2018 Travel - the year in review thread

[VPS]

Just spent some time putting my flights in for 2017 and 2018 which I've never done before. Now I've worked out what to do I'm going to keep it updated.

2017 distance 27275 with only 13 flights with 3 new airports and 1 new airline
2018 distance 20182 with 27 flights no new airports and no new airlines.

2019 better be more like 2017

 

[wannabeinvestmentbanker]

2018 was my biggest travel year ever, both number of sectors (62) and distance (93,098 miles) for a total of more than 9 days in the air.

New airlines: MI, AY, JL

New airports: HNL, KIX, PEK, HEL, RVN

View attachment 148812

My stats for this year reveal far too many flights in Y on the 738!

View attachment 148813

View attachment 148814

What flight tracking program is this?

 

[Captain Halliday]

What flight tracking program is this?

Myflightradar24

It provides more analytics than the AFF one, but I add my flights to both because the AFF one allows more detail.

For example, in list view the AFF one allows your to sort by aircraft type or airport, while myfilightradar24 will only sort by date.

Also if you want to separate out A330-200/300 Myflightradar24 just assumes they’re all A330s, while the AFF one will allow them to be entered separately.

 

[yld200]

2018 was my first year in a new role which involved monthly travel to Asia. As a result, I flew 33 segments, mostly in QF Y. I had 1 Y>J points upgrade from MNL>SYD and flew SQ J on point to Istanbul.

New airports for me were BOM, MNL, AKL.
Highlight - Istanbul
Lowlight - QF Red eyes from Asia

I am a little sad that I didn't make QF SG since my QF status reset in June.

 

[drron]

So 41 sectors.12 airlines but only 6 countries.
New airports 6-IAH,MZT,YVR,YYJ,OKA.
18 sectors in Y,11 in J,10 in International F and 2 domestic AA F.
Ailines QF 13,BA 5,CX 4,JL 4,NH 3,AA 3,SQ 2,VA 2,ZL 2,TG 1,UA 1 and AC 1

 

[RickyT84]

My 2018 travel:

30 sectors - 13 on QF, 6 on VA, 5 on JQ, 4 on CX and 2 on JL.
3 new airport - HND, AKJ and CTS (all in Japan)
22 sectors in Y, 4 in W, 3 in J and 1 in F (JL Dom which was fantastic).
No new countries although I visited a new region in Japan - Hokkaido.

 

[rattler]

Here's what my 2018 looked like - heavy domestic travel (Via Kayak Stats):
118 Flights, 150k Miles, 250H in air, 13 Sectors , 160 Days on Road, 3 Countries.

 

[wannabeinvestmentbanker]

Do we have a winner for number of sectors and BIS miles?

Like on FT for UA would also be interesting to see most SCs but I understand not everyone belongs to QF/VA

 

[TonyHancock]

'twas an unusual year for me, a few new airports, MEX, EMA, GLA, ABZ, EWR, PHL, and BRU, but a much reduced number of flights and a much reduced mileage. I managed to avoid Y in all but 2 of my flights which I see as a reasonable success, and with 28 long haul F sectors, all upgrades or rewards, I must be doing something right. Perhaps most pleasingly I moved 9k TP's towards BA LTG.

 

[QF WP]

To put our flying in perspective:

Air New Zealand’s most frequent flyer took more than one flight per day in 2018, flying 371 times to cover a total distance of 639,000 kilometres (the equivalent of 15 circuits of the earth).

Air NZ fun facts 2018: Air New Zealand's 2018 by the numbers - Australian Aviation

 

[Deleted member 29185]

That flyer needs a medal ... or a padded cell!

 

[TomVexille]

2018 was an interesting year. Flew the most sectors I've ever flown but the overall distance was down quite a bit on last year.

• 51 sectors (J-11, Y-40)
• 44,054nm
• 10 international, 41 domestic
• 11 J
• 40 Y
• 11 different aircraft types - dominated by the 738 (28 flights)
• 2 new aircraft - Fokker F50 and Saab 340
• 8 different airlines - 4 new ones: QQ, ZL, AK, MH
• 16 different airports
• 6 new airports - OLP, CED, YJAC (Jacinth Ambrosia), DRW, LGK, KUL
• Most frequent route was MEL-ADL and ADL-MEL at 9 times

Most importantly I managed to not sit in a middle seat once in 2018

Also if you want to separate out A330-200/300 Myflightradar24 just assumes they’re all A330s, while the AFF one will allow them to be entered separately.

You can separate aircraft types. You just have to tell it what it is, so if you want an A330-200, type A332 into the box

 

[wannabeinvestmentbanker]

To put our flying in perspective:

Air New Zealand’s most frequent flyer took more than one flight per day in 2018, flying 371 times to cover a total distance of 639,000 kilometres (the equivalent of 15 circuits of the earth).

Forgive me if I'm wrong, but my perception is that the majority of members on this forum are more self-funded travellers as opposed to the corporate road warriors we see on the BA, AA and UA threads of FT.

It would be genuinely interesting to get a ranking of sectors, BIS miles and SCs/TPs. Those who do more than 150/200 sectors, 250k BIS miles or 5-10k SCs/TPs to comment and see the travel patterns involved.

So far Tony Hancock seems to have it on 9k TP which even on FT standards would be fairly high.

 

[QF WP]

Well, to be fair, @TonyHancock is travelling in the vast majority of trips, on his company coin. Same with me (but I started out self-funded from 1989 to ~2000, then three [family] businesses since then). I'd think that the percentages would be closer to 60% self-funded.

 

[wannabeinvestmentbanker]

Sure I travel almost 100% on the company coin too but I don't think that really matters. I just think the corporate road warrior is likely to be able to get far higher stats than a self-funded traveller given timings and financing, hence the figures we see on here are fairly low compared to whats seen on FT from US and UK based flyers.

 

[QF WP]

Well it all depends. A corporate FF will have possibly more sectors and in flexible fare buckets if their company has travel policy with the respective airline, however a well crafted D/A ONEx (with DSC and/or piggybacking with companion fares) or similar on other alliances give the same result in less time. Some corporates have BFOD. YMMV.

A lot can also depend on the membership of the respective FF websites and given that FT has significantly higher membership than AFF, it makes some sense. Another point - Europe and US population is also significantly higher than Australia.

Final point - not everybody wants to share their personal flying details. A lot lurk and therefore we'll never know...

 

[wannabeinvestmentbanker]

It's no fun lurking though

 

[wandering_fred]

Some of us try to freely share what we have learned but not necessarily the detail of where we have gone to learn it. Or where we might be going next.... But for the serious lurker, reading between the lines does become possible

Happy wandering
Fred

 

[mrtupperware]

It's been a big year. Circa 80k miles (international, too many domestic to count) all in either J or F, spent most time at TPR in Singapore, all on points for myself and my missus. New countries visited including Zimbabwe, Ethiopia, Mexico, Russia.

Spent 14 nights in Japan on points (RC and Conrad Tokyo, thank you Marriott Holiday Packages), realised that I actually enjoy the smaller boutique hotels more than large chains, yet earned my SPG platinum this year with a challenge.

Bucket list flights this year:

SQ F LHR - MEL on the A380 - snagged a saver suite morning flight
SQ F MEL - LAX (return trip via SIN) on the 777 - two seats for myself and the missus, TBH 30 hours or so flights are hard and next time i'll probably do it in J if less time
JAL J MEL - TYO (return) on the 787 - I tried their 777 F from SFO to TYO a few years ago, their 787 J is outstanding

Some of the better hotels I stayed in this year:

- Chiltern Firehouse
- Soho House Chicago
- Chateau Marmont
- Casa Oaxaca
- Be Tulum
- Zaborin Ryokan
- Ritz Carlton Tokyo and Kyoto

 

[ontheaisle]

Self-funded leisure traveller. A rather quiet travel year for me as I started a new (private sector) job in Feb so very limited leave options (mostly over Xmas/NY). This will hopefully improve in 2019…

• 10 segments with 15,607 miles / 25,117 km (J 1, PE 3, Y 6)
• No new airlines, but some new classes: AirNZ 777 PE (thumbs up), AirNZ 777 J (big thumbs up), Delta A330 and CRJ-900 Comfort+ (only worth it for status credits)
• New Airports: ATL, HAV
• Longest (and best) flight: AKL-LAX (in J). FAs actually found my chatty father “lovely” and “a pleasure to have on board” instead of annoying
• Shortest (and worst) flight: SYD-BNE. A combination of early boarding, GI distress, long taxi, and bumpy climb nearly saw me have an “accident” in my seat. Never been so glad to see the seatbelt light go off in my life!
• Best airport: HAV
• Worst airport: LAX (new personal worst – 100 minutes to clear immigration!)