You're probably wondering what I did with all that pudding. That's where my plan really clicked together. I made arrangements with several local food banks to donate all the pudding. To get my UPCs in before the double miles deadline, I even put the food banks to work for me. They pulled off the UPCs as they served the food and kept them for me to send in. I'm planning to write off the entire pudding purchase as a charitable donation, saving me over $800. Thus, after taxes are considered, the 1,215,000 miles cost me about $2,325.

Now that nearly all my miles have posted, I'm tremendously happy. However, I must say there was a lot of hard work and drama involved in this scheme, though (like filling out all those 500-miles certificates!). All along I was somewhat worried that Healthy Choice wouldn't honor the deal. I became doubly worried when they failed to send me the miles on time. When I contacted them, they sent me their form letter, saying they had no record of my order! This seems pretty incredible given that I mailed the package registered and someone on their end signed for the package. Plus, how can you loose a package this big? Thankfully, I made copies of everything, and took photographs just in case. When I sent them proof, they quickly sent me the miles.

For the record, counting the soup and other miscellaneous products I bought and ate, I received 1,253,000 miles from the Healthy Choice promotion. Does pulling off this venture get me into the frequent flyer hall of fame?

Isn't it strange to think that the million-miler sitting next to you in first class got there solely by buying chocolate pudding?





