It seems like Tom Stuker, United’s ultimate million miler, has some real competition on his hands. Stuker of Chicago officially became United’s most frequent flyer for 2012. He received the honor after hitting 1 million miles flown last December. His stats for 2012 included 400 flights on United and United Express operated aircraft. Earlier in July, Stuker, also became the first person to fly 10 million miles on United and United Express operated aircraft and has a total of 13 million flown miles when all carriers are included.
Well, as impressive or sad as that is, there’s someone who currently beats Tom’s record and has for awhile now. Meet Fred Finn of England, Fred has flown more than 15 million miles, visited 139 countries, and in 2012 spent roughly 160 hours on planes. Finn was also United’s first ever million miler, having the honor bestowed upon him in 1972. Believe it or not, Finn racked up his miles while working as synthetic pencils licensing specialist for Empire pencils.
Check out Bloomberg Businessweek which has a fun read this week with full details on both Tom and Fred and their innocent rivalry.
“I’m not worried about him taking my record, because one record he can’t take from me is my [number of] flights on the Concorde, which is 718.” Once, Finn says, he flew across the Atlantic three times in one day to sign pencil contracts. Told of this feat, Stuker is impressed. “I’ve done some pretty nutty things, but that’s nuts,” says Stuker. “That’s flying for flying’s sake.” Although he can’t resist adding, “I’ve done that myself.”
Fred Finn courtesy of Bloomberg
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3 comments
This guys definitely wins. 718 flights on Concorde is infinitely cooler than flying 10 million miles on United. To be honest, 10 million miles on United sounds awful, so even one flight on Concorde would have that beat.
Flying 3 times on a Concorde is something not many people have done. Flying 3 Concorde flight on ONE day is priceless!!! Amazing!
Is 160 hours in flight really that much? I’ve had 4 flights so far, and have spent 20 hours in the air and have’t left the US. Will reach at least 100 hours this year…doesn’t seem like that much.