飞行达人免费游世界羡煞旁人

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.
上个月， 本·斯拉必格(Ben Schlappig)的Instagram主页上的照片显示他飞离了北京，在德国品尝咖啡和蛋糕，从穆赫兰道（Mulholland Drive）上方惊叹洛杉矶的天际线。

While the pictures suggest that the 25-year-old is on some extended vacation - he is not. This is his life and job.
光看照片你也许会猜这个25岁的年轻人一定是在度长假，然而并非如此。这就是他的生活，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，当斯拉必格的房子租赁期满时，他把他的整个生活打包进了几个旅行箱，开始全职环球飞行。利用对航空公司奖励机制的专业级了解，实际上他搭乘飞机不用花一分钱。

'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《滚石》杂志采访时说：“我很幸运，我所做的正是我热爱的。飞机就是我的卧室、办公室还有游戏室。”

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.
斯拉必格是一个名为“业余爱好者”的团体的一份子，他们数十年来“骗”过了航空公司的奖励机制，利用频繁的飞行记录，信用卡的奖励措施以及航空公司售票程序算法中的错误，获得环游世界的免费机票。

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.
在纽约出生的斯拉必格在13岁时就加入了这个团体。那时他发现了飞行爱好者网站Flyer Talk，于是开始通过网站在线的讨论版学习免费飞行的“诀窍”。

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.
斯拉必格并不适应学校的生活，于是花了很多时间在网上学习免费飞行的本事。不到一年，他便开始在周末使用减价的双程机票在全国飞来飞去，甚至都不曾离开机场，因此积累了成千上万的飞行里程。

'It was an interesting hobby,' his dad Arno said. 'I said, "Hey! Keep it up. It's better than smoking pot."'
他的父亲阿尔诺说：“这是个很有趣的业余爱好。我告诉他，嘿，坚持下去。这比抽大麻强多了。”

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，斯拉必格的房子租约到期，他将所有家当打包进几个黑色行李箱，开始了全职环游世界的生活。

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.
他预计自己每天大约有六个小时是在空中飞行的，而余下的时间他会住在自己选择的五星级酒店中。

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.
没有一个可以称之为家的固定城市会令大部分人抓狂，斯拉必格却称在他看来离家最近地方就是机舱或是休息室，尽管他也承认有的时候会感到孤单。

'The world is so big, I can keep running,' Schlappig says. 'At the same time, it makes you realize the world is so small.'
斯拉必格说：“这个世界太大了，我可以不停地飞下去。同时，你又会发现这个世界其实也挺小的。”

Vocabulary

outsmart：比...更聪明

stack up：累计，加起来

frequent flyer miles：飞行里程

smoking pot：抽大麻