How to Earn Four Free Flights a Year

Greetings from sunny San Diego, CA!

I’ve spent the past weekend hanging out with my brother, parents (who were out visiting him), and some old friends that I haven’t seen since I lived out here three years ago.  I certainly had my share of bad food, took a few extra days off from working out, and probably had one (or two…or three…) too many beers, but I also had a fantastic time and haven’t stopped smiling since arriving in California.

For starters, sorry for the lack of an update yesterday; luckily there’s a reason for it!

Join the Travel Hacking CartelI’ve been invited to be part of the launch of travel-hacking extraordinaire Chris Guillebeau’s new service, the Travel Hacking Cartel, which goes live today. I understand this has very little to do with fitness – however, I also know that not spending money on an otherwise expensive flight allows you to spend more money on once-in-a-lifetime opportunities once you get to your destination.

It’s these opportunities and adventures that remind us how lucky we are to be alive.

If you have no interest in traveling or learning more about this service, no worries – check back in on Thursday for my next article.

So, why do I endorse this travel service?

For starters, it was the purchase of Chris’s Frequent Flyer Master in December of 2009 that opened my eyes to this awesome world of hacking airline points and booking crazy flights.  Had I not bought his e-book, I never would have been able to book my current 35,000 mile adventure all over the globe.  Because I could book my flight for just a few hundred bucks (saving THOUSANDS of dollars on airfare), I’ll be able to spend more money on things like skydiving, scuba diving the Great Barrier Reef, and other adventures on my Epic Quest of Awesome.

I like to keep as much free on Nerd Fitness as possible (two+ years and counting of free blog updates, the Nerd Fitness message boards, etc.), but I also like to offer products and services to those who are looking for a little bit more (the Rebel Fitness Guide, t-shirts, etc.).  I also occasionally endorse some of my blogging friends’ products, as long as it’s something on which I’m willing to stake my reputation.

Chris’s products always meet my high standards, so I am honored to be one of the select few to help launch about his new service today. Whether you’re interested in going on a giant globe-trotting trip or simply want to go on a few extra flights to visit your friends/family/kids in 2011, the Travel Hacking Cartel might be just the thing you need.

The best part?  You can sign up for a ONE-DOLLAR two week trial, and it comes with a full money-back guarantee.

What’s the Travel Hacking Cartel?

From the site: “Travel can be free or low-cost, but you have to know how. That’s where we come in—telling you exactly what you need to do to accumulate Frequent Flyer Miles, and what you need to do to redeem them for fantastic trips. Specifically, the Travel Hacking Cartel commits to help you:

  1. Regular “Deal Alerts” sent via email and SMS/text message (when a big opportunity comes up, our members will be the first to know).
  2. Tutorials and an extensive Knowledge Base to get people started (our research showed that most people have no idea what to do with miles and points… we’ll tell them).
  3. The Refer-a-Hacker Program that pays members 500 Frequent Flyer Miles for each referral (we’ve tried to make this process extremely easy – everyone has their own referral link directly in their account settings).
  4. The “World’s Greatest Guarantee” – if members follow our directions and spend at least 30 minutes a month travel hacking, they’ll earn enough miles for at least 1 plane ticket every quarter, or 4 plane tickets a year (we also provide info on how to redeem miles for great awards).

I’ve spent the past few hours going through the member’s website (I woke up at 5:30AM just to test it out), and it’s pretty damn impressive – dozens of video tutorials, pages upon pages of easy-to-digest information, and lists of current deals (with ratings to determine which ones are worth your time pursuing).  This thing is jam-packed with quality stuff.

Is it worth it?

Join the Travel Hacking CartelIf you have a little bit of money and are interested in doing any sort of flying, absolutely.

I have racked up 300,000+ airline miles in the past year and used those miles to do some pretty cool things (including a last-minute trip to Peru back in October), but I’ve also spent countless hours scouring message boards, reading fine print, searching for loopholes, and then days upon days of planning to put together my Epic Quest.  Fortunately for me, I’m single, self-employed, frugal, and I don’t get out much, which means I have all the time in the world to dedicate to my travel-hacking obsession.

I’m going to guess you probably don’t have that kind of free-time (and you shouldn’t) – wife/husband, kids, friends, hobbies, a life, etc. Instead of spending all of your time learning how to acquire miles, and then dedicating even more time to figuring out how to redeem them for great trips, you can use a service like the Travel Hacking Cartel to minimize the time spent searching for great deals so that you can maximize your time doing stuff you love…while still getting to go on some awesome adventures.

And come on – you can try it out for ONE freaking dollar! If you’re not earning FOUR free flights a year, you can ask for a full refund.

Travel Updates Moving Forward

The Nerd Fitness community is growing bigger by the day – some are here just for fitness updates, some are here just to read about my big adventure – but I like to think a strong majority are interested in both!  I ask that you bear with me over this next month as I adjust to my new life on the road, living out of a backpack.  I haven’t decided if I’m going to do something like big travel updates once every other week (and keep the other articles fitness focused), or if I’ll throw in an extra article each weekend with pictures and video from my adventures.

It really depends on how things go once I’m off in foreign lands – I want to strike a good balance of work and adventure – sure this whole trip is a “business trip,” but it’s also a bunch of once-in-a-lifetime opportunities that I don’t want to miss out on because I was stuck behind a computer screen.  Factor in funky travel plans, a far off time zone, and last minute “sure why not!?” experiences, it’s going to take me some time to hit my stride.

Thanks for your patience 🙂

Over these next few weeks, you’ll start to see an updated look on NerdFitness.com too – along with a complete blog face-lift, I’ll be adding a section with a link to my Flickr page (where you’ll see all of my photos from my trip), a Google Map that keeps track of my location in the world, and more.

Unless I’m able to move up to an earlier date, it looks like I’ll be headed to Sydney, Australia on Sunday, February 6th. Until then I’ll be hanging out down here in San Diego and up in Los Angeles.

Congrats to Chris on the launch of his Travel Hacking Cartel hopefully it’s a service that will help you start crossing things off your own Epic Quest of Destiny.

Until Thursday,

-Steve

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[Disclosure – because I was selected as one of the first few to try out the Travel Hacking Cartel, I do get a small commission if you click through to the site from here and sign up for a membership.  I’m okay with this because it’s a fantastic service, I only endorse a few products here and there, and I know Chris always delivers on his promises.  Now back to your regularly scheduled programming]

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