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nonhuman · Oct 20, 2007, 05:32 PM

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.

Cold Warrior · Oct 20, 2007, 05:37 PM

Until US Airways reads your blog and decides it violates their terms of the companion pass program, and they terminate the employee and your free rides, or put a cap on your flights.

mdc · Oct 20, 2007, 05:39 PM

If you can pull it off, I say why the hell not, you only live once, and this sounds like it could be really cool.

Jawbone54 · Oct 20, 2007, 05:56 PM

Sounds like a really cool idea. I'd check your travel blog every day.

LIke mdc said, you only live once. If you can pull this off, it'd give you something to talk about the rest of your life.

nonhuman · Oct 20, 2007, 06:09 PM

Originally Posted by Cold Warrior

Until US Airways reads your blog and decides it violates their terms of the companion pass program, and they terminate the employee and your free rides, or put a cap on your flights.

Yeah, I thought of that. That's why I didn't post the name of the guy offering it or anything.

But now that I've been thinking about it more and talked it over with my PR team (read: fiancée), I'm getting more into the idea and think I could probably pull it off even without the US Airways companion pass.

Chuckit · Oct 20, 2007, 06:20 PM

Personally, I'm very skeptical about the ability of blogs to make money all by their lonesome, especially ones that haven't been around for years already.

alligator · Oct 20, 2007, 06:40 PM

If you look back on your life later and regret not going, you'll kick yourself for it. Go for it.

mduell · Oct 20, 2007, 06:57 PM

NRSA isn't nearly as glamorous as you'd hope.

And there's a good chance US Airways will find out about your deal and nix it.

To make a decent income (say, $50k/yr pretax) you'd need about a hundred thousand hits a day on your blog. I don't think even the crazy 3-month-Aeroplan-NRPS flier got that much traffic on his blog.