FrugalTravelGuy
Rick Ingersoll is the world’s expert on frugal travel and flying free and the author of The Frugal Travel Guy Handbook. A retired mortgage banker, he splits his time between Traverse City, Michigan, and Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. To enjoy his retirement, he and his wife Katy travel the globe, rarely paying full price – if anything at all — for their travel and lodging expenses. Rick has become the expert in rooting out deals others miss or simply don’t know about, and in accumulating airline frequent flier miles and hotel points. He and Katy have been on two “Around the World” itineraries in either Business or First Class, using free frequent flier miles, points, or vouchers. They have taken many other trips (several to Hawaii), always flying up-front for comfort and convenience. They have been to 63 countries in the Caribbean Islands, Central and South America, the British Isles, Scandinavia, Eastern and Western Europe, Southeast Asia, Australia, and New Zealand. And they went for a five-year period without paying for any of these airline tickets.
Rick’s expertise includes frequent flier mile programs, getting the “bump”, customer service requests, and using good credit ratings to take advantage of bank promotions. He has collected over five million frequent flier miles and has a current “bankroll” of over 1.5 million frequent flier miles and points. He shares his expertise in his book, The Frugal Travel Guy Handbook, on his daily-updated blog, frugaltravelguy.com, and through speaking engagements and seminars around the U.S.
“I just decided to start spreading the word,” Rick told Cymbre Foster of the Traverse City Record-Eagle in March of 2008. “My true intent is to teach people how to do this themselves. There is nothing more fun than taking someone somewhere they have never been before for a price they can’t believe.”
The Frugal Travel Guy blog is a 2009, 2010, and 2011 budget travel award winner presented by tripbase.com.
