Melissa Yeager | Arizona Republic

Ask any traveler and it’s probably their dream come true: A year of free flights with a companion, any class of service to anywhere in the world.

One Arizonan will live out that fantasy because he got his COVID-19 vaccination.

Sean Husmoe of Goodyear recently received a phone call from United Capt. CJ Charlton telling him he was one of five winners of United’s Your Shot to Fly sweepstakes.

“Are you kidding me? That’s incredible! You enter a sweepstakes, you don’t necessarily expect to win,” Husmoe said in a video United Airlines shared with The Arizona Republic of him receiving the news on July 2.

Sweepstakes encouraged people to get vaccinated

The Chicago-based airline conducted the contest in May. Members of the airline’s MileagePlus frequent flyer program uploaded their vaccination status for a chance to win round-trip tickets or the grand prize of a year of travel anywhere in the world.

The airline launched the program to encourage people to get their COVID-19 vaccinations. In less than a month, more than 1 million United MileagePlus members entered the contest.

“We were proud to do our part to encourage more Americans to get their shot and were thrilled by the overwhelming response we received,” Scott Kirby, United’s CEO, said in a press release. “This prize clearly struck an emotional chord with our customers, as the opportunity to travel and connect with people and places that matter most is something that clearly has been missed during the pandemic.”

‘We’ve had to put travel on hold for a year’

Husmoe echoed that sentiment in his conversation with Charlton.

“We’ve had to put travel on hold for a year. For more than a year. That’s one of the things our family spends our money on is traveling and going and seeing the country and seeing the world internationally” Husmoe said.

A seasoned traveler, Husmoe still has two continents, South America and Antarctica, to visit. He hopes to use the grand prize to travel with his wife and daughters.

“We did kind of put our lives on hold like a lot of people did, so we’re ready to get back on the road,” Husmoe said.