United Airlines Top Flyer Tom Stuker Reaches 1 Million Miles In A Calendar Year

CHICAGO, Dec. 14, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- United Airlines' most frequent flyer, Tom Stuker, this month became the first United customer to fly 1 million miles on United and United Express in a calendar year, reaching the mark on Dec. 6 onboard United flight 949 between London and Chicago.

United customer Tom Stuker poses in front of a Boeing 747 bearing his name July 9, 2011. Stuker this month became the first customer to fly United 1 million miles in a year. (PRNewsFoto/United Continental Holdings, Inc.)

This is the latest travel milestone for Stuker, who in July 2011 was the first person to fly 10 million miles on United and United Express. With more than 13 million miles flown, Stuker is one of commercial aviation's highest-mileage travelers.

"We congratulate Tom on another remarkable achievement," said Tom O'Toole, president of MileagePlus. "We look forward to having him fly with us for the next million miles and beyond."

"It has been a phenomenal year flying with United," said Stuker. "Everyone at the airline, from the customer service agents to the flight attendants to the ramp workers, has made my travels feel effortless."

Stuker estimates he has flown more than 6,000 flights on United, including about 400 flights this calendar year alone. To equal the distance that Stuker achieved this year, a traveler would need to trek around the world about 40 times. Cruising at 570 miles per hour, a single nonstop flight of 1 million miles would land 73 days after takeoff. Stuker's 11 million miles flown on United would also put him about a third of the distance from Earth to Mars.

Stuker, an automotive sales consultant who - when not in-flight - lives in suburban Chicago and New Jersey, began clocking his miles after joining United's MileagePlus loyalty program in 1983. Since then, he has logged most of his miles flying to Asia and Australia and has flown to all fifty U.S. states.