Flying 718 times makes you an avid traveler. Doing so on the same type of record-breaking aircraft and in the same seat makes you a legend. Meet Fred Finn, the “world’s most travelled man,” and the person with the record for the most flights on the now-decommissioned supersonic jet airliner, the Concorde. It’s estimated that Finn may have spent over two and a half million dollars on airplane tickets to get his world record.

Fred Finn flew on the Concorde 718 times, sometimes buying airline tickets to cover the Atlantic 2 or 3 times a week

When the Concorde started ferrying passengers, it smashed the conception of intercontinental travel. Today, a trip from Dulles International Airport in Washington, D.C. to London’s Heathrow averages around seven and a half hours. On the Concorde? Passengers were across the Atlantic and on the ground in England in around three and a half hours. No wonder the aircraft captured Fred Finn’s attention. 

Finn clearly had an affinity for the record-breaking airliner. He bought an airline ticket on the inaugural Dulles to Heathrow flight back on May 25, 1976. Fast-forward to 2003, and the Concorde was on the chopping block. After 27 years and over 25 million miles, there was no longer a place in the skies for the supersonic airliner. And of those 25+ million miles, Finn was on board for over 2.5 million of them. Around 10% of the distance the Concorde covered, Finn was there. Now that’s commitment.

Not just a commitment to the storied Concorde. No, Finn bought his airline tickets to sit in the same seat. Every time. His choice of seat was 9A. When asked about his insistence to sit in 9A, he said, “That’s where they started the refreshment service from,” per the Gentleman’s Journal.

But Finn’s seemingly constant presence on the Concorde wasn’t an annoyance. Far from it. Finn recalls frequently settling into 9A to find a small bottle of Dom Perignon under his favorite seat. He also said that his supersonic home away from home allowed him the ability to befriend and network with a star-studded group of people, including Paul McCartney, Johnny Cash, and Richard Branson.

Finn’s love affair with the Concorde nabbed him something of an interesting record. Guinness World Records awarded him the title of the “world’s most traveled man,” citing his more than 15 million miles in the air, around 17% of which was in 9A at 1,354 mph. All in all, it’s estimated that Finn spent the equivalent of two million pounds ($2.6 million) on his airline tickets.