This travel hacker paid $400 for a $52,000 round-the-world trip - here's how he did it

Dan Gillaspia is an attorney based in California, but in his spare time, he's a travel hacker. He's seen the globe and experienced some of the world's best First Class cabins and five-star hotels.

His most recent vacation was a $52,294 round-the-world trip which took him to Tokyo, Cape Town, Dubai, and other far-off destinations.

It was the trip of a lifetime, but Gillaspia isn't a big spender.

So when it came to planning his trip, he employed every trick and some serious "travel hacking" to whittle his bill down to as low as possible.

In the end, he paid just $408.

After months of meticulous planning, he and his partner, Bradley Darnell, gamed the system and accrued 1 million air miles through various credit cards schemes and deals.

We asked Dan, who runs the travel blog UponArriving, to let us know more about how he managed to pull it off.