credit cards : The Art of Non-Conformity

Travel

The Latest In Travel Hacking, “Volcanic Ash Karma” Edition

I lived in Seattle from 2006-2008 without a car, which worked well about 80% of the time. The other 20% of the time, I spent a lot of time waiting on street corners for the bus to arrive. It was frequently late, but once in a while, I'd get to the bus stop right when the bus was pulling up. My friends and I called this “good bus karma” which we ascribed to previous 40-minute waits when we had just missed it.

Last month during the British Airways strike, I walked around a deserted Heathrow airport terminal with departure signs reading CANCELLED. Meanwhile, my flight went out as planned, albeit on a chartered “EuroAtlantic” flight where the meal consisted of a paper bag filled with bananas (seriously) and half a bottle of one-euro red wine. I was grateful for the bananas, but mostly for the flight.

The 5 Million Frequent Flyer Mile Challenge

This is the true story of how I've earned more than 300,000 Frequent Flyer miles in the past five weeks thanks to mileage bonuses from new credit cards. If you’re up for it, you can do this too – and if you’d prefer a more conservative strategy, you may still be able to earn at least 50,000 new miles.