How many more miles man who's saved $2,370,000 with a lifetime United Airlines pass has traveled vs Artemis II crew
Published on Apr 14, 2026 at 6:28 PM (UTC+4)
by Alessandro Renesis
Last updated on Apr 14, 2026 at 6:28 PM (UTC+4)
Edited by
Emma Matthews
Artemis II is the first Moon mission since the 1970s, but it is also a record-breaking journey for a variety of other reasons.
Among other things, the crew aboard Artemis II traveled farther from Earth than anyone else before them.
That’s history-making for sure, but believe it or not, it’s not even close to what Tom Stuker did.
Mr. Stuker never went to space, but he’s still traveled far, far more than the Artemis II crew.
This is obviously not an apples-to-apples comparison, but still quite interesting
This is obviously as far from an apples-to-apples comparison as you can get.
But it’s still quite interesting, mainly because the difference is bigger than people think.
The astronauts on Artemis II have only traveled for 10 days, but they’ve already covered around 640,000 miles in total.
They were in space for 240 hours, traveling at a max speed of 24,500mph.
And the entire trip cost $4 billion.
Tom Stuker’s journey was, it has to be said, much ‘cheaper’.
In the 1990s, Stuker bought a United Airlines lifetime pass for $290,000, and he’s traveled more than anyone else in history.
He’s spent over 50,000 hours in the air, but what’s really shocking is the number of miles he’s put together.
Tom Stuker has traveled 34 times farther than Artemis II
Over the last 36 years, Stuker has traveled around 24.2 million miles.
He said he’s saved millions with his United Airlines lifetime pass.
How many millions?
Most reports mention figures in the region of $2 million, but it’s probably even more than that.
That’s because we have to remember that Stuker always travels first class, and 24+ million miles in first class definitely cost more than $2.4 million.
That’s probably beside the point, because what really matters is that Stuker is still enjoying his pass, still traveling the world.
He said he’s traveled to over 100 countries, and in 2019 alone, he clocked enough miles to circle the moon hundreds of times.
He’s literally the most traveled man in history.
Again, not exactly a sensible comparison, but it’d be quite interesting to ask 1,000 random people: money no object, would you rather travel to the Moon or beyond, or travel anywhere on Earth – any place, any time – for the rest of your life?
We bet the answers would be juicy and varied.
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After beginning his automotive writing career at DriveTribe, Alessandro has been with Supercar Blondie since the launch of the website in 2022. In fact, he penned the very first article published on supercarblondie.com. He’s covered subjects from cars to aircraft, watches, and luxury yachts - and even crypto. He can largely be found heading up the site’s new-supercar and SBX coverage and being the first to bring our readers the news that they’re hungry for.
