What did Singapore Airlines really give Schooling?
Singapore's Olympic hero, Joseph Schooling, returned home with the country's first ever gold medal.
Before his flight back from Brazil, Singapore Airlines gave the 21-year-old 1 million Krisflyer miles along with a KrisFlyer Gold Card.
Frequent flyer miles are usually accumulated based on the distance you fly or the amount of money spent. These miles can later be used to buy flight tickets or upgrade from economy class to business or first class*.
A million miles may sound like a lot of free travel, but what does it really translate to? And how far can Schooling go with these free miles?
1. Some websites estimate that 1 million miles translate to $16,000.
However, miles can vary in value as it depends on the location a traveller is going to and so on.
For example, a traveller would need to redeem more miles per km to fly from Singapore to New York than if they were to exchange for shorter flights to say Hong Kong or Bangkok.
The average monetary value can vary from 0.57 cents per mile to 1.11 cents per mile.
2. Schooling is based in Texas, where he attends university and where his training base is.
With the 1 million miles, he can take five return trips on first class, or, if his broad shoulders can fit into economy seats, then 15 return trips in economy.
3. Schooling could also use his free miles to fly to London to watch his favourite soccer team, Chelsea. The miles will allow him 16 economy class trips or five first-class tickets.
4. Alternatively, if Schooling wanted to take a trip every year to Hong Kong, he could use his free miles for 40 years (flying economy) or 21 years (on business).
5. If sushi and ramen are more to his taste buds, Schooling could take annual trips to Tokyo and finish his miles only in 26 years (on economy) or 10 years (if flying first class).
MILLION MILE AWARDS:
Schooling is not the only person to be awarded lots of air miles. Here are some others:
Aug 9, 2016: A 19-year-old Dutch youth Olivier Beg was given 1 million miles from United Airlines for discovering security flaws in its online system.
Aug 9, 2016: Djaballah Mohamed Taher, a 23-year-old hacker, was awarded 1.7 million miles from United Airlines for discovering three security problems under the airline's bug bounty programme.
July 10, 2015: Jordan Weins earned 1 million miles from United for finding a bug that allows people to seize control of one of the airline websites.
* Airline miles do not include airport tax and extra surcharges.
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