This story is great. I had heard of this guy (Tom Stuker) before a while ago but had no idea how far along he had developed his miles/points system.
He really did take United to the cleaners. Best return ever.
Wow, that’s insane.
I’m guessing they didn’t have any actuaries on staff back then.
Yes. Its about $650k in 2023 USD (using average inflation).
So the guy was only 36 years old in 1990 (69 today 2023).
Have no idea what United was thinking with that one.
Figure I have flown about 1 million miles in my lifetime and even that seemed too much to me: 23 million miles is insane. Must be very unhealthy, even sitting in 1B. So many other things he could have done with that time.
American did this as well. You can google it, they got aggressive with a few folks who re-sold tickets and one guy who’d book two first class tickets just for extra room, I think AA sued him and was able to revoke his passes.
A lifetime supply of coffee…plus…