Originally Posted by
helvetic
It requires money, but not FU money. I average $130/night or so on hotels, and probably $25k or so a year on flights (not chump change, but not something most upper-middle-class adults can't afford). I fly a lot of mistake fares and cheap business fares. Mostly it does require a lot of flexibility. I am very good at the travel-hacking game at this point.
How often do you find mistake fares? You also must have a lot of flexibility not only in terms of time but also destination (go wherever there's special or mistake fare going on).
I could totally see how it's possible to fly 180~200k miles a year, all in premium class, on $25k out of pocket. But I just have a hard time understanding how a typical upper middle-class adult can afford to spend $25k/year on flights... unless you're in a unique position of having no mortgage/rent or are close to retirement and are not making retirement contributions.
Let's say one makes $150k per year pre-tax (that's a reasonable upper-middle class pay in a major metro or even for an FTer, no?). After tax, insurance and maxing out on 401k, you're probably left with ~$85k. If your rent/mortgage is $2500/mo, then we're looking at $55k take-home annually after rent. Assuming $25k for flights and $6500 for hotels (50 paid nights a year at avg $130/night; this doesn't include F&B associated with points stays), we're looking at only $24k remaining for spending for the year after travel expenses. $2000/month is just not sustainable for spending money.