Around the world in (over) 80 hundred chocolate puddings

You could be forgiven for thinking David Phillips loves chocolate pudding. But one thing he loves more than the brown dessert? Air Miles. Able to be exchanged for free flights around the world, he managed the impossible task of earning himself over 1.25 million – simply by buying chocolate puddings.

David spotted a deal in 1999 when Healthy Choice announced a promotion to offer 500 Air Miles for every 10 bar codes of their frozen produce someone sent in. For eager early bird buyers, those returning barcodes within a month would receive twice as many: 1,000 Air Miles for 10 puddings.

The engineer took that to the logical extreme, explains Gizmodo, raiding his local supermarkets and buying up all of their supply of Healthy Choice desserts. Teaming up with the Salvation Army after his family got tired of tearing off labels, he agreed to donate them all $3,000 worth of pudding if they helped remove the barcodes. In return, David would receive over $150,000 worth of Air Miles.

In the end, David managed to earn 1.28 million Air Miles, giving him lifelong access to the American Airlines Advantage Gold Club, offering benefits to both him and his family. All that for 12,150 cups of chocolate pudding.

Free air travel for a lifetime? $3,000. 12,000 cups of pudding? Priceless.