A Man Who Flies Around the World for Free • Hacker News Board

Re: A Man Who Flies Around the World for Free

#181

Post by ackalker » Wed, Jul 22, 2015, 1:02 AM UTC

Tough chance of any youth from my country trying to compete with him. Our government has imposed tough regulations on credit card ownership in order to curb personal debt.

Those who apply for a credit card must be 18 years or older and provide proof of stable income >= $2000/month before banks will even consider the application. Also, all credit cards are registered at our national credit registration office with their max withdrawal counted towards personal debt risk, so applying for or owning more than just a few CCs at any single time is very unlikely unless one has a very well paid job or other sources of income.

Re: A Man Who Flies Around the World for Free

#182

Post by saryant » Wed, Jul 22, 2015, 1:47 PM UTC

ackalker wrote: post #181

Tough chance of any youth from my country trying to compete with him. Our government has imposed tough regulations on credit card ownership in order to curb personal debt. Those who apply for a credit card must be 18 years or older and provide proof of stable income >= $2000/month before banks will even consider the application. Also, all credit cards are registered at our national credit registration office with the…

Fortunately (for me) the US has no such rules, other than the age restriction. I joined this game four years ago when I was 21. Now that my credit file is built up, I can open five cards within a week or so and almost always get approved.

Within three years of starting I had available credit of 150% of my income.

Re: A Man Who Flies Around the World for Free

#183

Post by bobowzki » Thu, Jul 23, 2015, 10:39 AM UTC

jonknee wrote: post #104

ngoel36 wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also - stay organized. Every credit card should be accompanied with a spreadsheet entry with all details (un/pw, bonus, etc.), entry into Mint, auto-pay, and calendar reminders (end of free annual fee, etc.). Very easy to slip and forget, or not keep track of getting your actual bonus. Of course - do not do this if you don't intend to pay your balance immediately. Any interest charges quickly undo the ROI. Just got b…

> Every credit card should be accompanied with a spreadsheet entry with all details (un/pw, bonus, etc.) Don't store usernames and passwords in a spreadsheet, use a password manager.

Or encrypt the spreadsheet.

Re: A Man Who Flies Around the World for Free

#184

Post by gwern » Fri, Jul 24, 2015, 4:18 PM UTC

brc wrote: post #148

gwern wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the issue here is more one of externalities. We all know that fuel prices are not at the true cost which prices in all the pollution, geopolitical turmoil, military interventions, global warming, government subsidies etc, and that fuel is one of the largest costs airlines have. So when this guy and his followers hop on planes and fly millions of miles, often for no reason other than to game some tiny loophole…

Seriously, you could apply this to any hobby if you want to use an endless list of externalities. I mean, come on. It's not like the plane would be sitting on the Tarmac if he didn't board it. It's flying anyway.

> Seriously, you could apply this to any hobby if you want to use an endless list of externalities.

I don't think you could. Fuel is one of the most mispriced things in the world; airlines may not be paying pennies a gallon like certain countries wastefully subsidize fuel in their countries, but it's pretty blatant that fuel subsidies of every kind are enormous, and they've been particularly singled out by economists like the IMF as wasteful.

> It's not like the plane would be sitting on the Tarmac if he didn't board it. It's flying anyway.

On the margin of plane flights, there would be fewer plane flights if he didn't have this 'hobby', and much more directly, every flight he boards wastes a lot more fuel simply carrying his weight.