Four of the weirdest ways to earn lots of frequent flyer points

WANT to see your frequent flyer points soar? Get creative. Start by putting chocolate pudding and road tolls on your shopping list for surprising results.

George thought he was working the system in . So much to learn, Cloons.

GEORGE Clooney was so smug in the 2009 flick Up in the Air, thinking he was working the system to rack up masses of frequent flyer points.

But don't follow his lead. You don't need to travel as often as a flight attendant to see your frequent flyer miles truly soar, the Australian Business Traveller reports.

Here are four true stories of brilliant frequent flyers who thought outside the box and reaped epic rewards.

It doesn't take millions of bum-numbing kilometres in the sky to earn the frequent flyer points you deserve.

1. Make a lot of 1c transactions

Earlier this year, Melbourne man Anthony Agius took the country's biggest bank for a ride, collecting 380,000 points by spending only about $70.

National Australia Bank was running a promotion that gave customers 100 bonus points for every eligible transaction made on a NAB Qantas credit card, no matter how small the purchase was.

Agius read between the lines and came up with the idea of making thousands of 1-cent transactions, mainly to pay his road tolls. For each cent he spent, he was rewarded with 100 points, so he made 7000 transactions.

The bank cut the offer short when it realised the loophole Agius had discovered, but honoured most of the points he'd earned. Ka-ching.

Aeroplane food. Chocolate pudding could put you on the tarmac.

2. Buy 12,150 serves of chocolate pudding

Clear out four grocery stores of all their Healthy Choice chocolate puddings, then politely ask a store manager to order you three more pallets of the good stuff.

That's what US civil engineer David Phillips did, earning himself the affectionate moniker Pudding Guy among point-hoarders around the world.

The eagle-eyed engineer was shopping at a supermarket when he spotted a promotion on Healthy Choice food: 500 free miles for every purchase.

When he found tubs of chocolate pudding for 25c each, he realised he'd hit paydirt: each frequent flyer point would cost him just 0.0025c.

All up, he spent $3000 but earnt 1,253,000 points, which is enough to fly return from Australia to the United States 21 times.

Phillips enlisted local Salvation Army volunteers to help fill out the claim forms on the packs, and donated the booty to needy people in the area - earning an $850 tax deduction for his troubles. Nice.

That online bet could pay more dividends than the odds suggest.

3. Bet the house. No, really.

Another Aussie, known only in Frequent Flyer online forums by his handle "Abeyant", used his NAB Platinum Visa card to bet big on low-risk debts.

Not all credit cards treat gambling purchases as actual purchases, but Abeyant's did.

He maxed out his $30,000 limit to buy 30,000 credits in a CentreBet account, then redrew on his home loan to put more brass on his credit card until his betting account came to about $200,000.

Then it was just a matter of finding really low-risk bets to take a punt on.

"The night before the (2010 Federal) election I put the $200,000 on ALP (Julia Gillard) to retain the federal seat of Lalor paying $1.01 for every $1 bet," Abeyant said.

That bet delivered 132,000 Qantas frequent flyer Points and a bonus $2000 in earnings.

NAB has since stopped counting online bets as eligible transactions. Bummer.

4. Buy money orders

A guy in America noticed his bank was paying frequent flyer point for EFTPOS purchases, not just credit card transactions.

So he decided to test if it would work for money orders he bought at the local supermarket (they're those old school things you can get at Australia Post).

It worked, so he started buying money orders for himself and then depositing them back into his account, racking up about 28,160km of frequent flyer points.

But he admits it probably wasn't worth the hassle.

"Both of my accounts got frozen after running about 30k over three months on the debit card. With my personal banker's help I've been able to get my business checking back up, but I'm worried my personal might not be able to be saved. Thinking back, the hassle is not worth the 17,500 miles I got," he said.

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