Invest $290,000 to travel for life with United Airlines. This is what Tom Stuker, a 69-year-old American, did in the 1990s. The business was more than profitable, says the Washington Post. In about thirty years, this American has traveled 37 million kilometers and has far exceeded the record of the Apollo 11 astronauts who have traveled “only” 1.5 million kilometers.
Tom Stuker has thus visited more than a hundred countries. In 2019 alone, he made 373 flights and traveled 2.3 million kilometers. This head of a car sales consultancy says that he flies between 200 and 250 days a year. If he had to pay for those trips, he would have had to pay $2.44 million for that year alone.
These trips also brought him “miles”, those bonuses offered by airlines to obtain discounts on their stays, as well as gift cards in the main brands. When he passed 20 million miles, United Airlines even threw a party in his honor, he says. QG who nicknamed him the “Elvis of air transportation” due to his great reputation in business.
“Serial killer” of the planet
Tom Stucker has thus reached the record of 21 million air miles, an accumulation that allows him to live “like a sultan”, in his own words. By the year 2019 alone, he would have accumulated 10 million. Tom Stuker has free access to palaces around the world, to the best restaurants on the planet and to sumptuous cruises. He says he has had 120 honeymoons with his wife.
The gift cards earned have made him fortunes. In one day, she earned $50,000 in coupons to spend at Wallmart stores. Generous, he renovated his brother’s house. The icing on the cake, he also won a charity auction to appear on an episode of Seinfeld by bidding 451,000 airline miles.
The ecological consequences of these trips remain. Tom Stucker, perceived as a “serial killer” of the planet by environmental protection associations, seems not to care. For him, “the footprint does not increase as the plane flies, whether I am on board or not.”
Source: BFM TV
