AA’s number one flyer?
 

I sat next to a gentleman in J on the SFO JFK red eye last night who said he was AA’s number one flyer. ~5k miles flown a day. Flies in his pajamas. Used to fly United, but switched earlier this year after the passenger dragging incident. Said he had flown 22 million lifetime miles.

He he told me his name and gave me his card, but I haven’t been able to find anything online, even on FT. (though he inferred there was pieces written about him)

He said Up in The Air was based on him and another guy.

Has anyone else flown next to this gentleman? Or heard of him?

If you've ever been to the BNA AC, they've got a bulletin board with photos of some of AA's VERY frequent flyers. I think the top guy on there had 35 or 45 million lifetime miles!

Is there anything else he does in his life? Or only fly? 5k miles a day... there can't be much time left for anything else, can there?

FAM? :p

(bold mine) I'd say he also needs a reminder that just because you can, doesn't mean you should

The only person that I can think of that was known to fly that much on UA was this guy http://www.cnn.com/2011/TRAVEL/07/11...les/index.html but I dont think he traveled in his PJs

Tom Stuker is UA's No. 1 flyer, 18.5M lifetime flown miles (does not include credit card nor class of service bonus), and he's still flying on UA --

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/members/ua1flyer.html

He just passed 2.7M PQM for the year (which includes class of service bonus miles) according to his latest post. Here's a recent article on him.

https://thepointsguy.com/2017/06/man...-miles-united/

Theoretically, at this point he should have easily passed Fred Finn for the most lifetime flown miles record --

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...the-contenders

I'm tempted to call B.S. here. I just don't see how someone could be an airlines number 1 flyer or have 22 million lifetime miles without having some internet recognition. United seems to recognize Mr. Stuker as their top flyer so anyone else in that range, even across all airlines, you would certainly fine something about them online.

Could well be B.S., but if AA's top customer didn't want publicity, how exactly would they gain this "internet recognition?"

I’ve met this guy
 

if it is who I think it is his story changed throughout the flight. I’m sure he flies a lot but the tales didn’t add up.

If they don't want publicity then don't hand out a business card and brag about being AAs number 1 customer. There very well could be a 22mil lifetime flyer out there that no one knows about but they don't keep that low profile by telling their seatmates about it.

Nonsense. I am AA's #1 flyer.

Sounds like a missed Selfie opportunity with such a special person.

The BNA AC board puts me to shame! And I'd guess many of those are BNA based. Someone should post the latest numbers from there.

I can't imagine anyone flying 5000 miles a day. LAX-JFK is about 2500, so you'd have to fly the return equivalent daily? If they're counting class of service, that'd be a lot easier but still insane. Even if we're not literally talking daily and only talking about averaging out daily that's like 1.8 Million miles per year. I know some people hit that, but to do it consistently for more than a decade would be REALLY hard. Also thinking about it, makes me laugh that pilot laws being what they are they can fly far less than guys like this.

Forget having much time at home with your family, that's not something everyone is into...but flying that much, the flying itself would almost have to be your job, simply because you wouldn't have much time on the ground.

Yet still, he can't afford the return "Anytime" award in F to Australia ;)

I live in the greater Nashville area and have seen the photo of that 35-40 million miler on their board.
I queried some of the staff there about this person. By the way they are the most wonderful lounge staff ever in the AC.
One lady told me he often flies BNA>DFW>LA or SFO> JFK>LHR. Of course as well as other locations.
OF course they were discreet about what kind of work that person does but I would not ask anyway.