飛行達人免費游世界羨煞旁人

Last month, Ben Schlappig's Instagram page showed him jetting out of Beijing, dining on coffee and cake in Germany and marveling at the Los Angeles skyline from the top of Mulholland Drive.
上個月， 本·斯拉必格(Ben Schlappig)的Instagram主頁上的照片顯示他飛離了北京，在德國品嘗咖啡和蛋糕，從穆赫蘭道（Mulholland Drive）上方驚嘆洛杉磯的天際線。

While the pictures suggest that the 25-year-old is on some extended vacation - he is not. This is his life and job.
光看照片你也許會猜這個25歲的年輕人一定是在度長假，然而并非如此。這就是他的生活，他的工作。

Last year, when Schlappig's lease ended, he packed his entire life into a few suitcases and started flying around the world full time, using his expert knowledge of airline reward programs to fly at practically no cost at all.
2014年，當斯拉必格的房子租賃期滿時，他把他的整個生活打包進了幾個旅行箱，開始全職環球飛行。利用對航空公司獎勵機制的專業級了解，實際上他搭乘飛機不用花一分錢。

'I'm very fortunate in that I do what I love,' Schlappig said in an interview with Rolling Stone. 'An airplane is my bedroom. It's my office, and it's my playroom.'
斯拉必格在接受《滾石》雜志采訪時說：“我很幸運，我所做的正是我熱愛的。飛機就是我的臥室、辦公室還有游戲室。”

Schlappig is part of a community known as 'Hobbyists,' who have been outsmarting the airlines on their own rewards programs for decades, using their frequent flyer statuses, credit card incentives and mistakes in airline ticketing algorithms to get them free tickets around the world.
斯拉必格是一個名為“業余愛好者”的團體的一份子，他們數十年來“騙”過了航空公司的獎勵機制，利用頻繁的飛行記錄，信用卡的獎勵措施以及航空公司售票程序算法中的錯誤，獲得環游世界的免費機票。

It's a community New York born Schlappig has been a part of since he was 13, when he discovered the Hobby website Flyer Talk and started learning the tricks of the trade on the site's online discussion boards.
在紐約出生的斯拉必格在13歲時就加入了這個團體。那時他發現了飛行愛好者網站Flyer Talk，于是開始通過網站在線的討論版學習免費飛行的“訣竅”。

Never having really fit in at school, Schlappig spent a lot of time online mastering the art of the Hobby and within a year started spending his weekend flying across the country on back to back flights, never even leaving the airport, to stack up thousands of frequent flyer miles.
斯拉必格并不適應學校的生活，于是花了很多時間在網上學習免費飛行的本事。不到一年，他便開始在周末使用減價的雙程機票在全國飛來飛去，甚至都不曾離開機場，因此積累了成千上萬的飛行里程。

'It was an interesting hobby,' his dad Arno said. 'I said, "Hey! Keep it up. It's better than smoking pot."'
他的父親阿爾諾說：“這是個很有趣的業余愛好。我告訴他，嘿，堅持下去。這比抽大麻強多了。”

When his lease ended in April 2014, he packed all of his belongings into a few black suitcases and started traveling the world full time.
2014年4月，斯拉必格的房子租約到期，他將所有家當打包進幾個黑色行李箱，開始了全職環游世界的生活。

He estimates that he spends about six hours a day in the sky, and when he's not flying, he lives in five-star hotels wherever he chooses.
他預計自己每天大約有六個小時是在空中飛行的，而余下的時間他會住在自己選擇的五星級酒店中。

While not having a permanent city to call home would make most crazy, Schlappig says the closest place to his home is an airplane cabin or lounge, though he does admit to sometimes getting lonely.
沒有一個可以稱之為家的固定城市會令大部分人抓狂，斯拉必格卻稱在他看來離家最近地方就是機艙或是休息室，盡管他也承認有的時候會感到孤單。

'The world is so big, I can keep running,' Schlappig says. 'At the same time, it makes you realize the world is so small.'
斯拉必格說：“這個世界太大了，我可以不停地飛下去。同時，你又會發現這個世界其實也挺小的。”

Vocabulary

outsmart：比...更聰明

stack up：累計，加起來

frequent flyer miles：飛行里程

smoking pot：抽大麻

英文來源：每日郵報

譯者：白潔

審校&編輯：劉明

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