Chris Guillebeau from The Art of Non-conformity is offering his e-book, Frequent Flyer Master for $49. Chris claims that by following the advice in FFM, you can easily score at least 25,000 air miles (one free round trip airline ticket). Beyond that, he claims that you continue to get free flights by creatively gaining frequent flyer miles.
Really?
Steph and I got our hands on FFM and put it to the test. With thousands of people claiming that their product will help you travel the world, we wanted to know if there was anything behind the hype of FFM.
It is worth your hard-earned cash? Can you really get enough frequent flyer miles to score a free ticket? Multiple free tickets?
Short answer: Yes.
Long answer:
I like Chris. He is down to earth, personable, and is living what many people dream of. He is highly organized, has insane knowledge about travel hacking, and is open to sharing it with others. I may just have a man crush on him.
The good of FFM. It is laid out well and is clear and easy to follow. I don’t want to give away the content as Chris makes a living on his resources, but I will say that Stephanie and I followed some of his steps and in 3 months will have enough frequent flyer miles for a free ticket. Free is good. Very good. Right off the bat, Chris’ claim is true. Follow his steps and get a free ticket. If you are a traveler, that’s worth the price of FFM.
When you purchase FFM for $49, Chris offers to throw in a second resource, Travel Ninja , for a package total of $79 (a savings of $29). Travel Ninja is for the serious traveler. Chris breaks down some tips for travel (much of it international) on a scale that I have yet to experience. Travel Ninja makes you realize that Chris isn’t playing games. I half-way expect to see him setting some nunchucks on the airline counter as they rush to give him an upgrade to first class for free. He’s the man.
The challenges of FFM. If you don’t want to follow directions or if you want something handed to you, don’t buy FFM. You will have to do some work. You will have to be organized.
Much of the game of gathering frequent flyer miles involves the use of credit cards. If you do not pay off your balance every month, do not play this game. Trust me. In my younger days I racked up tons of miles along with a mountain of debt. Two free tickets to Hawaii ended up costing me . . . well, that’s for another day. Take my word here, if you can’t organize your finances, you will sink deeper in debt for “free” airline tickets.
We ran into a slight challenge with a credit card company that Chris suggested (not his fault). We applied for a card, were approved, and began to charge some expenses on the card. Three charges were denied because they were suspected to be fraud. When I called the company, they said they would approve the charges since I called. I could not call to pre-approve any future charges. They stated that once they learned my spending pattern, they would loosen up. I informed them that of this continued, I could not continue to do business with them. Time will tell how this turns out.
Beyond that challenge, we are on our way to more frequent flyer miles and more travel. All in all, FFM is a solid product for those who are organized and serious about travel. In addition, I highly recommend adding Chris’ site to your RSS.
