Traveler's Edition icon
Traveler's Edition
  •   < 1 min read

In most cases, hacking into an airline’s systems is illegal and generally sees the hacker landed with hefty penalties. Not for college student Ryan Pickren, who was just awarded 15 million air miles for doing just that! 

But don’t worry – the University of Georgia Tech student was actually taking part in United Airline’s Bug Bounty Program, which sees the airline invite computer experts to hack into its systems totally legally, in an effort to uncover potential security flaws.

In return, successful hackers are given up to 1 million United miles. Pickren earned a whopping 15 million, or the equivalent to around $300,000 worth of air miles!

With 1 million miles offering enough to fly 15 return trips to Europe, we can only imagine where he’ll travel with all those miles – the possibilities are endless!

IMG: B737, Bernal Saborio / Flickr cc.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

footer logo
Made with for you