Your 2025 year of travel in review

[JessicaTam]

It's time for the annual AFF "year in review" thread. (For reference, this was last year's: 2024 - Year In Review)

So what have you managed this year? More than you were expecting, or not as much. Any firsts, likes or dislikes?

Here are some of mine:

Number of flights: 73 (31 Y, 1 W, 40 J, 1 F)
New countries: Andorra, Estonia, Portugal, South Africa, Poland (now up to 51 in total)
New airports: BCN, MAD, OPO, TLL, CPT, WAW, BER, YYZ
New airline: Iberia
Shortest flight: TLL-HEL 63 miles (one day I will get to PPY)
Longest flight: YYZ-HKG 7810 miles
Dislike: No lounges in the non-Schengen part of BER airport
Like: EU261 made sure I made it to OPO in good time, despite an aircraft going tech

[mod hat]
Permission to brag ... granted
[/mod hat]

 

[AIRwin]

Total flights: 48 so far + another 2 to go before year end (35 in 2024, 38 in 2023, 36 in 2022, 27 in 2021, 22 in 2020 and 62 in 2019)
New countries: Laos, Canada
New airports: VTE, YVR, YUL
New airlines: VN, AC
New aircraft: A220-300 (QF), E190-E2 (Scoot)
New lounges: PNH, DOH (QR), ADL (QF Business)
Milestones and Memorable Moments:
- LTG
- big bruise from a visit to the St Joseph's Oratory of Mount Royal after slipping at the top of a flight of icy stairs and sliding all the way down
- 2 back to back fifth freedom flights VTE-PNH-SIN on VN and EK
- Mangoes in PNH lounge

- Jacuzzi in DOH lounge

Post in thread 'Overview of all the Qatar Airways Lounges in Doha'

May 3, 2025

Jacuzzi in Al Safwa:

• AIRwin

• 

 

[kpc]

Number of flights 53 (25 Y, 37J, 1 F)
Flown: 125139 kms
New countries: 13 (Bulgaria, Serbia, Bosnia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Albania, Kosovo, Romania, Moldova, Seychelles, Mauritius, Madagascar, Timor Leste). Total now : 88
Nights away from home: 11O
New Airlines. Air Mauritius, Madagascar Air, Tarom, Air China, Shenzen Airlines:
Best F: Ek for shower food and wine
Best J: Qr Q suites (private cabin with +1)
Best Y: ZH (Shenzen Airlines) from Xian to Guangzhou...as a *Gold, given 1st row in Y, PB, slippers, blanket, Chinese newspaper, lounge access and bags first out!

 

[AIRwin]

Best F: Ek for shower food and wine

No massage?

 

[Tiki]

Number of flights: 22, 18-Y, 4-J
New countries: Timor Leste, I can give Kuwait as a long time no see, it had been around 20 years.
New airports: DIL, AMQ (Ambon), NAM (Namlea), SXK (Saumlaki)
New airline: None
Shortest flight: AMQ-NAM 74 miles
Longest flight: BNE-DOH 7660 miles
Dislike: Took forever to clear customs at DIL, you have to wait in line to get a computer to do a declaration and others were slow. Wings Air (tiny airline part of Lion group) cancelled return NAM-AMQ so had to take the ferry, luckily I managed to get a cabin.
Like: QR Suites, lounges in DOH and IST

 

[RooFlyer]

Number of flights: 57 (9Y, 2PE, 44 J); domestic 28, international 29
Distance: 142,192km (88,354 miles); 4,154,467 km total to date (2,581,528 miles)
New countries: Montenegro (108 total to date - its getting more difficult!) plus Greenland if you count it (got a passport stamp)
New airports: BCN, SFL (Kangerlussuaq), LYR (Longyearbyen). 20 in total for year, 203 grand total to date
New airline: EnterAir (charter). 8 airlines in total for the year, 67 grand total to date,
Shortest flight: EDI-LHR 354km (332 miles)
Longest flight: DFW-SYD 13,804km (8,578 miles)
Dislike: Having to renew my USA visa just to transit from South America to Home
Like: Seeing the Arctic (with polar bears) and Greenland

 

[AIRwin]

Dislike: Having to renew my USA visa just to transit from South America to Home

No flights from South America on your map?

 

[RooFlyer]

No flights from South America on your map?

Very end of 2024. Flew DFW-SYD on new years day.

 

[AIRwin]

Flew DFW-SYD on new years day.

At least you didn't have to submit social media history then?

 

[blackcat20]

A very quiet year for us, with only two family trips (and one more over new years). I did do two solo weekend though.

Number of flights: 11(7 Y, 4 J)
New countries: None
New airports: None
New airline: None
Shortest flight: MEL-BNE
Longest flight: MEL-KUL

Notable: flew the new MH A330 Neo. The J seat was fine for a day flight but I'm not sure I'd love it for a night flight as its quite narrow with little seat storage. Always happy when we can get four J seats on points though.

 

[Harrison_133]

• Number of flights: 124 (with 2 more to go)
• New countries: none
• New airports: AKJ, cough, MKY, CTS
• New airlines: Air Do, FlyPelican, Skytrans
• New aircraft types: A319, A321XLR, JS32
• Shortest flight: ROK-MKY
• Longest flight: SYD-HND
• Favourite flights: Air Do 767-300 to Asahikawa & JAL Class J on the domestic A350

 

[MelbFlyer]

My stats for this year:

• Number of flights: 9 (3 Business, 1 Premium Economy, 5 Economy)
• Countries visited: 3, no new ones
• New airports visited: KMQ - Komatsu, Japan
• New airlines flown: EVA (BR)
• New aircraft type flown: None, but flew Starlux (JX) and EVA (BR) for the first time each
• Best flight: MEL to HKG - QF
• Worst flight: TPE to KMQ - BR

 

[Pushka]

One of the best trips ever - Japan during Spring. Stunningly beautiful.
And without doubt, the worst trip ever, Hawaii and a cruise with both of us ill for the duration of the trip. Never spent so many days in a hotel room and then so many days in a cabin.

Domestic? Only if needed to connect to the international flights.

 

[OZDUCK]

Number of flights: 14 - 8 in J 4 in Y+ (ScootPlus) and 2 in SQ Y
New countries: UAE (Abu Dhabi) and Poland. Abu Dhabi only because of a missed connection on Etihad causing us to spend a few hours in a city hotel. (now up to 31 in total)
New airports: BER, AUH (Abu Dhabi)
New airline: Etihad
Shortest flights: Singapore/Perth
Longest flight: SIN - DIA (Doha) 6,200 km
Dislike: Monsoon weather over the Bay of Bengal with lots of bumps on 4 flights - not severe but long lasting
Like: SQ flight to Singapore to introduce our grandkids to Singapore and Malaysia (southern tip around Johore Bahru)

It is now 16 years since we have been on an Australian domestic flight

 

[AIRwin]

Longest flight: SIN - DIA (Doha) 6,200 km

DOH or DIA?

 

[RSD]

Number of flights: 53 with 2 more to go - mostly in Y apart from a couple of cheapie J domestic flights in China where I needed extra baggage allowance
New countries: Czech Republic
New airports: various in China, Bolognia, Prague
New airline: none
Shortest flight: Haven't done the maths but probably LHR-DUB
Longest flight: QF1 (and QF2)
Dislike: No real dislikes, but then I'm someone who is pretty amenable to most things
Like: Prague - could easily spend more time there.

 

[BCons]

Dont want to count flts, all of them voluntary/leisure, but 3 times HBA to Europe btween May and Oct, J or better on some legs, was def too much. Niece gets married early June in Italy- yes we'll come, and see other ppl while we're there.. Nephew next announces he's getting married in London in Sept - yes we'll come, but why didnt you talk to your cousin to coordinate! Then, having organised to go with mates to Wobblies/UnZud rugby test in Perth, I continue on to EU in answer to a summons to complete a sail across the Atl - last leg Azores to Lisbon/Cascais..

Didnt mention to snr mgmt that the greatest danger for this 7 day passage was not the weather but the possibility of Orcas taking out the yacht's rudder and putting us into a liferaft. LASTINCIDENTS (List) | orcas.pt - PT & SP Origin of this Nature v Man contest isnt certain - one view is a sleeping Orca mum and child were run into by a yacht and since then that pod have had the hump. Another is that a couple of adolescent Orcas were playing around and liked what their bumping and playing achieved, and that bad behaviour has continued within their pod. These are highly intelligent animals and we're lucky we saw none..

Anyway we'll put all that in 'what we liked, but didnt kill us' category, and greatly enjoyed the life in Portugal.

What we didnt like:

TAP business class - yes its econo with a shadow, but seats are planks, and staff need to realise not everyone is a sheep. Rough..
TAP - not your fault airport is a mess because Lisbon is overwhelmed by popularity.
Rest of the world - leave Lisbon alone for a bit..
TAP and SQ - both Star Alliance but unable to thru-check a bag (on sep tkts), so hv to fly from LIS, clear LHR immig, go upstairs and check in with SQ. Ridiculous.
VA/QF and SQ - for reasons that remain unclear and frustrating ; if you book SQ Intl with a domestic leg then you'll just as likely go QF as VA. Blieve this started happening early '25 when VA decided to head down-mkt. SQ just say its 'fare based selection' whatever that means. But where you would usually go VA to connect, these days it cud be QF. And if you want to travel right up the front with SQ then its definitely QF domestically, even with a VA flt sched close-by..
Mel Security - we'll do anything you want, just give us a clue. Sheesh

What we did like:

Nice people everywhere - bit of a laugh at check-in, sharing a seat in a lounge, the security man at LHR who -post scan- walked up and said in my ear: excuse me sir, you fly is undone.. Thought I was up for the 3rd degree!!

SQ lounges - Lhr in partic - a jobsworth shoulder shrug is the baseline attitude at Heathrow (and UK in general) so it was a pleasure several times here.

 

[OZDUCK]

DOH or DIA?

Oops and Doh (Homer Simpson version. Should of course be DOH.