To fly, or not to fly
Currently my main computer setup is a PowerMac G5 with a 24″ Dell monitor. It’s a great computer, but is getting to be a bit dated. So this afternoon I listed it on Craigslist. My plan was, if I can sell it for enough, to replace it with a 24″ C2D iMac. So far I’ve gotten one offer that’s very different from what I was expecting, but has filled my head with all sorts of fun and tempting ideas.
The offer was from a guy who works for US Airways. As a US Airways employee he basically gets unlimited free flights whenever he wants them. He also gets a companion pass so that other people can fly with him. Apparently the holder of this pass doesn’t need to fly with him, so he can just give it to someone and they can fly for free. His offer was to give me one calendar year of unlimited free flights in exchange for my computer system.
Obviously a year of free flights won’t pay for a new iMac, but it gave me an idea. If I took this, I could spend the year being, basically, an air-hobo. If I wanted to be really hardcore about it I could spend the year sleeping in airports and eating nothing but airplane food, but I think I’d probably end up missing out on a lot of fun opportunities that way. But think of it this way: there are 52 weeks in the year and 50 states in the union. I could spend just over a week in every single state. But how would I pay for food? Not to mention our mortgage and bills. Well, I could blog about it.
There’s plenty of interest in travel blogs, and this would certainly be a travel blog with a twist. Might it be able to generate enough traffic and interest that I could make enough money off it for a year? It may well be able to. Maybe I could even get US Airways to sponsor me somehow to help make it doable, or a hotel chain to do so and give me a place to stay during my travels.
At first I just dismissed the offer out of hand. But travel is absolutely my favorite thing to do, and the more I think about it, the more tempting it is. (I actually even considered trying to do something similar on my own without the free flights after college.) I was just going to delete the email, but now I’m seriously considering calling the guy and getting more details on the limitations of this pass. This could be very interesting and very fun. And Jessi’s already given it the green light. So if I can figure out some way for this whole thing to be financially viable, I just might do it. The money thing, of course, is the limiting factor here, so I leave this with a question for you: should I do it?
October 20th, 2007 17:32
[...] So I just listed my G5 and Dell Monitor on Craigslist hoping to sell them for enough to get a 24" iMac. Instead I got a completely different and unexpected trade offer: a year of unlimited free flights on US Airways. I still need to talk to the guy to find out more about the limitations of the offer (he’s a US Airways employee and gets a companion pass that would provide this), but it’s filling my head with all sorts of fun ideas. What I’m thinking is this: if I make the trade, spend then entire 52 weeks of the year traveling around the US. That would let me spend just over a week in every state. I take my laptop with me and blog about the whole trip. I think this is enough of a twist on a standard travel blog that I’d probably get some decent traffic. The question then is, would I be able to make enough money off it to support myself during the trip and pay my bills back home (mortgage and such). Maybe I could even get some sort of sponsorship deal with US Airways or a hotel chain or something (which isn’t completely outside the realm of possibility). Jessi’s already signed off on the idea, so it’s really a question of whether I can make this a financially viable idea. I could even do work while I travel (I work from home as a web developer), though I probably wouldn’t be all that productive during that year. So what do you all think? I don’t want this to look like spam, but I already posted a poll over on my blog, and I’d appreciate it if people voted over there rather than setting up a new poll here. [...]
October 20th, 2007 23:26
Just make sure it’s legit before you ship him your computer! Yikes.
Barring any not-getting-the-pass-foul-play, that could be amazing. The experience of a lifetime, I’m sure. All the best!
October 21st, 2007 13:03
This sounds awesome. But I think there are some caveats. For one, the free travel will be treated as a taxable benefit to the airline employee. So, if you fly a lot, he’ll face one heck a tax bill. Second, I’m guessing you’ll have to fly standy, which can be difficult given how crowded airlines are these days. Third, you’ll probably have to pay the fees tacked onto each ticket, but that’s usually minor.
Anyway, if the deal is legit, I’d do it.
Here’s some info on the U.S. Airways benefit, which mentions the free airlien pass
http://www.airlinepilotforums.com/showthread.php?t=17856