Ask HN: What to do with the ability to fly for free? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: What to do with the ability to fly for free?

4 pointsKillah91120 comments

I have the ability to fly for free, thanks to some benefits generally unusual in the tech industry (but common in the airline industry). But I can't help feeling that I'm not really utilizing this opportunity very well. I tried thinking of ways to realize the value by somehow monetizing on this ability but unfortunately nothing worthwhile (&legal) comes to mind.

So, I’m reaching out to the HN community for suggestions, which would be deeply appreciated, I wouldn't mind parting with a "buddy pass" to the best answer.

What I’ve done so far:

I've flown out to SiValley, LA, NY at different code/startup conventions and I've loved every bit of it. Florida is no SiValley, and going to these new cities and meeting hackers and entrepreneurs really helped recharge my batteries. I figured, I get the low cost of living in FL, but get the benefit of being where it’s happening too!

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Create a book about airports. Contact a publisher beforehand. Do some interviews, people wait around for ages and have nothing to do. Take lots of photos of the most interesting or attractive areas. Shoot some videos. Determine what the most perfect airport would be. Create a feature matrix of airports.

Create a site regarding coupons or discounts for duty free shops. I know I am travelling soon and was wondering what duty free shops I'd encounter at the airports I would reach, their products and their prices. Get some shops to signup with you and submit their deals when they happen. Finally, I've heard flying at night is safer radiation-wise than during the day and astaxanthin is a good antioxidant to be on. Have fun.

Thanks, these ideas are awesome. Only concern I have is with Airport Security becoming suspicious of someone going around taking videos and photos of the airport. But I'm sure that can be mitigated by establishing a rapport with them and explaining to them what I'm doing ahead of time.

The duty free shops thing is a great idea too. Gotta do a little more research regarding what's already out there in that arena, but the ability to travel definitely would be a significant advantage! Thanks again! BTW, where are you planning on travelling to?

Austria. Yes, I agree: you'll need to establish a rapport, but, they will only be following rules. So you'd just need to find out those rules. I doubt they'd notice you anyhow if you just take a snap here or there unless you have a guilty conscience, which you shouldn't. It might be easier to do a travel film, around the world in 80 days, and get 80 travel stories (of either best, worst, most interesting or standout trip) from 80 travellers. If you have a website up beforehand, you can point travellers at it whilst at the airport on your laptop, and they can decide if they want the interview. You could ask people for some photos they could send you.

Now that I think about it, you could look at the Sartorialist but restrict it to airports as an inspiration: http://www.thesartorialist.com http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sartorialist : what you want is real people with real stories that can elicit discussion.

I have domains orbit8 and orbitsquare if interested.

Well, this might sound selfish, but I would think about how you could keep getting free flights after you change jobs.

I have some other ideas too:

- You could become an absolute expert in something and get a free pass to see how any culture in the world experiences it. Me, I'd do something with cooking.

- Charge for placing Geocaches. My dad flies for work to Washington DC every week and several of his friends have asked him to plant geocaches in other places. I bet you could charge for that, and it would be fun for you to have a different story each time.

- Help people going through long distance relationships somehow.

I might come up with more later.

Thanks! These are very helpful.

The only thing I have any real expertise in is software development, entrepreneurship and cars. So I thought about becoming some sort of a travelling consultant... but with telecommuting and the very nature of the software business, I doubt it would give me any significant advantage over other consultants. Not to mention if I can land clients in various cities, the savings from the free travel would be negligible.

Geocaches; now that's a pretty sweet idea. But I'm not quite sure how I'd charge for it. I could leave code snippets worldwide!

As far as helping those in long distance relationships, only thing I can think of is acting as a sort of courier.

The Geocaching one's really got me thinking. Mixed with a little advertising, I think there may be a serious business and advantage with the free flights! I'd love to hear more from you, and in the mean while I'll do a little research on Geocaching.

Yea I think you could have lots of fun and make some good money. Make a website displaying how the user could schedule a geocache plant, you'd pick it up at their door, you'd take their cash (or bill them later), and send them a picture of their planted geocache.

I've only been geocaching a few times, but my entire family are big geocache-ers. Feel free to email me directly - miles.matthias at gmail.

I don't know about monetizing, but I had this for a few years with when my mom married an airline pilot (until I got too old).

I abused the heck out of it. Found places where flight schedules facilitated daytrips and would spend afternoons in NY or DC. Went somewhere for a weekend every month. Went to Europe for a summer. Dated someone in another city for a while. I became very familiar with the flight schedules for the airline.

Ah, those were the days.

Well just see what there is to see, go to Rio for the weekend or see the Grand Canyon or visit Panama or London. Visit all 50 States. Go to SF and hang out on Berkley Campus for the weekend. Just Go try different things and see which ones you like. Go to New Zealand for your vacation. Just GO

Thanks and that's definitely worthwhile. However, despite the free tickets, rental cars, hotel cost, eating out can really add up. Not to mention, I end up relaxing more than I should and get backed up on my startup work. Thus far I've burned thru several thousand dollars from my savings (not really regretting it, but it's not sustainable)

I've thought about trading trips to the Bahamas in exchange for coding with me on some projects. I suggested this to some hackers I met at a codeathon but they didn't seem to receptive (in retrospect, I can see how that may seem really shady).

Here's a suggestion; don't ask about creative ways to use airplanes with the user name "killa911".

Point noted. This was my hacker handle since '95 and has nothing to do with what you're inferring. I'm a former New Yorker, and 9/11 hit very close to home for me and ended up taking away a lot from me.

I've thought about changing my handle but feel that it would be one more thing I'd give up to the A-holes who've already caused me a lot of grief. So, I guess I'm just being stubborn.

Fair enough. I feel the same way about my mySpace page and AOL account. So hard to let go sometimes :)

1. Close loop with family and extended family 2. Same with friends 3. Explore culture (Europe/US/Canada/South America) 4. Hackerspace courier/evangelist 5. Documentary production/location shooting/stock shot collection 6. Meeting incubator: create meetings with people you've always wanted to meet 7. Nationwide volunteer: Habitat for Humanity/Red Cross/Hyperlocal Blood Donor (if you have a rare blood type)

Never feel guilty, just be creative.

how about something like this: http://www.wherethehellismatt.com/

That's an awesome idea, but I'm not sure I'd like to be so conspicuous. I do enjoy trying to blend in . At least here in the US, I really try to indulge in the local experience and try out a day in the life of....

However, despite the free flight, as I mentioned earlier, hotel/rental car/food etc adds up pretty quickly.

here's something you can do to improve the speed:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IP_over_Avian_Carriers

The only way I can think of directly monetizing this is to do a courier service.

Yeah, I thought about that first. Seemed to be an obvious one. But to really make it worth my time it, I'd have to charge quite a bit more than UPS or other courier services. Then I got to thinking about who would then be likely to hire me to "deliver" valuables from one city/country to another...

Maybe I'm focusing too much on the downside, but think about it... would you really want to take aboard a suitcase packed by a client which you couldn't really look at? Just not worth the risk for me...

If you need a buddy here in the US, I can help :) Also got flight benefits, on a stand by basis. Email me.

Cool! But how I do I get in touch with you, I don't see an e-mail address on your profile? Mine's ahmed@mrsft.com

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