Back in May 1999, David Phillips, an engineer living in Davis, California, was strolling

through his local grocery store's frozen food aisle when he noticed a promotion on a frozen meal carton

from the brand Healthy Choice.

According to the promotion, he could earn 500 air miles, which are loyalty points that can be redeemed against

flights, hotels, and certain travel expenses for every 10 barcodes from healthy choice products

he sent back to the company by December. Now, a lot of people ignore promotions like this,

assuming it's not worth their time or that they'd need to spend hundreds of

dollars for the returns to really be worth anything. However, David started doing some mental

maths and realized something. If he got this right, he and his family wouldn't have to pay for

another flight in their entire lives. What did he figure out?

And what was he about to do next?

Stay tuned as we take a deep dive into this story and many other tales of people finding

legal loopholes to get unimaginably amazing deals.

You're listening.

You're listening. You're listening to be amazed.

Okay, so as David was reading this frozen packet, he noticed the small print stated he could actually double the air miles he earned,

wrecking up a thousand air miles for every ten barcodes if he posted them back by the end of the month.

He wanted to fly his family to Europe for the summer and realized this could be his golden ticket.

Usually participating companies would offer a couple of air miles for every dollar spent with them.

Now, Healthy Choice frozen meals were only $2 each, times that by 10, so $20 for a thousand air miles.

Doesn't sound like a bad deal.

Until you realize he needed at least 35,000 air miles for a domestic North American flight.

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