Now there is man with WAY too much time on his hands. Mark ----- Original Message ----- From: "Bill Hough" <psa188@juno.com> To: <AIRLINE@LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU> Sent: Sunday, February 02, 2003 6:29 AM Subject: SF Gate: 'Pudding Guy' still has miles to collect before he sleeps > =20 > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > This article was sent to you by someone who found it on SF Gate. > The original article can be found on SFGate.com here: > http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=3D/chronicle/archive/2003/02= > /02/TR6951.DTL > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > Sunday, February 2, 2003 (SF Chronicle) > 'Pudding Guy' still has miles to collect before he sleeps > John Flynn > > > > Are you sitting down? Good. Now listen to this shocker: The Pudding Guy > recently paid for airline tickets. > As you'll recall, the Pudding Guy, David Phillips, is the UC Davis civil > engineer who parlayed 12,150 individual-size cups of Healthy Choice > chocolate pudding into 1,253,000 frequent-flier miles three years ago. > That was enough for 31 round-trip coach tickets to Europe, or 42 tickets > to Hawaii, or 21 tickets to Australia, or 50 tickets anywhere in the > United States. Could he possibly have used all those miles? > Hardly. In fact, through the crafty manipulation of several other > promotions, Phillips, 38, now has more than 5 million miles in his > accounts. That's worth 120 round-trip flights to Paris. It might be > cheaper for American Airlines to just give him a 747. > "I've got a lot more miles than I need," he told me over the phone > recently, > "but not as many as I'd like. Collecting them is my hobby." > So why did Phillips spend his own money for tickets to Paris, Madrid and > Rome? We'll get to that eventually. > Ever since he banked those 1.25 million miles by buying enough chocolate > pudding -- $3,150 worth -- to fill his garage to the rafters, Phillips has > become a cult hero to the obsessive subculture of people who scan the > Internet looking for ways to amass frequent-flier miles. Adam Sandler's > character in the recent Paul Anderson film, "Punch-Drunk Love," was based > partly on Phillips. > "They hired me as consultant on the film," he said. "I got to hang out on > set and ensure that the details of the pudding deal were correct. They > paid me, > but they didn't have to. I would have done it for free." > The pudding caper didn't satisfy Phillips' craving for miles. He's always > on the lookout for the next big score. "Because of my notoriety as the > Pudding Guy," he said, "a lot of people tell me about things. I get > e-mails from people. And it's my hobby to search the Internet. I thought > the pudding thing would be a once-in-a-lifetime deal, but these great > offers keep popping up." Many of them, he said, show up at www.flyer > talk.com and www.webflyer.com. > Not long after banking his pudding miles, Phillips got wind of a > particularly outrageous promotion: A consortium of Central and South > American airlines was offering a million miles to anyone who flew 10 > international segments on member airlines and four segments on partner > airlines, rented a car from a partner agency and stayed three nights in > partner hotels. Two thousand dollars worth of airline tickets and six > harried days of flying netted Phillips his second million miles. (Please > note that this and other promotions mentioned in this column have all > expired.) > Last year he found an online promotion that paid out 115 miles for every > dollar you spent on magazine subscriptions. "I bought a ton of > subscriptions, and mostly donated them to libraries and schools," Phillips > said. "I picked up about 300,000 miles out of that one." > When it came time to remodel his home, Phillips discovered that Home Dep= > ot > was offering 1,000 miles to anyone who bought a $100 gift certificate. "I > was going to spend the money anyway, so I bought myself $30,000 worth of > gift certificates." Ka-ching! Another 300,000 miles in Phillips' accounts. > The Hilton hotel chain dangled 50,000 miles in front of anyone who stayed > in four different properties, so Phillips cashed in a few of his miles for > a round-trip ticket to New York and stayed in four different Hiltons in > four nights. "I spent that whole trip checking in and out of hotels," he > said. A small price to pay, apparently, for 50,000 more miles. > Phillips does occasionally get some pleasure out of his miles. Last year, > for example, he took his wife, two kids, sister and parents to Playa del > Carmen in the Yucatan. But he wouldn't spring for upgrades to business > class. What -- do you think he's made out of miles? > "I'm still stingy about spending miles for business or first class," he > said. "I don't want to spoil the kids. They don't need the extra space, > and my wife and I are comfortable in coach." > Because he's got far more miles than vacation time, Phillips looks for > creative ways to travel. He and his wife like to jet off to London for > long weekends. "It's strange but pretty magical," he said. "We'll be at > work, and then 24 hours later we'll be watching a London play. And then a > day or two later we'll be back at work." > OK, but none of this explains why Phillips paid cash for airline tickets. > Here's the deal: This past Thanksgiving, he got a tip that British Airways > had a breathtaking glitch on its Web site. > "They were offering certain fares from the U.S. to Europe for only $20," > he said. "And these were seats in their World Traveler section, which is > halfway between coach and business class. > "The glitch only showed up in certain city pairs, but I kept plugging in > itineraries and found a number of flights from San Francisco. I couldn't > resist. I booked tickets for my family to go to Paris" -- he's there right > now -- "and also to Madrid in February and Rome in March, with my sister > and her whole family. > "The glitch was only there for about six hours, but when British Airways > discovered it they were gracious enough to honor the fares." > And through it all, Phillips never lost his taste for chocolate pudding. > "I donated most of it to the Salvation Army, but I kept a few cases for > myself. I threw out the last of it two years ago because it was starting > to go bad. But if someone offered me some right now, I wouldn't turn it > down. I really like the stuff." > Contact John Flinn at travel@ sfchronicle.com.=20 > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > Copyright 2003 SF Chronicle >