How 12,150 Cups Of Chocolate Pudding Turned Into A Million Frequent Flyer Miles

by Meg Nesterov on

While you may try to rack up frequent flyer miles from travel, airline-branded credit cards or online shopping, have you ever thought about pudding? One clever traveler turned a Healthy Choice promotion into enough miles to fly the world multiple times.

In 1999, Civil Engineer David Phillips noticed a promotion from Healthy Choice offering 500 American Airlines miles for every 10 product bar codes sent in, with a double bonus for sending them in the first month. Phillips figured out that the promotion would extend to all of their products, and searched his area supermarkets for the best deal. He started with 90-cent cans of soup, and then found a better deal: individual packages of chocolate pudding for 25 cents apiece. He bought every one available, spending a total of $3,140. This gave him 12,150 puddings worth over 1.2 million airline miles.

The story gets sweeter when you hear how he collected the bar codes for redemption. He started by putting his family to work, but they were soon (literally) sick of peeling the pudding lids and eating the stuff. He offered them up to Salvation Army for free, in return for the bar codes. For this, he was also able to get an $800 charitable tax deduction, bringing his investment down to around $2200. Netting over a million miles also gives him lifetime gold elite status on American, giving him an extra boost for accruing miles. His story inspired a similar plot in the movie “Punch Drunk Love.” Phillips continues to take advantage of frequent flyer promotions and deals, and now has over 4 million miles in his accounts.

Three Tips To Make Your Vacation Dream A Reality

by Capital One on

With so many amazing places to visit in the world, it’s impossible to see everything. That’s why some Americans have a travel bucket list. According to a recent Capital One survey, Hawaii (57 percent) is the top destination for most Americans on their travel bucket list followed by The Grand Canyon (38 percent) and New York City (33 percent).

Interestingly, more than half of Americans don’t really have a travel bucket list. Don’t you just wish you had a little more time in your summer and a little more money in your wallet to make your travel aspirations a reality?

Unfortunately, our busy schedules and tight wallets have put the kibosh on many exciting travel plans. The good news is that with some smart planning, you don’t have to forego your next vacation – not to mention winter and spring break fun.

With Capital One Venture and its doubles miles, you can go just about anywhere and make your travel dreams come true. Here are a few tips to help you plan for your next memorable vacation:

  • Decide sooner rather than later: Money experts have said for years that if you don’t identify concrete goals, it’s much more difficult to set aside the cash necessary to obtain those goals. The same is true for travel planning. For money saving motivation, create a list of the must-see places you’d like to visit. (Hint: If you need some amazing travel ideas check out the Venture Travel #BucketList on Tumblr.)

  • Know before you go: Make sure your travel budget includes trip insurance, and the cost of any visas or other documentation you’ll need. And, if your credit card charges fees for overseas use, re-evaluate your options.

  • Plan your next vacation every day: Use your rewards card to pay for every day expenses such as gas, groceries, etc. What may seem like a run-of-the-mill purchase could help you rack up enough rewards to offset costs and make your next dream vacation a reality!

Interestingly, according to the recent Capital One Rewards Barometer – a survey that shows how consumers accumulate and redeem credit card rewards – 42 percent of rewards cardholders redeem their rewards to cover the cost of airfare.

Whether you’re using credit card rewards toward airfare, or saving cash to buy a pearl necklace in Hawaii, your vacation will be that much more satisfying when you have more in your wallet.

So what are you waiting for? Be smart with your vacation planning and before you know it you will be busy turning your travel aspirations into reality. Share your travel dreams using #BucketList with Capital One and join the conversation.

Fuel Costs Aren’t Making Airlines Eco-Friendly

by Elizabeth Seward on

As discussed in an article in The Economist today, airlines should theoretically be becoming more and more “green.” Fuel costs are normally the largest single cost for airlines and rising fuel costs aren’t good for the airline or the customer. One might assume that airlines would pursue fuel efficiency with their bottom line in mind, but that doesn’t appear to be the case, at least not with the most profitable domestic Airline (2009-2011), Allegiant Air. Allegiant was found to actually be the least fuel efficient airline for the year of 2010 in a report recently released by the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT).
While it is certainly counter-intuitive that the most profitable airline can also be the least fuel efficient, there are other factors that play into the sometimes ambiguous cost/profit setup of airlines.

Still, The Economist asks the question that I have to echo: “If the bottom line cannot force airlines to be more fuel efficient, what can?” One of the many possible answers to that question is fleet, since almost one-third of the efficiency gap between airlines can be attributed to differences in fleet. Here’s to hoping for the employment of greener planes down the road.

[Thanks, The Economist]

Southwest Airlines Now Has A ‘No-Show’ Policy

by Elizabeth Seward on

Southwest Airlines’ leniency with “no-shows” has been a popular attractor for many customers. The airline has long boasted that their customers get to keep the total value of their flight purchase, even when they simply don’t show up.

While the idea of not losing money in the case of an emergency might seem appealing to the masses, only a small minority of Southwest customers have been taking advantage of this deal and they’ve been doing it habitually. For that reason, Southwest will now be enforcing its own version of a “no-show” policy. Passengers will still receive the full value of their flight purchase if they cancel, but they have to cancel no later than 10 minutes before the flight takes off. This updated policy is still sensible and comparatively customer-oriented.[Thanks, USA Today]

Spirit’s Eyebrow-Raising Ads Seem To Be Working

by Elizabeth Seward on

If nothing else, Spirit Airlines is original. The company has created MILF ads, a campaign timed with the Anthony Weiner scandal called “The Weiner Sale,” ads that referenced the BP oil spill of 2010 (one of the slogans was, “Check out the oil on our beaches”), and more. Spirit Airlines has famously created ads just three hours after related news events and they don’t seem to mind that the ads usually look campy and hastily made.

And yet, no matter how offended some seem by these ads, no matter how unprofessional they might come off as being, the company’s approach must be working. Spirit Airlines was called the most profitable airline in the country last year by The Wall Street Journal.