Zac George, Queensland teen the youngest person to fly Etihad Residence class

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This was published 6 years ago

Zac George, Queensland teen the youngest person to fly Etihad Residence class

By Julietta Jameson
Updated
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Earlier this year, 16-year-old travel blogger Zac George became the youngest person ever to buy his own ticket and fly in Etihad's plush Residence, the creme de la creme of first class travel.

He saved for two years to cover the $20,000 cost of the flight from Abu Dhabi to Sydney.

If that seems a little extreme, well, there are travel bloggers who take pretty pictures of themselves in lovely locations, and then there's Zac George, a young Queenslander who has turned his aviation obsession into a full-time business.

"When Etihad first announced The Residence in 2014 I said to myself that I had to try it," says George. From then on I started to put money away for it and I then was able to do in in late January, it was one of my biggest accomplishments and it made the blog crash six times as it was my most popular post by far." (He was even featured on CNN.)

See also: Meet the first person to fly in Etihad's Residence class

But even though he's jetting off somewhere almost as regularly as a pilot, it's unusual for George to pay cold hard cash for an international flight.

The clever son of medical entrepreneurs (who was allowed to quit school after year 10 because "My mind was always in the sky and I wanted to be flying") has ingenius ways with points that enable him to fuel his passion and his blog, Points From The Pacific, a meaty read on commercial aviation.

Tell us a bit about yourself

I've grown up in Brisbane, Australia for all of my life. I've got one brother and ironically he doesn't like to travel. My parents own their own medical company and from a very young age my brother and I would go overseas with my parents to conferences, mainly in the USA.

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I always wanted to be a commercial pilot. I started flying lessons at 15 and absolutely loved it. My grandfather Is a massive inspiration to me as he was a pilot and we both share a love for aviation. Sadly as I quit school I knew my dream to be a pilot wouldn't be possible, so I needed to find something else.

How did you start?

I actually started flying at 13. I was heavily involved with aircraft photography and I would fly down to Sydney or Melbourne on the weekends. As I wanted to fly more often It was getting expensive doing so many trips. I then discovered I had hit gold status with Virgin Australia and researched and researched. I then started to use points to travel more and more. I then hit Platinum with VA at only 14. One day in class I came across a blog called One Mile At A Time. The founder of the website Ben Schlappig was a massive inspiration to me and I still think of him as a celebrity. I started talking to Ben and he's taught me so much and I'm extremely grateful for that.

The first real post that made me grow online was actually my review of the Etihad First Class Lounge in Abu Dhabi. I reviewed it just as it opened and it was shared online quite a bit which was fantastic to see.

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?

Believe it or not, nowadays you earn more points on the ground rather than flying. Credit cards are the best way to rack them up quickly. Before you start getting into collecting massive amounts of points you need to make sure you can pay you balance off in full at the end of the month and you're not in debt.

Categorising your spend is absolutely vital. For instance, I have one card that will earn me three or four points on groceries, two on fuel, two on everyday purchases, the list goes on.

Also, look for a credit card that has many transfer partners. American Express is a good example of this. Some of their cards have 10 airline transfer partners and then you can have much more flexibility with your points. Don't be scared to have too many cards, as long as you can pay them off in full, you're fine.

Buying miles is my second favourite way to rack up miles quickly. Some airlines like Alaska Airlines or American Airlines sell miles in bulk at a discount. Their programs are valued differently to ours in Australia making them extremely valuable. As an example, Alaska Airlines will only charge 70,000 points in Qantas First Class to Los Angeles instead of 144,000 which Qantas would charge on their own airline, that's less than half. Make sure you only buy miles when they're on sale.

How much of your travel is paid in cash and how much in points?

All of my international travel is paid for with points, all of my domestic tickets are paid for with cash. I find using points for short domestic flights to be terrible value except for flights to and from Perth.

Give us some of your personal stats.

This year I should hit over one million flown miles, I'm sitting at around 890,000 last time I checked. Last year I ended with 153 flights which I'm hoping to smash this year and it's looking like I will.

What's the most frustrating aspect of what you do?

Ninety per cent of lounges I can't access as they're licensed. Another is not being able to enjoy the full beverage section on some of the flights I take. The worst would have to be when I had to say no to both Krug and Dom Perignon and I was the only passenger in Singapore Airlines first class suites.

See also: Airline review: Singapore's A380 first class suites

Oh! And what about that suit that you always wear? You look fantastic. How important is looking the part?

Thank you very much, I myself love wearing suits. To me, wearing a suit is a great deal of confidence and I feel extremely comfortable wearing one. Some say it's overdressing when wearing a suit flying but I love to dress up when travelling and I think I'd fit in well in the '60/'70s era of travel.

See pointsfromthepacific.boardingarea.com

See also: Why people aren't flying first class any more

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