i'm surprised flyertalk, and specifically the 'mileage run' forum, on which most of these obnoxiously good deals appear, isn't more popular with this crowd as t

i'm surprised flyertalk, and specifically the 'mileage run' forum, on which most of these obnoxiously good deals appear, isn't more popular with this crowd as there's an obvious overlap in terms of personality types. There are plenty of HN types with the proper skillset and aptitude to find travel deals, who would enjoy the occasional hacking of the travel-industrial-complex. I guess having sufficient understanding of the subtleties of the fare rules and booking systems really only comes from reading a lot and traveling enough to have a vested interest in learning and there are a lot of deskbound hackers. however in the past few years, i went to NYC from SEA for USD $1.26, Romania for $200, Toronto for $0.00 in first class (with my family of five) and a few others i can't remember all due to the joys of reading that site every day...