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Home / Travel

Recognise this man? A first class airfare could be yours if you spot this traveller

NZ Herald
19 Nov, 2019 10:24 PM3 mins to read

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Gilbert Ott is giving away his flight upgrades. Photo / Supplied

Gilbert Ott is giving away his flight upgrades. Photo / Supplied

Memorise this face. It could be worth a first class upgrade!

Gilbert Ott, who runs a travel tips blog God Saves The Points, has earned so many frequent flyer rewards he has taken to giving them away. All you have to do is ask.

Ott, 32, has offered to trade his business class boarding passes with anyone who can recognise him at an airport. A regular traveller between London and New York, he's begun leaving a few clues on his website to help business class bounty hunters track him down.

"We'll need to be on the same flight," Gilbert Ott told the Daily Mail "but if you find me loitering around the gate area, at check-in, security or anywhere else before the flight – on the way to the airport for instance - I'll totally swap seats and you can enjoy the comfy stuff, and I'll take whatever you've got on the plane, even if it's the last row."

He is running his seat swapping game between November 30 and December 11, during which time he's hinted that he'll be in the Asia Pacific area with LA and Hong Kong on the hit list.

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It's not the first time he's tried the stunt. Two years ago he says he was chased through Heathrow Airport by travellers looking to swap seats, but he says running the competition has been a lot of fun.

However, this year he's throwing in his hotel reservations for good measure.

Where is Gilbert? Gilbert Ott is dropping hints on his social media. Photo / Supplied
Where is Gilbert? Gilbert Ott is dropping hints on his social media. Photo / Supplied

While the challenge started as a novel way to promote his site God Save the Points, he says he's really enjoyed the process of giving away his upgrades to strangers.

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Ott says he was inspired by a similar stunt Richard Branson run to promote Virgin Atlantic airlines. "I figured if he could do it, I probably could too, and if it got some extra eyeballs to my website, why not?"

With more air miles than he could possibly use himself, Ott decided to have some fun with it.

View this post on Instagram

🎶Smile like you mean it 🎶. 🍸 And drink espresso martinis ☕ #livefromvirgin #telaviv

A post shared by Gilbert Ott | GSTP (@godsavethepoints) on Oct 23, 2019 at 5:47am PDT

He's been dropping clues as to which flights he's booked onto on Social media tagged with the hashtag #wheresgilbert.

"Everyone likes a game," he told the MailOnline "I feel pretty lucky to be able to challenge people to find me and unlock hotel suites, first class seats and all that."

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