Hey everyone, it has been one heck
of a day!
Business Insider published an
article that has 4,700,000 views and counting. I just wanted to answer a few
questions that I have been receiving.
Are you a professional travel
blogger?
While the article that Business
Insider wrote is a great one, it has one minor slip up. I am not a travel blogger,
nor am I anywhere close to being a full-time professional blogger. I have a
separate online business that pays the bills. Like many savvy travelers, I play
the miles game to quickly rack up points and miles, so I can travel during my
free time.
If TopMiles is not a blog, what is
it exactly?
Think of TopMiles as a search engine
for air travel, similar to Kayak and Booking. However, instead of using cash to
pay for your trip, you pay for it using miles. We help compare different frequent
flyer programs, and based on your preferences, we recommend which program to
use.
For example, you would need 50,000
miles to fly from Los Angeles to Tokyo in Business Class using AAdvantage miles.
That exact same flight costs between 65,000-75,000 miles on United Airlines. By
using AA miles instead of UA miles, you can save up to 25,000 miles!
Not only that, we show you the best
ways to quickly earn miles using sign-up bonuses and help keep track of your
minimum spend requirement.
After you finish earning all your
points, we would show you how to use your miles to redeem your flights step-by-step.
How is TopMiles different from
everyone else?
There is a lot of information out
there regarding miles and points, but it’s quite difficult for a beginner to
understand the jargon. I’ve simplified the entire miles process, step-by-step,
so you don’t need to shift through all the clutter.
All you need to do is start searching
where you want to go, and we’ll take you through the rest of the process.
How do you make money?
Our goal is to show you the best
publicly available offers for each credit card and let you compare them, so
that you can choose the right cards for you. I may have select financial partners, but that will be fully disclosed. As I have a separate online business
that pays the bills, TopMiles will always be about helping people travel for
almost nothing.
Where can I read about your other trips?
You can find the full details of my Emirates trip around the world here. Since the trip is so extensive, I will be
updating the trip report weekly with new entries, so check back often!
How did you actually book your trip?
I booked my crazy around-the-world
trip through Alaska Airline’s website using 200,000 Alaskan miles. This may
sound like a lot, but it can be earned easily within one year without flying a
single mile. It’s a bit hard to explain, but in a nutshell, I included a bunch
of layovers between my flight from Singapore to the US and vice versa.
To be honest, I wasn’t sure if
Emirates would allow me to fly my crazy trip, but to their credit everything turned
out okay. I was more than happy to take the regular routing if Emirates
insisted.
Can I still book the trip you took?
Unfortunately, the loophole was
closed a couple of months ago. A milder version still exists, though.
I found a bug, how do I report it?
Please report any bugs to webmaster@topmiles.com.
TopMiles is still in the beta stage as we are ironing out the kinks.
I am a member of the media, how do I contact you?
Please send all press inquiries to media@topmiles.com.
