Rosenbloom and you may be able to have all the amenities the friendly skies have to offer without dropping a dime.
According to Travel and Leisure, a first class round trip for two from Boston to Thailand is about $40,000. Seriously, who has that kind of money?
Andy Rosenbloom, a 32-year-old director of marketing, definitely didn't, but he wanted to take his wife, Cassie, on the honeymoon of a lifetime. So, apparently, Rosenbloom opened up 11 credit cards in the span of two and a half years in order to use the bonus points to take a $40,000 trip for free.
Boom.
Rosenbloom reportedly schemed this plan before he and Cassie were even engaged. He did some research and found Cathay Pacific to be the airline that not only had the best first class amenities but what he deemed the best layover cities.
If you're unaware, credit card companies offer very substantial bonus points just for signing up, something Andy Rosenbloom took full advantage of. In addition to doing his research on airlines, Rosenbloom also found the credit cards that would give him the most bonus points to use toward travel.
Speaking on his genius travel hack, Rosenbloom reportedly said,
I loaded up on American Airline and British Airways points so I could eventually transfer them all to Cathay. I wanted to go full-tilt and we did. I wanted a cool experience that we'd always remember.
But, what happens when you're stuck with 11 open credit lines? Well, Rosenbloom is no dummy and if you try and achieve this ultimate hack, you can't be either. In order to keep everything in check, Rosenbloom made sure to pay every card on time. He used a spreadsheet to keep track of his billing schedules.
He kept a close eye on annual fees, closing out cards that had the highest of those fees. In order to keep a great FICO score, Rosenbloom was careful not to close out too many cards at once.
Apparently, it's best to keep hold of older cards, as this will help you show a history of good credit. Closing cards you recently opened doesn't mean nearly as much.
Andy and Cassie Rosenbloom spent a month making their way through Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos, stopping in multiple amazing cities along the way. They didn't spend a dollar on first class airfare.
As far as why it was so important for Rosenbloom to fly first class, he reportedly said,
For instance, there are these gorgeous lounges where you wait for your plane. You can take a shower. You can get a bed and your concierge will wake you up. We got pajamas and slippers on our flights that I still wear today. They have 60 bottles of scotch, 100 different waters. You can eat dinner at a table facing each other and your coffee comes in actual china cups. If you're in coach, God forbid you want to scratch your butt. You have to ask your neighbor to hold your orange juice to do it.
Happy travels, everyone.
Citations: How We Honeymooned Across the World for Free (Travel and Leisure)
