Kudos! I am also among the "no Healthy Choice" contingency but it never occurred to me to donate them to the Food Bank or Second Harvest...It is so much work, though, and I cannot believe you drove as many as 200 miles to a Grocery Outlet, much as I love them myself! So, let's see...the monetary value of 1,200,000 miles is about $20K. Was it worth it??? Just for the fame, if nothing else, I'm sure. Better show up for the FAQ so we can all congratulate you in person!

arturo now a litel bit sciptecle bout awl thes mils pudin hed git. arturo tak bac hes nominashun of puddin hed for omni eward. arturo themk thes smel lik spoiled pudin frum a ghost of ft past.

arturo themk hes "freud" dock has bin reinstituted es pudin hed. arturo elso wan to kno why, senor pudin hed, yu knot hav regler emale edres. hotmale jus a wuff en sheep kloths. evin arturo hav regler emale edres.

[This message has been edited by arturo (edited 12-21-1999).]

Pudding Guy, nothing personal, but we are a skeptical lot on these boards! Your story is so amazing that a picture (and perhaps a copy of your AA statement with the mileage postings) would be most appreciated so we can "verify" your claim.

As they say, the proof is in the pudding!

For all you skeptics, I just mailed in a few photos. I'm not sure how long it'll take Flyertalk to post them.

I loved your story pudding guy. Perhaps the thing I love most about this board, is that just when my family and friends think I've gone over the edge in what I will do for miles, I read a post like yours and it lets me know I'm not alone in my wackiness. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

I'm with Letiole. All my family & friends think I've lost it when it comes to frequent flyer miles. I couldn't wait to print out your story & share it with them Pudding Guy. I'd have to say, you take the cake. You are the true miles nut. My hat is off to you.

Thanks to the kindness of a fellow BB member, I was able to nab a second double miles offer in October -- brought my total HC haul to 84,000 miles. Compared to Pudding Guy, a mere drop in the HC frequent flyer bucket. All Hail Pudding Guy!

I'm relatively knew to non-flight point accumulation - does anyone know if HC has a track record of instituting another promotion immediately after one expires or if they tend to extend a popular one?

(I have another 120 UPC's sitting around and I'm wondering if I should mail now or hang on to them in hopes there will be another double miles promotion)

Probably mail them in. They might date limit acceptable receipts.

Well, he really did it.. The photos are up:

http://www.flyertalk.com/pudding.htm

Amazing..

[This message has been edited by Axey (edited 12-22-1999).]

I am not an addict!! I am not an addict! Wow... I have to admit that paying a net total of about $2000 for 1.2 Million miles is amazing. For the number of business class fares you can get, or first class overseas... wow!! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

Great job.... all I did this year was fly around 100,000 miles and over 130 segments.. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/frown.gif Makes me wish I was getting more miles..

One thing, did you buy the pudding with American Express and get points/miles too?

Good point on the receipt date limit. I'll visit the post office next week.

WOW! I'm in total awe, pudding guy.

Is there any way I can do this before the year's end? (Do the purchases have to be made before Dec 31, or does Healthy Choice have to receive your form before Dec 31, or what?) Does anyone have one of those double mile certificates left?

I'm completely serious about doing this. Any advice???

Flying Dutchman:

Yes -- get some counselling. Now. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif

Hey Pudding Guy, it looks like in the one picture you have the pudding and the mile certs in the same place (is that the stack of mileage certs in front of the pudding on the floor), did you keep the pudding for that long in your living room? That must have been some conversation piece, all those pudding displays ...

The requirement (per my conversation with John at customer service yesterday) is that the envelope containing your UPCs must be postmarked by December 31. I was relieved, as I have just now begun clipping all my UPCs and was envisioning having to Fedex the UPCs to make sure they arrived by December 31 - luckily that wasn't necessary.

For the record, I'm coming in at around 11,500 miles. The bulk of which are via soup cans - they're a y2k hedge, but actually will be donated to a food pantry in the New Year. (I couldn't take the itemized deduction this year, but will be able to next year.)

PuddingGuy, perhaps it should have been PuddingGod the new Messiah of Miles http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/biggrin.gif. I'll admit I was a skeptic, but I've seen the light (and, more to the point, the photos http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif and am now a believer.

Congratulations on a truly spectacular stunt. I lift my dessert spoon in a salute. It's a good thing you kept mum about this until after the fact. There would have been no HC pudding left in the country (except in food banks and shelters [good show, on that little coup de grace, by the way.])

Prostrate in Awe,
QuantumLeap

Love the pictures Pudding Guy. I can't help but wonder what your friends said when they came over & saw your living room?

------------------
MilesNut

Any ideas on where to get several thousand Healthy Choice pudding cups very quickly?

For real - I called the CON AGRA 800 # to ask about the pudding and was told that PUDDING was DISCONTINUED due to poor sales. I think they pulled the product because of our PUDDING GUY, but there may be some really old pudding still on the shelves.

Thanks for all the kind words http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif.

I was only able to use my AAdvantage credit card for a few hundred dollar's worth of purchases. Those Grocery Store Outlets aren't the most progressive places to shop; many of them only accepted cash or checks. However, on a positive note, most of the stores have very convenient freeway access.

I'm sure there are still a few $0.25 puddings out there. After all, I only cornered the marked for half of California! You've still got over a week to go… If it helps, from experience I can tell you that a skilled "UPC plucker" should be able to process about 400 cups per hour.

Although my living room was a mess for several weeks, the photos I sent in were taken shortly after I got my big box o' miles. (Get this: they mailed me the miles via an express mail service that just left it on my doorstep. The mile certificates were just sort of crammed together in the box--no transmittal memo or even anything saying, "Here's your miles from Healthy Choice"). I still had about 10 cases of pudding I hadn't sent off to the food bank, so I put up several of the display cases to commemorate the event with a few photos.

In light of this sad news from ConAgra, I'll keep at least a case or two of pudding. If I ever make it to one of the FlyerTalk gatherings, I'll provide dessert!


[This message has been edited by Pudding Guy (edited 12-22-1999).]

Of course, Pudding Guy, now that you have announced your presence to the world in such an awe-inspiring way, we are expecting you to provide us with other avenues to mile martyrdom in the future. We fully hope and expect that you will quickly lose your Junior Member status as your advice would be like that of Dean Witters, everybody would listen. Perhaps we should create a special Pudding Guy forum for truly outstanding mile collection schemes.

Pudding Guy...what can I say. I am speechless! Congratulations on pulling off the Mileage Coup of the Millennium! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

Pudding Guy.....you are my hero!!!

The pictures speak a million words (or should I say miles?)

Congratulations!!! It just seems too exausting to accumulate all those pudding cups for all those miles.

What I will give you EIGHT PAWS UP for is split between: the mileage earning and that you have given much of the food to local food banks and charities to help the homeless.

IT's nice to have a lot of miles. IT's an even better gift to give back to your community and help someone in need.

We are not worthy! We are not worthy! (kowtowing)

- From the show "Saturday Night Live" for our non-US FT members

Catman you are right. A picture or video for that matter is worth a thousand words. I was a doubtful at first that this story was on the up and up (jaded NewYorker) at first.Again congratulations on your efforts.Can you imagine if they sent each one of those 500 mile certificates indivually. The express mail service was a smart idea.I understand thru customer service at Healthy Choice that the anticipated wait time for the mileage certificates has been pushed to 10 to 13 weeks for processing as apposed to 8 weeks. Due to popular demand of course...

Mike

As the FT'er who asked to see the pictures, it's only fair for me to state that seeing is believing, etc. Actually, the thing that finally convinced me that this is legit is my strong belief that nobody would use a picture of a little girl to perpetuate a scam! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/biggrin.gif

As for Catman, I couldn't think of "eight paws up" without thinking that would be Yaz & Eddie's appearance if they tried to eat all that pudding! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif

Now two miracles!!!!

First the million miles, then PremEx is speechless http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif

PUDDING GUY:

YO DA MAN!

Pudding Guy,

If I were you, I would be mad as H*ll with HC. I called them and received "a" $.50 off coupon and all you received was 1.2 million miles.

T-Shirt suggestion:

My Mom & Dad flew around the world twice in First Class and all I got was all this damm pudding!


[This message has been edited by RichG (edited 12-23-1999).]

Can anyone tell me where I might find some Healthy Choice soup or pudding at a good price? There is still time to pick up a few thousand miles!

Thanks!

INCREDIBLE!! Absolutely incredible! Congrats!

Pudding Guy’s saga was the frequent flyer feat of the millennium. It really takes the cake. (or pudding) You can put his name up there with Ruth, Gehrig, and Aaron. Heck, McGwire would have had to have hit 70 home runs in a month to compare to this. I think that Randy should put this guy’s picture on the title page of Webflyer forever as a reminder to all to what we should aspire to in accumulating miles. I can just see it one hundred years from now a guy will be standing at the United counter, booking two round trips to the moon. The incredulous agent asks why two consecutive trips and the guy says he’s going for the frequent flyer mileage record and the agent will reply that it’s NOT ENOUGH. He would need three to break the record. Good job!

Pudding Guy, you are the stuff of legends! Incredible.

[This message has been edited by dgolds (edited 12-29-1999).]

Was it Marie Antoinette who said, "Let them eat PUDDING?"

Some day after the apocalypse, I shall be sitting under the stars around a campfire with my great grandchildren. As the stories are spun, I will take great joy in watching their wild-eyed wonder as I recount to them...The Legend of Pudding Guy! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

What? Pudding Guy is not Time's Person of the Year? http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif Who was responsible for issuing the news releases on this one?

Congratulations to the Pudding Guy. Now I know why my source dried up in Northern California. I was doing the same plan and was hoping to get 440,000 miles for a pair of first class One World tickets on AA. I was cruising along and had 1,750 puddings when my outlet store stopped getting the cases. I did get 115,000 miles from the Healthy Choice deal and fed a couple of schools with pudding snacks. What a deal. I went through the same anxiety of wondering if HC would honor the pudding UPCs and felt I got the last laugh when all those miles ended up in my accounts. Great story to see from the Pudding Guy.

My hat is off to Pudding Guy!
When and where is the FF Hall of Fame being created? I nominate PG as first inductee.