The Pudding Guy was quite the phenon. He was universally worshipped. He even inspired a movie.

9 1/2+ years may be a record for resurrecting the dead. I wouldn't be too surprised to see this thread closed, though newer FTers who never heard of the guy might still be interested in reading it.

(My personal record is about 10,000 AA miles from cereal boxes. Not nearly in the same league.)

Ha, me too, sort of. This was before my FT and heavy flying days for sure as I was just a young grad student. Back then, I was just buying the cereal, cutting the coupons off, and selling them on Ebay. I was just happy to get the FREE cereal, probably 3-4 years worth, and it was pretty good stuff!

such a great story! Reminds me of so many crazy retail tricks that yield all sorts of goodness. (all legal of course)

The movie was Punch-Drunk Love, starring Adam Sandler. You can see a special acknowledgment to the man that we know as Pudding Guy in the closing credits.

Pudding Guy and I worked in the same field but for different universities back then, so he "happened to get invited" to visit my department in Texas to exchange ideas (a peer visit). He is a very smart, personable guy, and his knowledge impressed us all.

Does anyone know what happened to Pudding Guy?
It would be great to hear how he spent his miles and if he has gone into churing AA Citi cards, buying Presidential coins, opening up bank accounts with mileage credit cards, etc...

Well, why don't you ask him? According to his page, he was last active on August 12, 2009, so it appears he's still an active FlyerTalk member (if not the most active poster).

I am the president of the Pudding Guy Fan Club. Completely in awe of what he was able to accomplish. (And this coming from someone who figured out how to get 3000 Continental miles per dollar - see thread in Buzz if interested) Has anyone ever come close to getting the sheer amount of miles, in that short a period of time, and with the (relatively, in relation to the number of miles earned) small amount of work required to get them!?

I've been an AAdvantage member for over a decade now. Still a year+ away from a million miles. And that million miles is going to come from lots of cross-country flights and thousands of Citibank credit cards charges.

Pudding Guy's (David's) "facts:"

1,215,000 million miles earned...in a few weeks. Cost, roughly $2,325. The pudding was donated to food banks. And of course, he became an "AA Lifetime Gold" frequent flyer in the process. (And all the inevitable media attention - not too envious of that though)

Simply amazing. And never close to duplicated!

.....4.6 million KLM Flying Dutchman miles for 1100 USD

Uhh...ok...I'll bite...

HOW !!??

2001 KLM offered a status match AND a mileage balance match to woo folks from the just defunct Sabena program...but they did not put any conditions on the match (ie- having to be a Sabena member). To match 100% of the miles in my existing account, I had to fly 8 KLM or NW segments, which I had already booked for pre-existing travel anyway, valued at $1100.

I submitted my UA account which had 2.8 million miles and it was matched. About a year or so later, KL decided to equalize the point values of its program and NW WorldPerks program. They decided to offer KL members 1.8 miles per KL mile for the 'equalization. So, my KL balance was revised in mid-2003 to 4.6 million.

And there you have it!

now where the hats off smiley on FT? what a conversion rate and what a match! thanks for sharing

Wow. Maybe some day someone will make a movie about you too.

slight revision, it was 20 segments, not 8 as I had mentioned. But I remember they were 4 segment RTs so a total of 5 RTs for $1100...cheapies CLE-DTW-TPA. I remember that the new DTW airport terminal had just opened and it was an eye-opener how cool it looked with the sky subway and the sushi restaurant and the huge WP lounge that used to serve a much wider variety of munchies!!!

just saw Punch Drunk Love again for the first time since its release, and having no interest in miles at that time, completely overlooked the Pudding Guy story.

was it true that the barcodes were accidentally on each cup of pudding, rather than the box of cups, as intended?