A US citizen acquired a lifetime pass for a well-known airline thirty years ago. While the man considers the transaction ‘his finest investment to date’, the airline considers it its biggest blunder.
Tom Stuker, a 69-year-old consultant for a New Jersey auto company, bought a lifetime pass from United Airlines in 1990 for $290000 dollars, according to a report by The Washington Post. He has flown 23 million miles since then and considers the purchase to be his ‘best investment.’
He has travelled more miles than any other human being in history–23 million so far, or 22 million more than Apollo 11.
According to the report, Stuker once lasted 12 days without sleeping in a bed. I just continued flying from Newark to San Francisco to Bangkok to Dubai and back, the equivalent of four journeys around the world, leaving the sky only at the airport lounges in between.
Stuker still sits in his chosen spot in seat 1B, 33 years after obtaining that pricey pass.
He told the newspaper that he learned frequent-flier miles are beneficial for more than just buying additional trips. Once you have them, you can redeem them through the airline, and Stuker has lived like a sultan ever since–luxury hotel rooms all over the globe, weeks-long Crystal cruises, exquisite lunches from Perth to Paris.
He said that 2019 was his best year for travel, with 373 flights totalling 1.46 million miles. If he had paid cash, all of these flights would have cost him $2.44 million.
The Washington Post calculated his journey distance and determined that he travelled more distance than six visits to the moon in a single year.
