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For travel geeks, flying first class (and paying with miles) and staying in fancy schmancy hotels (and paying with points) is usually the ultimate goal. For those who only dabble in points and miles, it’s a goal that will probably be unreached. Or, if you save long enough, maybe you can have that experience once or twice.

And then there are the ultra-rich people

And yet, the “best” flights and accommodations us “regular” people can get for those points and miles, for rich people – and I mean, the super duper rich people – the 300,000 or so with over $30 million in the bank – you know, the 0.0037% – they could pay cash for that first class seat and that best suite in that 5-star hotel in the most expensive city in the world, and it wouldn’t even make a dent in their net worth.

The thing is, those super duper rich people – the richest of the rich – don’t even fly first class. They have their own priorities, including their own echelon of travel.

The annual circuit

You see, there’s apparently an annual worldwide circuit of these places, and it’s sort of like a billionaire’s social calendar:

January – New Year’s on St. Bart’s
February – the Superbowl
March – skiing in Aspen or St. Moritz
April – the Masters Golf Tournament in Augusta, GA
May – Cannes Film Festival and Monaco Grand Prix
June – Henley Royal Rowing Regatta in England
July – Wimbledon
August – Venice Film Festival
September – the yacht show in Monaco
October – the Frieze London Art Fair
November – the Melbourne Cup
December – Art Basel Miami Beach

And then rinse and repeat.

It has nothing to do with interest

The funny thing is, this social calendar for the super duper rich has nothing to do with whether or not they like anything of the events they’re going to. Maybe they care about sportsing…or watching artsy fartsy films…or maybe not.

Granted, they want to get to these places in style, but their ultimate goal is to maintain or maybe increase their place on the social stairway of people like them. They want to get to where they’re going and be seen.

Getting from Point A to Point B

Of course, the super duper rich aren’t going to these places on commercial flights. Oh, no no no no no! That’s where that “other” echelon I mentioned earlier is – they’re using private jets to whisk them to and from all these places. And to wherever else they want to go, too.

But a big problem nowadays? There are more of these super duper rich people than ever before. And with that, there aren’t enough private jets to go around. (wait, let me get out my sad trombone)

That means they’re looking at other means of transportation. Specifically private yachts.

And there are all SORTS of logistical issues with private yachts…from parking to getting them from Point As to Point Bs of their own.

The whole story

So if you’re interested in the whole story of how the super duper rich travel, check out this video from Wendover Productions.

It kind of makes churning credit cards to get a few measly points worth it, huh?

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This post first appeared on Your Mileage May Vary