A bit of an old article (4 years ago), but it was all over the major networks. In my personal circle (excluding FT), I know multiple people who have the same passport, and I am sure among FTers there will be more than a handful who could have the same claim. Interesting to see the press he received.

http://abcnews.go.com/Travel/jet-set...ry?id=11882482

Actual newsworthy points?

- Setting aside a quarter million to travel
- "Sixteen-year-old Akhil has already been to more than 80. And in case you were wondering, his passport has reached 72 pages." How many 16 year olds have 72 page pp's?

Just read this either here or another blog in the past week or two. I'd say there are a lot of Americans with more than that, a full size current generation US passport plus 2 times getting pages added ends up being far more than 72 pages.

The passport in post 38 of this thread appears to have at least 4 extra page insert booklets.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/china...-stamps-3.html

Lots of people on FT get their US passports up to 96 pages (48 pages plus two 24 page inserts) within 2 or 3 years.

The $150k/year leisure travel budget is certainly out of my league, but fails to impress me (a single intercontinental business jet charter would wipe that out in a heartbeat).

There are lots of 16 year old kids here in Shenzhen that run out of pages quickly; going back and 4th to HK twice a week for an extended period of time results in a lot of PRC stamps.

Many years ago, the concept of electronic pp's was discussed. Now that the world is essentially "computerized", electronic pp's AND visas should make extra pp pages a moot point.

Great that he travels so much with his family, but that lifestyle is clearly not attainable for the vast majority of people in the world. Our annual household income, which is well above the 90th percentile in the US, would be squarely in the middle of his annual travel budget range. According to 2011 US census data, his household income is probably >99.9th percentile.

EDIT: that's not to say that people can't work the system to gain points, miles, etc. to travel more cheaply or to attain more luxurious levels of travel than might otherwise be possible if paying out of pocket or travel more frequently (this is FT, after all!), but most people aren't making this kind of money and able to just drop a quarter million on vacations every year.

I've had 3 passports that had 4 inserts each. It's not uncommon at all. The US even has a rule that once they've added 4 new sets they won't add a 5th, you have to get a new passport. I've never had a passport survive the whole 10 years because of that.

I know at least a couple of dozen people (real life, not FT) who have similar experiences.

I wish that photo was still visible; it was well more than 4 inserts in a US passport.

See also http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trave...-passport.html

I've got 3 sets of extra pages in my primary US passport and also had a second US passport (with double pages) for a while so I'd add to the "not so uncommon" comment...

My old one had either 6 or 7 inserts. I was able to convince the HK consulate thrice to get it done.

I added two inserts (two sets costs the same $82 as one set) in HK a few months ago, and I'm pretty sure the consular people told me that 3 is the max now. Their fee for a new passport (which can be 48 pages if you ask) was only $75.

I'm 35 years old and on my 3rd passport with 51 pages... It's not that uncommon for people with jobs that require an international business trip on a weekly basis.

always good to see some well-researched quality journalism ^

True, but from the sound of it this kid is going from Caribbean country to Asia to Europe, and not really just crossing the same border.

I hope he's earning status on airlines/ hotels at the very least, even if he isn't using those points. Somehow I don't think he's buying economy saver fares for him and his family.

Probably not, but the $250k budget honestly doesn't support excessive extravagance if one spends even 1/4 of their time traveling.

Living in HK, I'm surprised that you're even slightly impressed by this story; excessive spending (e.g. US$20k nights at Dragon i) is extremely common in HK.

Oh, I was only surprised that a common feat (96 page passport) warranted such widespread media coverage.

But yes, living in Hong Kong is hard to be impressed with you are reminded at every corner about the abundance of money in this city. 20k at di? High school kids have been dropping 20k since they were 15/16... crazy. But that's a story for another thread.