MAN WITHOUT A HOME FLIES THE WORLD FIRST CLASS AND IN LUXURY

BEN SCHLAPPIG ON THE MOVE

Have you ever dreamt of living life on the go? Then Ben Schlappig is already living your life and he is doing it for free. He is a Hobbyist…did I hear you say what? Well that’s a person who is a professional traveler and does this almost for free by reading between the lines of the air tickets to take advantage of the benefits of both the frequent flyer miles and credit card reward points. And so for over one and a half year, Ben, 25, an American has been without a fixed address talk less of a home but spent most of the time traveling in the air and wait for it…on a first class ticket on a first class airline.

This way, the New Yorker, a graduate of marketing, typically flies 400,000 miles a year, that’s about going round the globe 16 times, spending 4 hours airborne every day with at least one international flight per week. Then on land, he enjoys his remaining hours in first class hotels preferring to stay no more than 3 days in any one. Then he is off again in the air.

Schlappig began piling his air miles over ten years ago when he was just 14 and he says he has never flown economy on an international flight. He says he feels at home in Emirates first class, as he does anywhere else adding that he knows every aspect of the seats, he is also familiar with the staff and tends to run into the same crews.

In his popular blog called One Mile at a Time, Schlappig states that the level of opulence experienced in first class is not beyond the means of the average traveler, he says that they just need to be prepared to do their research to enjoy the luxury that comes with it.

He lists 3 ways to earn air miles to include, Credit card reward schemes, Milleage running and Air lines discounted miles sale.

Schlappig says many people are put off as they feel that there's no such thing as a free lunch and that it sounds too good to be true. While he agrees that it is not easy and straight forward, he says those who enjoy reading the fine print are doing it and they range from college students to those over 80 years.

His says he began as a 14 year old when he saw a United Airlines flyer offering 5,000 extra miles for every segment flown. He, however, became voluntarily homeless in 2014after moving out of his flat in Seattle, USA for good.  He began by asking his parents to let him spend the summer flying across the country racking up points after promising that their next trip to visit family in Germany would be on a first class ticket. After spending most of the summer in the airport and making about 8 flights each weekend he earned an elite airline status. Now this childhood obsession has developed into a career. And believe him, he says even after flying some five million miles since then, he is still just as awed by the experience as he was when he was six-years-old.

Schlappig says with this type of lifestyle impacts on his relationships as he has a hard time maintaining relationships but thankfully, his good friends understand what he does. And ss for romantic relationships, that he says is a little more difficult.

He says on each flight, his eyes are glued to the window catching his fun such as getting amazed when he sees a sunset from the sky.

Hmm! What a life.