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Comment by jvanderwal | Hacker News Reader

A few years back Wendy's had an offer where if you got a medium or large drink there was a coupon on it. 32 coupons got you a one-way flight in the continental US, 64 got you a round-trip flight. Being a poor college student at the time, a few friends and I went dumpster diving at all the local Wendy's and over a couple nights ended up getting about 4 round-trip tickets. The only drawback was having to throw out those clothes..

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Wow i had never heard of this offer. But it seems like it was a good deal without even dumpster diving.

What does a Medium Drink at Wendys cost? Probably $1.50?

So buying 32 medium drinks would cost $48, which would get you a free one-way flight in the US. $48 (plus all the drinks you can handle and diabetes to prove it) is an insane deal for plane ticket.

By this logic a round trip ticket would cost ~$96 which is also a steal.

Even without dumpster diving, $48 is a great deal for a ticket even if you just dumped the soda out or never filled up the cup at the fountain.

They probably figure the average person is going to 1) order a whole meal when they come to Wendy's and 2) not likely to go to Wendy's 32 times.

Of course, college students are the ones that have the time and metabolic rates to handle this...

That's a fantastic way of doing it - I'd imagine you'd put on some old clothes to do the diving anyway.

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