When grocery purchases became airline currency
The surprising part of a pudding-and-miles promotion was its exchange rate: a product meant to be bought one cup at a time could be accumulated in huge quantities, while airline miles added up toward travel benefits. For a buyer willing to organize purchases at industrial scale, the promotion turned an ordinary grocery item into a way to acquire travel rewards for less than their usual price.
That bargain depended on two different kinds of value. The buyer paid the cost of the cups and earned miles; the airline, in turn, could treat those miles as a marketing expense rather than sell every reward seat at its full advertised fare. A seat that might otherwise fly empty can cost an airline relatively little to provide, even though it has considerable value to a passenger.
A promotion meets a bulk buyer
Promotions like this are designed to encourage customers to choose a particular product, not to reward a single person for buying a warehouse’s worth. But when the reward is attached to each qualifying purchase, the arithmetic changes with scale. A civil engineer bought 12,000 cups, converting a mass of low-cost purchases into more than a million miles—and enough qualifying travel to earn lifetime elite status.
The company selling the pudding gained sales and attention; the airline gained a promotional partner and a customer who could spend the miles within its network. The buyer captured the gap between the cost of collecting the rewards and the price of comparable travel. That gap is why loyalty points are not simply cash: their value depends on what the program lets a member redeem them for.
The memorable twist is that a per-cup offer could have consequences far beyond the grocery aisle: a pantry-scale purchase could secure a level of airline status normally associated with years of flying.
