How I Became Addicted: JD

I have to blame my friends. Yes, this hobby of collecting points is their fault. Some might, including many members of my family, call this hobby an obsession. Yes, my friends are to blame for this obsession of mine.

It was a Friday night in January. I had plans to meet my friends in the city for dinner and drinks. However, it was one of those rainy cold nights. At the last minute, my friends bailed on me, leaving me home on a Friday night with TV. After 2 hours of flipping through 300 + channels, I was bored, to say the least. (How is it that we can have so many channels, but there is always nothing on to watch!)

My boredom led me to check the latest news on CNN.com and an article about extreme frequent flyers. I want to say this was the time George Clooney’s Up In the Air was out and everyone was talking about the frequent flyer lifestyle. This article, in particular,  caught my attention because the writer interviewed, blogger Gary Leff (View from the Wing) was talking about how he flies around the world for almost nothing. I remember thinking this can’t be true, but I was willing to take the bait.

The article linked to his blog, and so started my journey. Gary’s blog was filled with tricks, tips and amazing trip reports. I was awestruck. How did I not know this frequent flyer community existed before this night? How does this secret travel community stay so secret?

Gary’s blog had links to other bloggers, who had links to other bloggers. At one point, I had close to 20 windows open on my computer. The next morning, I went back to my bookmarks and saw 20 new blogs…to give you an idea of the magnitude of what I was reading that night. Throughout the entire time I was reading, I kept saying to myself, these bloggers make it sound so easy. This can’t be true.

At one point, I looked up and it was 4am. I had been these traveler blogs for over 6 hours. It was time to go to bed, but I was addicted like a child to candy after Halloween. I needed to read every article, every travel deal (even if it was dead), for fear that I would be somehow blocked from the community next day. Eventually, I put myself to bed and I woke up the next morning afternoon asking myself “was what happened last night a dream?”

After being the “game” for little under 18 months, this community is not a dream. What you read in this blog and others are not fairy tales. However, it is not easy. If you want to travel the world for close to nothing, it will take work. It takes reading travel blogs, some blind faith and an adventurous spirit. Looking back, I don’t blame my friends for not wanting to go out on the rainy night in January, I thank them. And some of them are thanking me now, as newly minted travel addicts.