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!!

Great job.... all I did this year was fly around 100,000 miles and over 130 segments.. 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.

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 . I'll admit I was a skeptic, but I've seen the light (and, more to the point, the photos 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 .

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).]