Anyone who’s ever flown between the US and Hong Kong will know it’s not all that fun in economy class. If you don’t work for, or own, a bank, however, that’s usually your only option.
A round-trip first-class ticket from New York’s JFK Airport to Hong Kong on Cathay Pacific comes in at around HKD217,000. However, one savvy (and possible crazy) New Yorkers thinks he can do it for just HKD28,000.
How? Through the magic of manipulating air miles.
Kevin Song, a frequent flier of American Airlines – part of the Oneworld Alliance of which Cathay is a member – recently spent 72 hours on planes in order to accrue enough air miles to go visit his girlfriend in Hong Kong, first-class-style.
He did this by purchasing tickets costing a total of USD3,609 to travel 22,778 miles from JFK to Dublin and then from Dublin to Honolulu, via Los Angeles.
This gave him almost 142,000 air miles while using up just half a day’s annual leave from work.
Before you start planning some equally nuts endeavour, however, TravelSupermarket expert Bob Atkinson told the MailOnline that the scheme won’t work for everyone.
“It’s a fairly extreme way of flying to achieve what he wanted. It appears he was wanting to protect his flying status with AA rather than accrue the miles, however he has managed both. The average punter would not be able to do this as the frequency which most people fly is just not enough to make it worth their while,” he said.
CORRECTION: A previous version of this article said Song aimed to purchase a business class ticket to Hong Kong. That was incorrect.
Photo: Wikimedia Commons
