This Board Game Will Test Your Frequent Flier Mile Knowledge

The savviest travelers know how to play the game when it comes to racking up loyalty points and airline miles for free upgrades, flights, and more. But do those real-life skills translate to victory during an at-home game night with family and friends? Frequent Flyer, a new board game designed just for those obsessed with points and miles, is here to test exactly that.

Designed by David Horowitz, Frequency Flyer is a "race across the states," as players use an oversized board, a 20-sided die, two decks of cards (25 first class and 45 coach), a pad of destination checklists, a mileage chart, and four game pieces to make their way around 20 cities on the map.

The first person to visit all 20 cities and return to their chosen home turf is the winner. To shorten the game, players can also choose to lower the magic number of cities that each "traveler" must visit, with a minimum of five required.

"I actually came up with the idea for this game over 15 years ago," Horowitz told The Points Guy. "I used to travel a lot for business and was obsessed with collecting and maximizing my frequent-flyer miles, so much so that I felt like I was playing a game."

Horowitz, who runs a venture capital firm called Touchdown Ventures, realized one day that his obsession could actually be turned into a board game and began work on a prototype.

"The first prototype was created over 15 years ago and I did a lot of testing back then. The game has not changed materially over the course of time. Most of the testing was from friends and family," he explained to The Points Guy, adding that it was always a childhood dream of his to create a board game.

Though friends and family have been playing the game for years, Horowitz only decided to bring Frequent Flyer to market during the pandemic as so many people were stuck at home and looking for things to do. He said watching his two sons playing the game for the last several years (they're 12 and 15 now) also gave him evidence that the game was family-friendly and great for kids.

So Horowitz formed his own company, Frequent Games, and self-published the game. Frequent Flyer costs $34.99 and is now available directly through the board game's website or on Amazon.

Jessica Poitevien is a Travel + Leisure contributor currently based in South Florida, but always on the lookout for the next adventure. Besides traveling, she loves baking, talking to strangers, and taking long walks on the beach. Follow her adventures on Instagram.