NEW DELHI, June 29: A US citizen has travelled more than 37 million kilometres (about 23 million miles) around the world by air in the last 33 years which in total cost him only 2.90 lakh dollars and he can still travel more without any additional cost.
The 69-year old consultant for a New Jersey auto company Tom Stuker had purchased a “lifetime pass” for $290,000 from the United Airlines in 1990. After 33 years Stuker told the media it was his “best investment” and the airlines repenting it to be their “greatest mistake.”
The “Washington Post” reported that Stuker has become a man who’s flown more miles than any human being in history, about 22 million miles more than even Apollo 11.
The report said Stuker once went 12 straight days without sleeping in a bed. “I just kept jetting from Newark to San Francisco to Bangkok to Dubai and back again, the equivalent of four trips around the world, leaving the sky only for the airport lounge. Now, 33 years after purchasing that valuable pass, Stuker still frequently sits in his preferred position in seat 1B.
He told the newspaper that he realised that frequent-flier miles aren’t just valuable for booking more flights. Once you get them, they can be redeemed through the airline, and Stuker has lived like a sultan on United Airlines ever since-luxury hotel suites all over the world, weeks-long Crystal cruises, gourmet meals from Perth to Paris.
Stuker has gotten a lot of use out of the lifetime pass and has done so profitably. He claimed that 2019, when he took 373 flights totalling 1.46 million miles, was his finest year for travelling. All of these flights would have cost him $2.44 million if he had paid cash. The Washington Post computed his travel distance and discovered that in a single year, his mileage covered more than six trips to the moon.
(Manas Dasgupta)