Youngest Flyer in The Residence Suite

[Deleted member 29185]

Re: Youngest Ever Etihad Residence Travellor

Good on him. I'm quite sure his parents are giving good advice about savings and the future. That's the only thing I'd question, as it does cost much more money chasing points than not. I justify it as a future holiday savings plan. Hopefully it's a fun past time for a while for him without it becoming an obsession destined to put him in bad debt and restrict his younger age earning potential. Has to be better than an alcohol or drug addiction though, so go for it lad, and have fun doing so!

 

[CaptJCool]

Re: Youngest Ever Etihad Residence Travellor

The tall poppy syndrome alive and well.

ok ok. He ought have been able to score the trip for $7.000 if he had used the Lucky option. (Cairo to Abu Dhabi with 2 nights hard-fought at the best hotel $1,500 per night thrown in to Sydney)

as for how rapidly a 16/17 yo can save cash. $20,000 a year is in the ballpark given penalty rates and 27 hours a week. I know. Family experience.

Credit card churn is the go. There's a minimum 750,000 points on 10 cards and you'd all know some cards do better and 2 for 1. Sure some parental help is there but hey that's what parents are for at his current age..

The rest are just big time jealous. People, get over it and applaud the ingenuity innovation and initiative.

 

[Deleted member 29185]

Re: Youngest Ever Etihad Residence Travellor

Credit card churn is the go.

A 16 YO can't legally have one CC let alone multiple AFAIK. Even at 18, the higher yield CC's are probably out of reach due to eligibility criteria.

 

[penegal]

Re: Youngest Ever Etihad Residence Travellor

Agree with GPH. This has been done to death.

Good on him for having a go, although I think staying in school would have helped things like his spelling, grammar and syntax.

I believe that the credit cards are all in his parent's name with him as a supp, and he "gets the points".

I suspect there is also some parental funding in play.

 

[trippin_the_rift]

Re: Youngest Ever Etihad Residence Travellor

Agree with GPH. This has been done to death.

Good on him for having a go, although I think staying in school would have helped things like his spelling, grammar and syntax.

I believe that the credit cards are all in his parent's name with him as a supp, and he "gets the points".

I suspect there is also some parental funding in play.

I'd gladly trade a temporary gap in grammar knowledge for the experience, network of professionals and the opportunity Zac has in front of him.

Does it really matter how he gets cards and points? He's figured out a method which works for him and is exploiting it. As the blog matures he'll no doubt find his own path and niche within the FF world but until then - good on him for doing what 99% of other people will never do- giving it a shot.

 

[penegal]

Re: Youngest Ever Etihad Residence Travellor

Oh I agree - it's great that he is giving it a go.

I'm not sure how temporary the "grammar gap" will be. I have a friend who dropped out at the end of Year 9, and runs a very successful business, but his [written] English is still poor. He survives well with oral English and all business communications are written by staff.

 

[lovetravellingoz]

Re: Youngest Ever Etihad Residence Travellor

seems this kid has got all the tips and tricks of getting points via credit card worked out

With the biggest one being:

Your parents have let you have four credit cards, which you use to rack up points (along with points from his parents' cards). Can you explain your strategy?

Yeh, don't piss your parents off.

 

[yohy?!]

Re: Youngest Ever Etihad Residence Travellor

the Sunrise piece was on Mediawatch and proved to be misleading, he uses the points from his parents credit card spend, manages them signing up to new cards for bonuses and buys points.

he stated that sunrise exaggerated how he always flew free and had accumulated all the points himself

 

[SOPOOR]

Re: Youngest Ever Etihad Residence Travellor

Ok I wasn't aware that you couldn't use points to get etihad first or residence

I too was curious about the story
I don't mind if his rich parents pay for his stuff and he uses the benefits of points to get free international travel.
The article made it sound a lot different.

I too assumed that due to his age he just uses his parents name ls for cards and purchases and pockets the points. But the article made it sound totally different

 

[opusman]

Re: Youngest Ever Etihad Residence Travellor

The media seems to be obsessed with "how to fly in first class for free" stories at the moment.

 

[BettyB]

Re: Youngest Ever Etihad Residence Travellor

I believe that there are several other threads which have discussed this story already.

There's so much bull surrounding this kid. He can't possibly have so many credit cards at that age.

 

[trippin_the_rift]

Re: Youngest Ever Etihad Residence Travellor

Oh I agree - it's great that he is giving it a go.

I'm not sure how temporary the "grammar gap" will be. I have a friend who dropped out at the end of Year 9, and runs a very successful business, but his [written] English is still poor. He survives well with oral English and all business communications are written by staff.

Some guy long ago once said, "I don’t need to know everything, I just need to know where to find it, when I need it."
He turned out okay.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Re: Youngest Ever Etihad Residence Travellor

The media seems to be obsessed with "how to fly in first class for free" stories at the moment.

I think part of the clue is in the media watch piece... stories about luxury travel (on points) spurs people to collect points! That's what airlines want.

 

[eastwest101]

Well I don't know who does ABCs Media Watch research but they sure need to do more research about how many $$ you need to spend to accumulate points and they also got the airline that operates The Residence incorrect as well.

For a show that likes to point out others sloppy journalism they sure need to do a better job with their own research.

Most of the coverage about this can be safely filed iunder Churnalism / PR fluff / Clickbait.

 

[Happy Dude]

Well I don't know who does ABCs Media Watch research but they sure need to do more research about how many $$ you need to spend to accumulate points and they also got the airline that operates The Residence incorrect as well.

For a show that likes to point out others sloppy journalism they sure need to do a better job with their own research.

Most of the coverage about this can be safely filed iunder Churnalism / PR fluff / Clickbait.

Definitely a fluff piece but the young man certainly has an interesting hobby! It'd be great to see him on this site, if he's not already.

They've since corrected their error regarding The Residence but I'm thinking that their figure of "around $1m" wouldn't be too far off the mark for normal spend but only on that bent up AmEx Explorer. Most other cards would require a much higher spend. How much would you spend to accumulate 2mill points "normally".

 

[get me outta here]

On Media Watch, they were quoting the Sunrise program who was quoting the pax on the millions figure. They misspoke on the mixup with Etihad and Emirates. That was corrected fairly quickly online.

Well I don't know who does ABCs Media Watch research but they sure need to do more research about how many $$ you need to spend to accumulate points and they also got the airline that operates The Residence incorrect as well.

For a show that likes to point out others sloppy journalism they sure need to do a better job with their own research.

Most of the coverage about this can be safely filed iunder Churnalism / PR fluff / Clickbait.

 

[Virgin Bart]

Re: Youngest Ever Etihad Residence Travellor

Some guy long ago once said, "I don’t need to know everything, I just need to know where to find it, when I need it."
He turned out okay.

This is what I tell my staff at work.

 

[docjames]

Re: Youngest Ever Etihad Residence Travellor

I'm surprised Qantas allowed the photos to be taken and published.

I'd also be surprised if the CL who guested him in didn't get a "don't do it again"......

 

[Cruiser Elite]

Re: Youngest Ever Etihad Residence Travellor

Isn't this the same 'fake news' that Paul Barry did a hatchet job on on Media Watch week or 2 back?

 

[SOPOOR]

Re: Youngest Ever Etihad Residence Travellor

You can book The Residence with Etihad Guest miles but only as an OpenSeat award i.e. trading points for a revenue seat. The cost is close to 2.2 million miles for SYD-AUH one way for one person.

so there is no way to use amex points to get into eithard residences ? I can see that etihad first class is possible