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Have you heard the story about "the Pudding Guy"?
Posted on 5/15/21 at 7:30 am
Posted on 5/15/21 at 7:30 am
Dude ended up with 1,253,000 frequent flyer miles by buying 12,150 individual servings of pudding for $3,140.
LINK
quote:
David Phillips is an American civil engineer best known for accumulating many frequent flyer miles by taking advantage of a promotion by Healthy Choice Foods in 1999.[1]
quote:
Healthy Choice was running a promotion offering 500 miles for each pack of 10 Healthy Choice bar codes (UPC) mailed in as proof of purchase.[2] Valuing each mile at 2 cents, Phillips calculated that the return per UPC ($1) was worth a significant part of the price of a frozen entree (which were selling for $2), but while shopping he also found Healthy Choice soup cans for only $0.90.[2]
He later discovered the same promotion also included individual pudding packages at 25 cents apiece, while shopping at a nearby Grocery Outlet.[2] He subsequently visited ten Grocery Outlet stores in the Sacramento area, buying every case of pudding available, totaling 12,150 individual servings of pudding,[2] for $3,140.[3] He also had the Grocery Outlet manager order additional cases. In order to divert attention, he claimed he was stocking up for Y2K.[4] Clerks started calling him "Pudding Guy".[5]
The promotion included an early-bird bonus if the packages were mailed during the month of May 1999 (the mileage earned would double from 500 miles to 1,000 miles for every 10 UPCs submitted). Phillips, unable to remove all the UPCs himself in such a short time, recruited members of a local Salvation Army branch to help peel the UPCs off the pudding containers; in exchange, Phillips donated the puddings. This donation allowed him to receive $815 in tax write-offs further increasing his return on investment.[2]
quote:
Phillips submitted proof of mailing the certificates and Healthy Choice Foods awarded him 1,253,000 frequent flyer miles.[6] He would apply some of the miles to his United, Delta, and Northwest frequent flyer accounts, and the majority (over 1 million miles) to his AAdvantage account, in the process earning him lifetime Gold status
LINK
16
Posted on 5/15/21 at 7:34 am to fatboydave
Yes. Everyone has heard this.
Posted on 5/15/21 at 7:35 am to fatboydave
I thought this was gonna be a kinky sex story.
Posted on 5/15/21 at 7:38 am to fatboydave
That's one of the smartest plans I've ever heard. I love when people game the system. Like when that guy tried to get the Harrier jet from Pepsi.
Posted on 5/15/21 at 8:09 am to fatboydave
$3,140 worth of pudding!?
Posted on 5/15/21 at 8:13 am to fatboydave
I thought this was about Bill Cosby.
Posted on 5/15/21 at 8:33 am to fatboydave
It’s really not that impressive. Each mile is worth a penny. So his 1.2 million miles are worth 12,000 dollars.
He invested 3,140 dollars. Plus gas and the time to gather all the pudding, take off the labels, and mail them.
For a profit of about 8k. It’s a cool story but he didn’t game the system that well. I’m sure the company is happy to pay 8k for all that publicity.
He invested 3,140 dollars. Plus gas and the time to gather all the pudding, take off the labels, and mail them.
For a profit of about 8k. It’s a cool story but he didn’t game the system that well. I’m sure the company is happy to pay 8k for all that publicity.
Posted on 5/15/21 at 8:36 am to fatboydave
Hopefully he’s pudding his miles to good use.
Posted on 5/15/21 at 8:41 am to fatboydave
Sadly, David can’t fit in any airplane seats.
Posted on 5/15/21 at 8:43 am to fatboydave
Saw the story on Urban Legends
Posted on 5/15/21 at 9:08 am to fatboydave
Something like this happened to the US Mint. Under the Presidential One Dollar Coin Act of 2005 you could buy one dollar coins from the US Mint using a credit card get free shipping. People would buy the coins and return them to their bank and pay off the credit card in full every month retaining the miles or cash back or whatever reward was associated with the card. The US Mint finally had to end the program.
Posted on 5/15/21 at 9:58 am to fatboydave
quote:
Phillips, unable to remove all the UPCs himself in such a short time, recruited members of a local Salvation Army branch to help peel the UPCs off the pudding containers; in exchange, Phillips donated the puddings. This donation allowed him to receive $815 in tax write-offs further increasing his return on investment.
This is the part that impressed me the most. Guy thought of all angles.
Posted on 5/15/21 at 10:07 am to fatboydave
This scheme was used in the noir film by Adam Sandler called Punch Drunk Love. Great movie!
Posted on 5/15/21 at 1:39 pm to WaWaWeeWa
quote:
It’s really not that impressive. Each mile is worth a penny. So his 1.2 million miles are worth 12,000 dollars.
You don't understand the points/miles game. Yes, if you have Amex points or Chase points you can convert them to buy something and get $.01 each. Some Chase cards are as high as $.015. But the post that you just replied to said he converted them to air miles. Any air miles enthusiast will tell you anything less than $.02 is a waste. Further, most of the people in this hobby get around $.05+ by only using them on business/first class tickets by using sweet spots.
Do you really think a guy who figured out how to game the system to gain those miles doesn't understand how to get value from the miles?
Posted on 5/15/21 at 1:41 pm to fatboydave
Posted on 5/15/21 at 1:43 pm to fatboydave
Puddin in work, son
Posted on 5/15/21 at 2:03 pm to WaWaWeeWa
quote:
It’s really not that impressive. Each mile is worth a penny. So his 1.2 million miles are worth 12,000 dollars.
Not in 1999.
Additionally, if you know what you're doing you get way more than a penny a mile. I redeem for business class on a partner airline for international flights and usually get a $1500 or so seat for about 30000 miles.
Posted on 5/15/21 at 3:17 pm to WaWaWeeWa
quote:
Each mile is worth a penny. So his 1.2 million miles are worth 12,000 dollars.
You’d have to be a retard to redeem airline miles for only 1 cent per point. It’s not difficult today to get redemptions worth 4-5 cpp. So 1.2MM miles in 2021 would be worth $48-60k. Back when he pulled this off, points were even more valuable.
Posted on 5/15/21 at 4:57 pm to WaWaWeeWa
quote:
It’s really not that impressive. Each mile is worth a penny. So his 1.2 million miles are worth 12,000 dollars.
When redeemed for international travel in F or J, miles (even today) can be worth much more than 1 cent per mile. It was especially true back then before so many credit card signup bonuses with miles were available.
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