TravelerChris

My name is Chris. I am a young, budding traveler living in Los Angeles. My travels have led me all over the world and I can't wait to see so much more!

I work as a Freelance Graphic Designer, allowing me to have the flexibility to travel pretty much whenever I want and work remotely. I have read that in certain circumstances, Flyers looking to gain a lot of miles in a short amount of time, or if they are unable to fly themselves, will have other people fly on their behalf (not sure how much truth there is to this statement). So 1 - I wanted to get a gauge at how possible/probable this is first off. Then 2 - assuming #1 is true - where would be the best place to look for such opportunities, possibly post that I am available for those opportunities as well?

***Not sure where to post this ***

Thanks!
Chris

mike2200

Would be interesting to read where did you see this at?

Thanks

hiima

You can't get miles from someone else flying. You have to have your butt in the seat to get the miles.

Mauibaby2008

Yeah... Uhm... That pretty much has never been possible.

s0ssos

Are you willing to change your name? If so you can fly for someone else

Mwenenzi

10 plus years ago was possible in some places. But not for a long time. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unite...-baht-run.html
Threads in FT have been deleted

JDiver

Welcome to FlyerTalk.

The day when one could hire others to earn miles is over, and it wasn't on USA airlines anyway. The days when companies were hiring couriers to escort high value baggage are over as well.

My best suggestion, given the heyday of earning millions of miles with cereal box tops is over, is to spend some time gleaning more knowledge here on FT. That time and effort will likely bring rewards.

Efrem

Welcome to FT, Chris!

Probably the best way to get a lot of miles without flying these days is via bonus offers for new credit cards. How much of that you can do depends on your financial situation and how much of a credit score hit you're willing to take when card issuers check your credit. As a freelancer, you may qualify for some business card offers that have especially high sign-up bonuses. You may want to spread this out over time so you aren't trying to reach minimum initial spending requirements on too many cards at the same time. (You often need to charge some amount, say $1,000, in some period of time, say 30 days, after you activate the card to get the bonus.)

You can also get miles, though not as many, through manufactured spending (MS): passing purchases through multiple gift cards and credit cards, sometimes getting refunds, to get more miles in total than a straightforward purchase would earn. This can become a hobby in itself. Some people have done quite well by this method, though the first well-known scheme (buying coins from the U.S. mint with a mileage-earning credit card, then taking them to a bank for full value) no longer works. Others figure they'd get more miles by asking "Do you want fries with that?" for the same number of hours and buying miles from the airline with their earnings.

There's lots more information on all of this in the credit card section of FT. The MS forum is in that section, too.

DavidDTW

Or, as a freelancer, expand your potential client base to worldwide. Then if you travel for business the costs may be deductible.

pwd847

oops wrong thread

TravelerChris

Thanks for all the responses everyone!

My only pushback though - can't you "gift" someone miles through your respective airlines website? It seems as though no one is looking for such an act, but hypothetically if I was approached by someone who wanted to pay for my ticket in exchange for the miles, I could fly in my own name, and then "gift" them the miles once they were awarded to me. Correct?

LondonElite

You can't make a habit of it. Some programs allow limited transfers to (sometimes) named people. And there are usually limits on the number of transfers or the amount of miles per year. In short, no, you can't gift miles along the lines you are thinking.

Adam1222

On top of that, some programs charge you per mile to gift miles to others.

you'd be best off learning the basics of how frequent flyer programs work rather than trying to concoct a scheme. Most schemes have already been thought of.