After 8 Years, 74 Countries, and 848 Flights: What It Really Costs to Live as a Digital Nomad

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Eight years ago this week, my wife and I moved out of our apartment and embarked on a full-time digital nomad lifestyle. 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 and miles with remote work, we planned to become “digital nomads” instead — an idea far more outlandish in 2017 than it is today.

Eight years later, we are still traveling the world full-time as digital nomads with no plans to stop. (Hello from Tirana, Albania!) Thanks to points and miles, we've been able to travel full-time for a fraction of the cost we ever imagined. Here's a recap of how much we've traveled in the past eight years — and how we've been able to afford it.

Eight Years of Flights

1.56+ million flight miles across 848 flights

Over the past eight years, I've flown 848 flights spanning 1,563,051 direct flight miles. Here's how those flights look on a map:

My 848 flights over the past eight years. Image generated using Great Circle Mapper.

That's an average of just over 195,000 flight miles a year. For reference, that's an average of around 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: 528,129 miles across 466 flights
• Premium economy: 252,403 miles across 50 flights
• Business/domestic first class: 697,952 miles across 315 flights
• First Class: 84,567 miles across 17 flights — including flights in ANA The Suite, British Airways 747, Cathay Pacific, Emirates A380, and Etihad Apartments.

93 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 eight years.

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

• American Airlines: 297 flights
• Southwest Airlines: 62 flights
• British Airways: 44 flights
• United Airlines: 44 flights
• Malaysia Airlines: 32 flights
• Qatar Airlines: 28 flights
• Japan Airlines: 23 flights
• Cathay Pacific: 20 flights
• Delta Air Lines: 19 flights
• Iberia: 17 flights
• Qantas: 17 flights

As you can see, American Airlines is my most-flown airline — by far. My 297 flights and 513,037 miles flown on American Airlines account for more than one-third of my total flights and miles over the past eight years. And that's taken me to every continent that American Airlines flies.

A map of my 297 American Airlines flights over the past eight 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 eight 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 eight years. Add in complimentary domestic upgrades and mileage tickets and I've flown over 335,000 miles in American Airlines business or first class (vs. around 127,000 miles in economy).

229 airports

While Katie and I have our favorite places, we've been intentional about seeing different parts of the world over the past eight 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 229 airports transited over the past eight years. Image generated using Great Circle Mapper.

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

• Atlanta (ATL): 117 flights
• Los Angeles (LAX): 97 flights
• Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW): 89 flights
• New York Kennedy (JFK): 72 flights
• London Heathrow (LHR): 55 flights
• Miami (MIA): 54 flights
• Chicago O'Hare (ORD): 41 flights
• Charlotte (CLT): 38 visits
• Hong Kong (HKG): 36 flights
• Kuala Lumpur (KUL): 36 flights

6.5+ million miles redeemed (in the past five 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 6,515,340 miles for flights flown in the past five years. The top mileage programs used for flights:

• American Airlines AAdvantage: 3,932,250 miles
• Alaska Mileage Plan: 374,000 miles
• Avianca LifeMiles: 357,060 miles
• Southwest Rapid Rewards: 267,117 points
• Virgin Atlantic Flying Club: 265,000 miles
• Air Canada Aeroplan: 236,000 miles
• United MileagePlus: 182,000 miles
• Delta SkyMiles: 162,500 miles
• Turkish Miles & Smiles: 105,000 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 nearly four million AAdvantage miles on flights in the past five years.

$74k spent on flights (in the past five 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 five years of flights, Katie and I paid a total of $73,934 out of pocket. That's a lot, but it breaks down to around $7.4k per person per year out-of-pocket. And we've both maintained both Oneworld Emerald and Star Alliance Gold status throughout this period.

Eight Years of Lodging

For more than eight 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 eight years.

74 countries

Besides the U.S., I've visited 73 countries in the past eight years — ranging from Albania to Vietnam. Excluding the U.S., my top 10 countries by number of nights stayed are:

• Japan: 117 nights
• Germany: 109 nights
• Australia: 65 nights
• South Africa: 54 nights
• Maldives: 45 nights
• Netherlands: 40 nights
• Canada: 37 nights
• Dominican Republic: 33 nights — mostly from a 28-night stay in an all-inclusive resort
• Malaysia: 31 nights
• Spain: 31 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 eight 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.

8,948,195 points redeemed

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

• IHG One Rewards: 4,485,550 points — less 415,635 in points rebates thanks to the no-longer-available IHG^® Rewards Select Credit Card
• Marriott Bonvoy: 1,580,300 points
• Choice Privileges: 1,071,500 points
• World of Hyatt: 969,200 points
• Hilton Honors: 520,000 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 eight years.

Redeeming over one million 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.

547 nights with friends and family

This total came as quite a surprise — especially since our parents want us to visit more — but I've spent a whopping 547 nights with friends and family over the past eight years. Most of this includes visits to our parents, as well as 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.

137 nights on redeye flights and airports

With an average of around 200k flight miles per year, I spend a lot of time on planes. And with travels overseas to dozens of countries, it might not be a surprise that I've racked up 137 nights either on redeye flights or crashing in an airport lounge during an overnight layover. Crazily, this breaks down to around one in 21 nights spent on a plane or airport on average for the past eight years!

$93k paid out-of-pocket

After subtracting other random nights — from nights paid by former employers to boondocking in our RV and even overnight trains — we're left with over 1,200 nights paid for over the past eight years. For those nights, we paid $86,148 out-of-pocket. While that sounds like a lot, remember that we have no mortgage, rent, or other housing costs. So, when you divide that by 96 months, we paid a pretty reasonable “rent” payment of just $897 per month over the past eight years.

Eight 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. But, 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 53 credit cards in the past eight years. We earned over 4.7 million points and miles just from the sign-up bonuses on those cards. That's a lot of new cards! However, over eight years, it breaks down to an average of around 3.3 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 2,039,575 AAdvantage miles in earnings from paid flights over the past eight years. Much of this was earned by flying inexpensive partner premium economy and business class fares — where the mileage earnings are based on miles flown instead of dollars paid.

While we've focused much of our mileage earnings on AAdvantage over the past eight years, we also have earned hundreds of thousands of miles through Asiana Club — 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 $93k 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 3.6 million hotel points for stays in the past eight years — 3,599,695 points, to be exact. Here's how these earnings break down by program:

• IHG One Rewards: 1,957,409 points
• Marriott Bonvoy: 946,058 points
• Hilton Honors: 236,058 points
• World of Hyatt: 195,428 points
• Choice Privileges: 161,159 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. However, my primary takeaway is this: You can make travel much more affordable by utilizing loyalty programs to reduce costs. 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 getting your first travel rewards card or applying for your next lucrative sign-up bonus.

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