Millions of Miles Earned, Redeemed, and Flown: Seven Years As a Digital Nomad, By the Numbers

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Seven years ago today, on July 2, 2017, my wife Katie and I took off on our first flight as digital nomads. In the months leading up to our departure, we'd sold or donated almost all of our belongings. Our original plan to save up and take a “gap year” had already transitioned. Thanks to combining points/miles and remote work, we planned to become “digital nomads” instead.

Seven years later, we are still traveling the world full-time as digital nomads with no plans to stop. (Hello from Queenstown, New Zealand!) Thanks to points and miles, we've been able to travel full-time for a lot less than we ever imagined. Here's a recap of how much we've traveled in the past seven years — and how we were able to afford it.

Seven Years of Flights

1.4+ million miles across 737 flights

Over the past seven years, I've flown 737 flights spanning 1,406,881 direct flight miles:

My 737 flights over the past seven years. Image generated using Great Circle Mapper.

That's an average of over 200,000 flight miles a year. For reference, that's an average of more than eight times around Earth's equator each year. And keep in mind that the COVID-19 pandemic limited a couple of those years. (I flew less than 30k miles from April 2020 to June 2021.)

Here's how my flights break down by class of service flown:

• Economy: 460,927 miles across 386 flights
• Premium economy: 229,547 miles across 45 flights
• Business/domestic first class: 638,221 miles across 290 flights
• First Class: 78,632 miles across 16 flights — including flights in ANA The Suite, British Airways 747, Cathay Pacific, Emirates A380, and Etihad Apartments.

85 airlines

Before the pandemic struck, I set a goal to fly at least 30 airlines each year. Thanks to this focus on flying diverse airlines, I've flown airlines ranging from Aegean to Vueling and Aeroflot to VietJet over the past seven years.

My top 10 list of airlines flown over the past seven years:

• American Airlines: 262 flights
• Southwest Airlines: 53 flights
• United Airlines: 39 flights
• British Airways: 38 flights
• Malaysia Airlines: 32 flights
• Qatar Airlines: 26 flights
• Japan Airlines: 21 flights
• Cathay Pacific: 20 flights
• Delta Air Lines: 17 flights
• Iberia: 16 flights

As you can see, American Airlines is my most-flown airline — by far. My 262 flights and 469,280 miles flown on American Airlines account for more than one-third of my total flights and miles over the past seven years. And that's taken me to every continent that American Airlines flies.

A map of my 262 American Airlines flights over the past seven years. Image generated using Great Circle Mapper.

Why so much flying on American Airlines? Through various elite status-earning strategies over the years, I earned top-tier Executive Platinum elite status for most of the past seven years. That's changed recently with me ditching American Airlines elite status for British Airways.

Still, while I was an American Airlines elite, this status helped me score first-class upgrades, extra-legroom seats, access to lounges (especially when paired with my Malaysia Enrich Gold elite status), free checked bag(s), bonus points earnings, and much more.

Just by using systemwide upgrades — one perk of AAdvantage elite status — I flew over 130,000 miles in Flagship Business class across 24 long-haul flights over the past seven years. Add in complimentary domestic upgrades and mileage tickets and I've flown over 321,000 miles in American Airlines business or first class (vs. around 105,000 miles in economy).

208 airports across 68 countries and territories

While Katie and I have our favorite places, we've been intentional about seeing different parts of the world over the past seven years. While we've flown through hubs like Atlanta and Los Angeles plenty of times, we've also visited remote airports like Maupiti, French Polynesia (MAU); Hohhot, China (HET); Majuro, Marshall Islands (MAJ); and Kandy, Sri Lanka (KDZ).

A map of my 208 airports transited over the past seven years. Image generated using Great Circle Mapper.

Over the past seven years, my top 10 airports (by the number of times flights in or out) are:

• Atlanta (ATL): 103 flights
• Los Angeles (LAX): 91 flights
• Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW): 75 flights
• New York Kennedy (JFK): 67 flights
• London Heathrow (LHR): 45 flights
• Miami (MIA): 42 flights
• Charlotte (CLT): 38 visits
• Hong Kong (HKG): 36 flights
• Kuala Lumpur (KUL): 36 flights
• Chicago O'Hare (ORD): 35 flights

4.7+ million miles redeemed (in the past four years)

Sadly, we didn't start recording how many points and miles we redeemed from the start of our travels. However, what started as a spreadsheet for tracking outstanding bookings when the pandemic hit turned into a tool that we've used to track each flight we've booked since.

The result? We've redeemed a total of 4,755,981 miles for flights flown in the past four years. The top mileage programs used for flights:

• American Airlines AAdvantage: 3,135,750 miles
• Alaska Mileage Plan: 220,000 miles
• Southwest Rapid Rewards: 213,908 points
• Air Canada Aeroplan: 161,000 miles
• Avianca LifeMiles: 148,500 miles
• United MileagePlus: 120,000 miles
• Virgin Atlantic Flying Club: 120,000 miles
• Delta SkyMiles: 117,500 miles
• Singapore KrisFlyer: 98,000 miles

Here again, there's a clear winner: American Airlines AAdvantage. As rumors of devaluations swirled the past few years, we focused on redeeming our stash of AAdvantage miles built up from years of flights and Bask Bank earnings, burning through over three million AAdvantage miles on flights in the past four years.

$47k spent on flights (in the past four years)

Sometimes redeeming miles isn't the best option — whether we're looking to earn elite status or the redemption rate simply doesn't make sense. Plus, some award flights can tack on hundreds of dollars in taxes and fees.

Over the past four years of flights, Katie and I paid a total of $46,817 out-of-pocket. That's a lot, but it breaks down to under $6k per person per year out-of-pocket. And we've both maintained both Oneworld Emerald and Star Alliance Gold status throughout this period.

Seven Years of Lodging

For more than seven years, we haven't had a home or apartment. For a vast majority of this time, we've lived out of hotels — with some time spent in Airbnbs, guesthouses, trains, planes, etc.

The closest we've had to a home is the recreational vehicle (RV) we bought during the pandemic. After crashing with family for a few months, we finally decided to get a place of our own. But even the RV requires a place to park it, so campground rental costs are included in the cost breakdown below.

Here's a recap of where I've stayed over the past seven years.

62 countries

Besides the U.S., I've visited 61 countries in the past seven years — ranging from Andorra to Vietnam. Excluding the U.S., my top 10 countries by number of nights stayed are:

• Japan: 103 nights
• Germany: 82 nights
• Australia: 62 nights
• South Africa: 54 nights
• Dominican Republic: 33 nights — mostly from a 28-night stay in an all-inclusive resort
• Malaysia: 31 nights
• Spain: 30 nights
• France: 28 nights
• Indonesia: 28 nights
• Thailand: 27 nights
• Maldives: 27 nights

40 states

In addition to exploring the world, Katie and I have tried to be intentional about exploring the U.S. Across the past seven years, I've visited 40 different states. As much as we've visited, it's the gaps in this map that bother me the most.

6,818,695 points redeemed

Katie and I have redeemed almost seven million hotel points for lodging over the past seven years. Here's how that breaks down by major hotel loyalty program:

• IHG One Rewards: 3,575,550 points — less 331,935 in points rebates thanks to the no-longer-available IHG^® Rewards Select Credit Card.
• Marriott Bonvoy: 1,112,800 points
• Choice Privileges: 963,500 points
• World of Hyatt: 483,200 points
• Hilton Honors: 370,000 points
• Wyndham Rewards: 248,250 points

Again, one loyalty program stands out: IHG One Rewards. From PointsBreaks (RIP) to IHG fourth night free, Katie and I have gotten incredible value out of our IHG points over the past seven years.

Choice Privileges may also be a surprise, but we've also gotten excellent value from Choice points for redemptions in Japan, Germany, the U.S., and even spending a month at an all-inclusive in the Dominican Republic.

116 “free” nights at hotels

Across the past seven years, I spent 116 “free” nights at hotels. No, this wasn't some price match scheme or other kind of hack. Instead, this is about half through free night certificates (63) and another half through fourth/fifth-night free perks (53).

I put the term “free” in quotes as there's almost always a cost to earning these free nights. The free night awards earned through credit cards generally required paying an annual fee. And the fourth/fifth-night free stays still required redeeming a lot of points for the stay.

527 nights with friends and family

This total came as quite a surprise — especially since our parents seem to want us to visit more — but I've spent a whopping 527 nights with friends and family over the past seven years. Most of this includes visits to our parents but also includes visits to my sister, aunts, uncles, cousins, college friends, and newer friends. Despite all of these nights, we haven't worn out our welcome anywhere — at least as far as we know.

128 nights on redeye flights and airports

With an average of around 200,000 flight miles per year, I spend a lot of time on planes. And with travels overseas to 62 countries (some several times), it might not be a surprise that I've racked up 128 nights either on redeye flights or crashing in an airport lounge during an overnight layover. Crazily, this breaks down to more than one in 20 nights spent on a plane or airport on average for the past seven years!

$71k paid out-of-pocket

After subtracting other random nights — from nights paid by former employers to boondocking in our RV and even overnight trains — and we're left with around 1,077 nights paid for over the past seven years. For those nights, we paid $70,990 out-of-pocket. Divide that by 84 months and that's a pretty reasonable “rent” payment of just $845 per month.

Seven Years of Earning

One of the questions that we inevitably get about how we travel like this is where all of the points and miles come from. And the answer is: There isn't just one source. We combine earnings from credit cards with stacking promotions on paid travel and maximizing the spending on our credit cards.

Credit card sign-up bonuses

Katie and I have carefully navigated credit card application rules and restrictions to apply for a combined 47 credit cards in the past seven years. We earned 3,880,000 points and miles just from the sign-up bonuses on those cards. That's a lot of cards! However, over seven years, it breaks down to an average of just over 3 new cards per year per person. That's going to sound pretty modest to many in the points and miles world.

Paid flights

Remember all of those AAdvantage miles we redeemed? I added up a whopping 1,957,094 AAdvantage miles in earnings from paid flights over the past seven years. Most of this came from flying inexpensive partner premium economy and business class fares — where the mileage earnings are based on miles flown instead of dollars paid.

For example, take that $949 round-trip British Airways premium economy flight that's listed as one of our expensive paid flights. This itinerary from Los Angeles to Bangalore via London spanned 20,918 miles round-trip. After factoring in the base earning rate (100%) and the elite status bonus (120%), this flight earned a whopping 46,022 AAdvantage miles (and Loyalty Points). If you value AAdvantage miles at a base of just 1.5 cents each, that's like getting $690 back in value — mostly offsetting an already incredibly reasonable flight to India.

Sadly, earning AAdvantage miles like this is no longer possible on British Airways or Iberia due to a change in October 2023 to switch to revenue-based earnings.

While we've focused much of our mileage earnings on AAdvantage over the past seven years, we also have earned hundreds of thousands of miles through Asiana Club — which is another program where we focus on earning elite status — and other miscellaneous mileage earnings.

Paid stays

Katie and I didn't just get lodging for our $71k in paid hotel stays. We also earned a ton of hotel points. From what I've been able to add up, we've earned nearly three million hotel points for stays in the past seven years — 2,956,570 points, to be exact. Here's how these earnings break down by program:

• IHG One Rewards: 1,652,183 points
• Marriott Bonvoy: 804,432 points
• World of Hyatt: 145,105 points
• Choice Privileges: 128,159 points
• Hilton Honors: 123,108 points
• Wyndham Rewards: 103,583 points

Credit card spending

In addition to earning points and miles through credit card sign-up bonuses, we also earned plenty from travel and everyday spending by maximizing which credit cards we use for purchases.

I only have the earning details for our airline and hotel accounts. But even with just those, I added up 930,261 in hotel points and airline miles earnings from credit card purchases (excluding sign-up bonuses). And this number is far short of our actual earnings. That's because we put most of our spending on credit cards that earn flexible rewards — such as Chase Ultimate Rewards and Amex Membership Rewards.

Bottom Line

I threw a lot of numbers at you in this post. But my major takeaway is this: You can make travel much more affordable by using loyalty programs to reduce the cost. From maximizing your spending to taking advantage of credit card perks like free nights, you can also travel better for cheaper.

Not everyone is going to have the time to dedicate to learning all of the tricks and tips that Katie and I use in our travels. And that's ok. I encourage you to just take the next step in your points and miles journey — whether that's using a $0 annual fee Citi Double Cash^® Card instead of using a debit card or applying for your next lucrative sign-up bonus.

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