A lifetime pass for a well-known airline was purchased by a US citizen thirty years ago. On the one hand, it was his best investment to date, but on the other, it was the airline's worst mistake.
According to The Washington Post, Tom Stuker, a 69-year-old consultant for a New Jersey auto company, paid $290,000 for a lifetime pass from United Airlines in 1990. Since then, he has flown 23 million miles and considers the purchase to be his "best investment."
He has become a man who's flown more miles than any human being in history-23 million so far, or 22 million more than Apollo 11.
The news outlet further said that Mr Stuker once went 12 straight days without sleeping in a bed. I just kept jetting from Newark to San Francisco to Bangkok to Dubai and back again, the equivalent of four trips around the world, leaving the sky only for the airport lounge.
Now, 33 years after purchasing that valuable pass, Stuker still frequently sits in his preferred position in seat 1B.
He told the newspaper that he realised that frequent-flier miles aren't just valuable for booking more flights. Once you get them, they can be redeemed through the airline, and Stuker has lived like a sultan on United miles ever since-luxury hotel suites all over the world, weeks-long Crystal cruises, gourmet meals from Perth to Paris.
Mr. Stuker has gotten a lot of use out of the lifetime pass and has done so profitably.
He claimed that 2019, when he took 373 flights totaling 1.46 million miles, was his finest year for travelling. All of these flights would have cost him $2.44 million if he had paid cash.
The Washington Post computed his travel distance and discovered that in a single year, his mileage covered more than six trips to the moon.
