Awesome

Claim: A clever consumer earned a lifetime of free air travel by taking advantage of a Healthy Choice pudding promotion.

'Though most of this story's appeal comes from the image of the little guy screwing a big corporation, oddly enough, that's not what happened here. In January 2000, American Airlines awarded Phillips the last of 1.25 million free miles, with the balance coming from Northwest Airlines, Delta and United. Because the airlines sell the frequent-flyer miles to Healthy Choice for the promotion for about two cents a mile, they aren't out a thing. Healthy Choice likely also made on the deal, because the value of the publicity surrounding Phillips' pudding run probably exceeds the actual dollar cost incurred by the company for purchasing those miles.

The Wall Street Journal quoted an official of Healthy Choice as saying the frequent-flier offer "met and exceeded expectations," although the company's spokeswoman wouldn't discuss the promotion's sales figures or data about participants.

Kudos to Healthy Choice for handling as professionally as it did what must have seemed a very strange situation. According to Phillips' oft-repeated account, one day the stacks of 500-free-miles certificates just began arriving - no fanfare, and certainly no attempts on the part of the company to back away from the promotion.'