Sounds like fun but the guy must shop to get to the following points in 11 months:
130,000 American Airline miles
105,000 British Airways Miles
40,000 Starwood Preferred Guest points
25,000 American Express points
I'm only guessing at the spend required for that many points but surely that is $200k - $300k in spend. Surely this blog post isn't accessible to everyone.
Having said that, I admire his sense of adventure to just pull-up stops from his life and travel the world for 9 months. It is something I really need to get around to myself.
Not if you play the system, particuarly 'sign-up bonuses' designed to lure new customers (who will then not be bothered to switch). The OP uses an example - AA Citi Cards currently give you 75,000 miles if you spend $4,000 in 6 months.
Using that as a base measurement (even though I'm now probably stretching the math too far in the other direction) he could rack up 300,000 miles spending $16,000. Very easy, especially if you also have some business expenses.
its not as difficult as you would think, its more a matter of effort and ability. i readily recognize i could have almost double the miles i currently do if i put more energy into it.
thats not exactly what i mean. for example, last month, i could've earned about 5000 more points by eating at different restaurants, instead of the ones i actually went to. would've required a bit of planning and a bit of effort. and eating food that i might not have particularly wanted to eat at that point in time, but the time/effort spent doing so wouldn't have amounted to much in the way of freelancing or volunteering.
point is, min/maxing is possible with rewards points, and people do it.
"I'm sorry we can't go to that place for our date... we have to go to this chain restaurant, because it gives me more rewards points..." For some reason, I don't see that going over well (unless she's a travel nerd as well, I suppose)
Having said that, I admire his sense of adventure to just pull-up stops from his life and travel the world for 9 months. It is something I really need to get around to myself.