shayflyer11

I'm thinking about making a TV Show about getting top tier status on every major airline (AA,United,Delta,BA) in one year. How should I get the funding, through kickstarter?

kevindavis338

I would suggest you do the following:

Bypass the TV and start a streaming channel for Roku or Amazon fire or any type of platform.

To get funding I would use Kickstarter.

mahasamatman

1. This "feat" is far from unique,
2. If you think there are only four major airlines in the world, I don't think anyone would take you seriously, and
3. I hope your profile is wrong - United Gold is fourth-tier and BA Gold is not top-tier either.

shayflyer11

what i mean is how to acquire top tier, not that I have top tier

javabytes

TV should be relevant to those watching.

I struggle to see the value in obtaining top tier status in 4 different programs in one year. Unless you fly so g d much, in which case you already know how to do this: spend and fly a ton. There is little to no value to this for so many people that I doubt you will find an audience.

And if your advice is going to involve attaining status on one airline and then matching... this is probably the worst advice for all but the smallest minority of people.

shayflyer11

the value of it is that people will see mileage routes before they fly them, know the lounges, know the good seats, and also see the Premium Class Seats for each airline. Also by doing it for each airline people will learn the previous things about them and the advantage of being in each alliance. Not just for people that actually want to do these runs, people can watch it because Mileage Junkies might find it interesting.

hfly

1. Those are not every major airline.

2. Not interesting as a TV show, maybe as some esoteric blog. There are hundreds of people here on FT, including myself who get and maintain 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 top tiers YEAR after YEAR after year. It is not an achievement.

3. See the website you are on? Flyertalk? The one with about 670,000 users, about 30 million posts and hundreds of millions of views? That is your audience, and they are already here and many seemingly already know these things.

irishguy28

Let me introduce you to the concept of ALLIANCES.

If you have top tier status on AA, you have it on BA as well.

I'm not sure why you think funding you to travel on these 4 "major" airlines would make gripping viewing.

What about travel on the airlines blacklisted by the FAA or the EU instead? Now, that might throw up some interesting TV - rather than simple workaday flights on the best-known airlines in your world...

shayflyer11

Hi, irishguy28 I changed the tv show to documentary and I am focusing on showcasing Mileage Runs on Oneworld Alliance (Best Mileage Runs for least amount of money) and OneWorlds Premium Cabins (Premium Economy,Business, First). That Idea about travel banned is very interesting but the problem is that actually flying the airlines and documenting them might be hard because of the countries that have banned them.

notquiteaff

Do you have any experience in producing TV programs?

Low Roller

If you want a show that people will watch, it should be about how average people (i.e those that don't fly enough to get status) can use airline & hotel miles for free trips (economy class, BW-style trips to Florida with the kids). Just look at how popular the Extreme Couponing show was, and that was just about getting free gatorade and toilet paper. Unfortunately for you, that wouldn't result in someone paying you to fly around the world in first class It would also unrealistically raise people's expectations as to what these programs can normally do, leading to more dissatisfaction and a possible devaluation for those of us who quietly enjoy this hobby.

bobert24

Sorry, you're not going to have a big enough audience to be on any TV network. As was mentioned, you could do your own streaming show, or maybe create a youtube channel. This would best be approached as a hobby, rather than a money-making opportunity - you may make a few bucks off of it, but you sure won't make enough to pay for the trips, much less any other day to day expenses you have.

The real problem is that almost all of this information is readily available on blogs/websites in written form, which most people prefer (it's faster to consume, easier to skip around to the parts that interest them, etc.). I don't think you'll have many people jumping at the opportunity to kickstart something that already exists in a different (usually more preferred) format. Plus, what would the payoff be for them?

shayflyer11

Yes, but what I have found is that most of the blogs just review routes and all of the good parts of the trip and routes. What I'm going to be showing is everything in the trip and the cost of earning EQMs and Award Miles, if it's discomfort or luxury and prices. Also I'll be showing the premium cabins of OneWorld. Also, what I have seen on the blogs they don't show you the best dates and best Mileage Redemptions. In the documentary I'm going to show everything from booking to flying and some of the pros and cons of flying Mileage Runs

hfly

So I take it from your answers that you actually have no TV production experience, seemingly are going to do this with a GoPro, don't actually know much about this stuff and are seemingly looking to find a way to get strangers to pay you to travel around the World to fund you for these two endeavors that you seem to not know much about......and to do a "documentary" ........a genre which people who actually know what they are doing are often unable to support themselves, and often have to fund the pre-production, if not the entire production on spec?

SanDiego1K

FlyerTalker Gabriel Leigh got a kickstarter project funded called Frequent Flyer - the Feature Documentary. He made a 7 years ago that formed the basis of his kickstarter fund raising. I remember he had considerable talent and knew his story well. I've no idea why the project failed to complete. Here is his bio. It looks as though he has moved on to other projects in the travel world.

Born in New York City, raised in Japan, the US, and the UK, Gabriel Leigh is now based in Hong Kong after stints in Buenos Aires, Beirut, Berkeley, and London.

With a film degree from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts and a Master's from UC Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism, he roams the world making films, writing, and earning and burning frequent flyer miles.