I often get asked how I'm able to travel so much and keep it affordable. I'm not rich: Indeed I could never afford most of the travel I do if it were not for using the tricks and techniques of the frequent flyer world.

Here I'll share a bit about...

US Airways has always had one of the most lucrative award charts, especially for stretching long international redemptions. They've got very flexible routing rules, awards that are priced by the agent and not the computer, and an extremely good award...

I'm pretty tolerant of low award/upgrade space, and am extremely flexible when it comes to using my miles and upgrade instruments. I'm grateful to even be in the position to use such things, even if not at my ideal time.

But the experience I've had...

Unlike most of the rest of the world, lounge access within the United States comes primarily through membership. Even with top elite status on three airlines, I get no lounge access when traveling domestically on them. A typical exception is when traveling...

Since June 2013 I have been a homeless nomad, traveling full time. Travel hacking, frequent flyer miles, and hotel points are the only way I could even remotely afford to do this. While nomading, I have continued to do a fair amount of mileage running...

When American Airlines briefly had their FastTrack Promo back in August, I couldn't resist: by flying 30,000 miles by the end of the year, American Airlines would hand me their top elite status with eight systemwide upgrade certificates.

At the time...

I've been wanting to sample the legendary Singapore Airlines A380 private suite for a while: this was the first and most famous "private suite" first class product in the skies, launched in 2007 with the very first Airbus A380 flight. For a while,...

The third flight on my US Airways 140,000 mile Australia redemption was Sydney to Bangkok, forming my return stopover in Southeast Asia. Thai operates two flights daily on 747s, and both routes had tons of first class availability. For as long as I...

Back in February I was ecstatic to find award space on Asiana First Class Chicago to Seoul and ANA First Class Tokyo to Chicago on the same award, so I quickly booked a redemption to Australia with a stopover in Asia (140,000 US Airways miles, for...

Late morning in Sydney I got an e-mail into my inbox from IFTTT, which I use to monitor mileage run posts, that there was a $448 roundtrip fare from Philadelphia to Beijing. Ever since booking a mileage run to Shanghai in December, I decided I'd get...

This article was jointly written by Sean Meehan of Freak Went Flying and Ben Hughes of Flight Leverage and appears jointly.

How can we resist 2.0 CPM?

When a $58 one-way fare from Las Vegas to Boston comes up, it's really hard to pass up, even if...

A few months ago United and Marriott anounced a partnership whereby anyone with United Gold, Platinum, or 1K status could immediately match to Marriott Gold status, which normally requires 50 nights in a year.

Separately, Hyatt has for a while offered...

When it comes to flights, the region I love most is Asia. They've got the best airports in the world, and plenty of outstanding airlines that beat the socks off their embarassing American counterparts. There's also a tendancy to use wide-bodied aircraft...

Friends who follow my travel escapades have long said I should start a blog, but I've resisted: there's a wealth of other resources with great content, and I was never sure I contribute beyond all the other great blogs out there.

Since leaving my...