Fly Economy? This 17-Year-Old Never Does, Thanks To 'Free' First Class Trips

Not many of us will ever have the fortune of flying business class, as we'd much rather save our pennies for when we land. Better to fork out cash in a bar that sells 50p shots and £1.50 pints, eh?

However, there are people who turn their nose up at economy class - the place where babies cry, there's always a queue for the toilet and the food is reminiscent of a dog's dinner. But we love it, don't we, us 'normies'? Nothing signals a week in the sun more than a toddler kicking the back of your chair, while you realise the person you're sat next to is emitting a variety of toxic odours.

Despite this, given the chance we'd jump at an upgrade to the posh seats. And by 'chance', I mean not having to pay.

Seventeen-year-old Zac George is a man who regularly flies first class, and pays very little.

Zac George

Credit: Facebook/Zac George

A former employee of The Land of the Golden Arches, McDonald's, the Australian uses credit cards to gain frequent flyer points, which effectively pay for his flights.

"Since I was 13 or 14, I've been absolutely obsessed with flying and I was flying on the weekends just from Brisbane to Sydney to take photos of aircraft," he told Escape.com.

Zac George

Credit: Facebook/Zac George

He continued: "It got quite expensive and I needed to find a way to do it cheaper, so I started looking into credit card points and how valuable they are.

"They're almost like a currency."

Somehow, after doing this and assessing loyalty programs and their best deals, Zac has made this into a full time job, blogging and marketing deals with airline companies.

Zac George

Credit: Instagram/Zac George

He and his parents have 10 credit cards between them, all of which have been researched based on their points-for-spend ratios and promotions.

"I always sign up for promotions - even if I don't end up taking advantage of them," he said. "Virgin Australia currently has a billion points giveaway where you get 15 percent more points for converting eligible credit card and flybuys to Velocity points."

Basically, it's a bit like Nectar points and Tesco Clubcards, whereby if you spend a certain amount of cash, you get hypothetical points in return. When you've got enough, you can buy a dishwasher or something.

Honestly, I haven't stopped thinking about the level of discount he must have given up at Maccies.

Mark McGowan

Mark is a journalist at LADbible, who joined in 2015 after a year as a freelance writer. In the past he blogged for independent football fan channel Redmen TV, after graduating from Staffordshire University with degrees in journalism and English literature. He has worked on campaigns such as UOKM8? and IIOC.