Pudding Guy
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David Phillips is an American civil engineer best known for accumulating
frequent flyer miles A frequent-flyer programme (FFP) is a loyalty program offered by an airline. Many airlines have frequent-flyer programmes designed to encourage airline customers enrolled in the programme to accumulate points (also called miles, kilometres, ...
by taking advantage of a promotion by
Healthy Choice Healthy Choice is the name of a brand of refrigerated and frozen foods owned by ConAgra Foods. ConAgra sells a broad array of dishes through its Healthy Choice brand, including frozen dinners, side dishes, cold cuts and other meats, canned soups, ...
Foods in 1999. While grocery shopping he calculated that the value of a mail-in promotion for frequent flyer miles exceeded the cost of the pudding on which it was offered. In May 1999, Phillips received 1,253,000 frequent flyer miles. Phillips is the associate vice president of energy and sustainability at
University of California The University of California (UC) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university, research university system in the U.S. state of California. Headquartered in Oakland, California, Oakland, the system is co ...
.


Process

Healthy Choice Healthy Choice is the name of a brand of refrigerated and frozen foods owned by ConAgra Foods. ConAgra sells a broad array of dishes through its Healthy Choice brand, including frozen dinners, side dishes, cold cuts and other meats, canned soups, ...
was running a promotion offering 500 miles for each pack of 10 Healthy Choice bar codes ( UPC) mailed in as proof of purchase. Valuing each mile at two cents, Phillips calculated that the return per UPC ($1) was worth a significant part of the price of a frozen meal (which were selling for $2), but while shopping he found Healthy Choice soup cans for only $0.90. He later discovered the same promotion also included individual pudding packages at 25 cents each, while shopping at a nearby
Grocery Outlet Grocery Outlet Holding Corp. is an American discount closeout retailer consisting exclusively of supermarket locations that offer discounted, overstocked, and closeout products from name-brand and private-label suppliers. The company has stor ...
. He subsequently visited 10 Grocery Outlet stores in the Sacramento area, buying every case of pudding available, totaling 12,150 individual servings of pudding, for $3,140. He also had the Grocery Outlet manager order additional cases. In order to divert attention, he claimed he was stocking up for
Y2K Y2K may refer to: * Y2K problem, a computer issue related to the year 2000 * Year 2K, the year 2000 2000 was designated as the International Year for the Culture of Peace and the World Mathematics, Mathematical Year. Popular cultu ...
. Clerks started calling him "Pudding Guy". The promotion included an early-bird bonus if the packages were mailed during May 1999 (the mileage earned would double from 500 miles to 1,000 miles for every 10 UPCs submitted). Unable to remove all the UPCs himself in such a short time, Phillips recruited members of a local
Salvation Army The Salvation Army (TSA) is a Protestantism, Protestant Christian church and an international charitable organisation headquartered in London, England. It is aligned with the Wesleyan-Holiness movement. The organisation reports a worldwide m ...
branch to cut the UPC codes off the cardboard wrapped around the pudding containers; in exchange, he donated the individual puddings. This donation allowed him to receive $815 in tax write-offs further increasing his return on investment.


Outcome

Phillips submitted proof of mailing the certificates and Healthy Choice Foods awarded him 1,253,000 frequent flyer miles. He would apply some of the miles to his United, Delta and Northwest frequent flyer accounts, and the majority (over 1 million miles) to his
AAdvantage AAdvantage is the frequent-flyer program of American Airlines. Launched May 1, 1981, it was the second such loyalty program in the world (after the first at Texas International Airlines in 1979) and remains the largest, with more than 115 mill ...
account, in the process earning him lifetime Gold status. It is also speculated that neither
ConAgra Conagra Brands, Inc. (formerly ConAgra Foods) is an American consumer packaged goods holding company headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. Conagra makes and sells products under various brand names that are available in supermarkets, restaurants, ...
, the owner of the Healthy Choice brand, nor the airlines were seriously disadvantaged by the outcome, due to the small price paid by ConAgra to the airlines and the resultant publicity gained. Since 2000, Phillips continued to take advantage of frequent flyer promotions, and is earning points five times faster than he is spending them, now having reached lifetime Platinum status on his AAdvantage account. Phillips' pudding story received international attention from news outlets, such as ''
The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' (''WSJ''), also referred to simply as the ''Journal,'' is an American newspaper based in New York City. The newspaper provides extensive coverage of news, especially business and finance. It operates on a subscriptio ...
'' and ''
The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...
''. The story was the inspiration for a
subplot In fiction, a subplot or side story is a strand of the plot that is a supporting side story for any story or for the main plot. Subplots may connect to main plots, in either time and place or thematic significance. Subplots often involve supporti ...
in the 2002 film ''
Punch-Drunk Love ''Punch-Drunk Love'' is a 2002 American Absurdist fiction, absurdist Romance film, romantic comedy drama film written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, and starring Adam Sandler, Emily Watson, and Philip Seymour Hoffman. It follows an entrepr ...
''.


See also

*
AAirpass AAirpass (pronounced Airpass) was a membership-based discount program offered by American Airlines to frequent flyers launched in 1981. The program offered pass holders free flights and unlimited access to Admirals Club locations for either fiv ...
*
Hoover free flights promotion The Hoover free flights promotion was a marketing promotion run by the British division of the Hoover Company in late 1992. The promotion, aiming to boost sales during the global recession of the early 1990s, offered two complimentary round-trip p ...
in Britain in the early 1990s, whereby flights to the United States were offered for purchasing lower-priced appliances.


References


External links


David Phillips
on the Davis Wiki {{DEFAULTSORT:Phillips, David 1964 births Living people American civil engineers Engineers from California University of California, Davis faculty Place of birth missing (living people)