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February 27, 2010

The Pudding Guy

pudding.jpg


It pays to keep your eyes open and brain engaged in the grocery store:
In 1999, UC-Davis civil engineer David Phillips was grocery shopping when he noticed something peculiar. Healthy Choice Foods was offering frequent-flyer miles to customers who bought its products. But a 25-cent pudding would bring 100 miles — the reward was worth more than the product itself.

Recognizing a good thing, Phillips bought 12,150 servings of pudding for $3,140, claiming he was stocking up for Y2K. Then he enlisted the Salvation Army to help him peel off the UPC codes, in exchange for donating the pudding.

He mailed his submission to Healthy Choice, and to their credit they awarded him 1.25 million frequent-flyer miles, enough for 31 round trips to Europe, 42 to Hawaii, 21 to Australia, or 50 anywhere in the United States.

There’s no downside. Phillips also got Aadvantage Gold status for life with American Airlines, which brings a special reservations number, priority boarding, upgrades, and bonus miles. And he got an $815 tax writeoff for donating the pudding. -- Futility Closet

More @ snopes.com: Pudding Air Travel Redemption

Posted by Vanderleun at February 27, 2010 1:48 PM. This is an entry on the sideblog of American Digest: Check it out.

Your Say

A real life George Clooney.

Posted by: Fat Man at February 27, 2010 2:04 PM

Punch-Drunk Love.

Seriously--it was used as a plot device in an Adam Sandler movie.

Posted by: Little Miss Attila / Joy McCann at February 27, 2010 5:57 PM

Hey there, just wanted to let you know we lniekd to you and mentioned your contributions from our last RecipeLion Blog Hop in one of our newsletters. Thanks again and we hope you join us for the next hop on December 17th, tell your blogger friends!SarahEditor RecipeLion.com

Posted by: Aulia at July 14, 2012 10:50 PM

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