The fascinating new book where handicapped Thai masseuses, a tribal chieftain, the DEA and true mileage maniac, Steve Belkin combine to form perhaps the greatest mileage hack of all time, and some other capers.
Forget pudding guy (the famous travel hacker who bought thousands of individual pudding cups to redeem them for airlines (1.2m of them!). Steve Belkin stitched together the legendary “Baht Run” aptly named after the Thai currency and a unique loophole Belkin found in one airline’s mileage program. This now infamous mileage run scored Belkin a place in the mileage hacker hall of fame and a bazillion miles.
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Belkin’s new book, which is actually named Mileage Maniac, (although he flirted with the title Mileage Whore…and he’d have not been far off) describes the crazy antics and a near maniacal obsession with maximizing the value earned from various mileage schemes and incredibly complex scaling efforts. It also shares the crazy story behind his famous Baht Run (which he didn’t even come up with…he just scaled it).
As an independent blogger here at the BoardingArea.com network of travel bloggers I was graciously provided an advance copy of the book by another miles legend and the owner of Boarding Area: Randy Petersen. Randy is not only featured prominently throughout the book he also wrote the foreword and formed an interesting relationship with Belkin – despite Belkin nearly inadvertently bankrupting Randy with another crazy mileage scheme.
As a bit of newb in the travel blogging space myself – and not much of a mileage hacker – I missed the glory days of true travel hacking. I will admit I am a bit envious of those days past where I probably would have engaged in the kinds of near-fanatical obsession with scoring the best value with airline frequent flyer program. Alas, I simply ain’t old enough. Belkin’s new book gives people like me a chance to live vicariously through the pages of this quick read.
In addition to it being a fun-filled romp through multiple countries, airline frequent flyer programs, Hollywood, the Green Bay Packers, and more, the book is an easy read. Not only does it give us a glimpse behind the curtain of the Belkin’s interesting life (the good ole days of mileage hacking), but it also reminds us how much of a class act Randy Petersen is.
Thanks for the book Randy. And thank you Steve for being a mileage whore…er maniac.
8 comments
I look forward to reading it! I do find it funny that bloggers and most folks on sites like Flyertalk think these good old days are gone completely. There is dozens of active hacks possible that I won’t go in to because everyone thinks they are dead but it was only a few years ago that you could rack up millions of Singapore Airlines miles just by opening accounts from the comfort of your couch. I racked up around 750k SQ miles in a weekend with that trick. The glory days are far from gone but I’m glad some people think they are
It really is a fun romp. Easy read too.
Maybe I am just lazy on the mileage stuff! LOL. Thanks for the comment.
You mean creating phoney SQ flight e-tickets and requesting credit to a certain American FF program that never bothered to confirm with SQ they were actually flown? Not exactly the type of schemes Steve devised.
Davidb,
No not that one, the trick I am talking about involved opening a SQ account with a special promo code and an address in Australia that gave 5000 free points. Those points could be transferred to Virgin Australia, pooled together and then either used there or moved back to Singapore Airlines. It was incredible, mostly above board, and in my opinion in a similar realm to pudding guy or baht run.
Thanks for writing about this book. Just ordered a copy and look forward to reading it. I’ve spent some time with Steve (and Randy) during the glory years of frequent flying and mileage runs…and the hatching of some of his legendary schemes (yes, the cheap Thai segment runs to mention but the most notorious of them!).
Way cool, David! Thanks for the comment!
Add my thanks, and I’ve ordered the book thru Jeff’s pretty good book store (roll eyes). But it’s scheduled to arrive the day after I leave for the remnants of my Birthday RTW. It would have been great reading poolside at the TWA Hotel as I nurse my bitterness at Cathay Pacific for down grading equipment and England for not being open, ha my 1st world problem;-)
Also love fellow Iowa native Randy Petersen!
Just finished reading this. Maybe I’m more advanced in travel/mileage hacking than I thought or I just spent too much time on flyertalk over the years but I didn’t learn a single thing and I found Steve came across as incredibly arrogant and even a narcissistic. Probably an interesting read for a complete noob looking for inspiration but only if they can get past his attitude.
In fairness I did speak to two friends who know him personally who both say he isn’t arrogant or narcissistic in the slightest so it is probably just his writing style. Hard to overlook though.