Man who paid United Airlines $290,000 has travelled far enough to visit the Moon multiple times over

A man who spent more than a quarter of a million dollars on a lifetime airline pass has flown far enough to reach the Moon - multiple times over.

Tom Stuker, now 70, bought a United Airlines pass in 1990 for $290,000 and has called it the 'best investment' of his life.

And the New Jersey native has certainly made the most it. Over the last three decades, he's taken some 400 trips to Australia and has gone on more than 120 'honeymoons' with his wife.

As to be expected, he's racked up a massive amount of air miles on his travels.

It had taken car dealership consultant Tom almost two decades to accumulate five million miles - and another decade to double the amount.

As of September this year, he's thought to have earned 24 million miles, earning him the nickname 'world's most frequent flyer'.

To give you the full scale of those miles, here's an astonishing comparison. The Apollo 11 covered only around 953,000 miles (1.5 million km) when it took Neil Armstrong and his colleagues to the Moon in 1969.

The Washington Post reported that Tom's mileage in 2019 across 373 flights 'covered more than six trips to the moon.'

Tom celebrated the 24 million mark with a party mid-air on a flight from Newark, New Jersey to San Francisco, California.

Taking to Instagram, he wrote: "On May 19, 2024, I hit 24,000,000 miles flown on @united - hard to believe, I know! Over 12,000 flights. 400+ trips to Australia. And thousands of wonderful and hard working @united employees to make it all such a great experience."

Tom has seen plenty of other perks since racking up the millions of air miles.

He could redo his brother's house through air miles gift cards and he was also given $50,000 worth of Walmart gift cards which he cashed in on a single day.

He also won the chance to cameo in an episode of Seinfeld by bidding 451,000 air miles on a charity auction.

Tom doesn't plan on stopping traveling anytime soon. He's not long visited to Cape Town, South Africa and keeps fans updated on his travels through his Instagram account, @ua1flyer.

Tom addressed the environmental impact of his frequent flying in a 2020 interview with GQ. He told the publication: "I’m not adding to the footprint.

"The plane is going to fly whether I’m on it or not. It would be much more relevant if I was flying in a private jet. Those are the people who can help the environment much more than I can if they flew commercial.”