A lifetime pass for a well-known airline was purchased thirty years ago by a US citizen. On the one hand, it was its best investment yet, but on the other, it was the airline’s biggest mistake.
According to the Washington Post, Tom Stuker, a 69-year-old consultant for a New Jersey car company, paid $290,000 in 1990 for a United Airlines lifetime pass. Since then he has flown 23 million miles and considers the purchase his “best investment”.
He has become a man who has flown more miles than any human in history – 23 million to date, or 22 million more than Apollo 11.
The news outlet went on to say that Mr Stuker once slept in bed for 12 days straight. I kept flying from Newark to San Francisco to Bangkok to Dubai and back again, the equivalent of four trips around the world, only leaving the air for the airport lounge.
Now, 33 years after purchasing that valuable pass, Stuker still regularly sits in his favorite spot on seat 1B.
He told the newspaper that he realized that frequent flyer miles are valuable not only for booking more flights. Once you have them, they can be redeemed through the airline, and Stuker has lived like a sultan on United Miles ever since: luxury hotel suites around the world, week-long Crystal cruises, gourmet meals from Perth to Paris.
Mr. Stuker has benefited greatly from the lifetime pass and has done so profitably.
He claimed that 2019, when he made 373 flights totaling 1.46 million miles, was his best year of travel. All these flights would have cost him $2.44 million if he had paid in cash.
The Washington Post calculated his travel distance and found that he made more than six trips to the moon in one year.
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