Your 2025 year of travel in review

[RB001]

ROK-MKY 27KM

Missing a digit?

 

[rbjhan]

Technically if you went through immigration , you did enter.

That's my point though, I didn't!

AFF is probably the last place I expect to find people not familiar with airside transfers....

 

[Beano]

That's my point though, I didn't!

AFF is probably the last place I expect to find people not familiar with airside transfers....

Apologies, I must have misunderstood. Somewhere someone commented on the speed of going through immigration at LHR. I am not sure how to track back through comments.

 

[AIRwin]

Somewhere someone commented on the speed of going through immigration at LHR. I am not sure how to track back through comments.

It was post #54 above

 

[Beano]

All this data inspires me to work out the average KM per flight taken by travellers. I must work it out.

 

[Forg]

Missing a digit?

Yakuza?!

 

[VPS]

Apologies, I must have misunderstood. Somewhere someone commented on the speed of going through immigration at LHR. I am not sure how to track back through comments.

that was the last trip not the previous trip

 

[RB001]

that was the last trip not the previous trip

Last trip sounds so... final.

 

[Noah Count]

Number of flights: 19, it is sad these days
New countries: Nil
New airports: TFU, LXA, XNN, IZO
New airline: None
Shortest flight: ADL-MEL (initially I thought HND-IZO would win but it it is 2 miles longer than ADL-MEL)
Longest flight: NRT-MEL
Dislike: There were probably things in the year that annoyed me at the time but cannot remember so they could not have been significant. If one jumps to mind it was the time taken to get from the MU Lounge in TFU to the gate - 15-20 minute walk, the train, and another 25-30 minute walk. I did not realise how big TFU is.
Like: The the lounge in XNN, there is only one and I suspect the lunch meal service was provided out side of the published hours as I was the only non asian looking Western.

Just for something else - Longest train trip Lhasa-Xining around 22 hours and for those that looked at the TR apparently I was newly married Tibet TR at least my real wife saw the funny side of this.

 

[BrianQQ]

• Number of flights: 61 flights (5 J, 56 Y)
• Countries visited: 15 visited, 2 transit = 17
• New airports visited: HAN, DAD, BKK, HKT, AKL, MNL, NRT, HND, KUL, LHR, BER, IST, DUB
• Airlines flown (bolded = new): Aer Lingus (EI), American Airlines (AA), Alaska Air (AS), Bangkok Airways (PG), British Airways (BA), Cathay Pacific (CX), Malaysia Airlines (MH), Qantas (QF), Singapore Airlines (SQ), Turkish Airlines (TK), United (UA), Vietnam Airlines (VN), WestJet (WS)
• New aircraft types: A321XLR, B777
• Best flight: QF74 - San Francisco to Sydney: comp upgraded to Business, literally knocked out after dinner and woke up refreshed. J so worth.
• Worst flight: MH805 - Manila to Kuala Lumpur: first time on MH metal. Felt like I was flying on a JQ flight with no adjustable headrest. Neck was hurting.

 

[Seat0B]

Number of flights: 33 flights - 14 domestic (all QF, 8 in Y and 6 in J), 19 international (on EK, UL, JL, QF, AY and N7, 5 in Y and 14 in J)
Distance Traveled: no idea
New countries: Sri Lanka, Finland, Iceland, Greenland (if you count it as a country, and Denmark if you don't as I haven't been to Denmark proper yet either), Faroe Islands (ditto), Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia. This takes me to 34 countries, plus Gibraltar, Greenland, Faroe Islands and Hong Kong (before it was part of China).
New airports: Colombo (CMB), Helsinki (HEL), Keflavik (KEF), Vilnius (VNO)
New airlines: Sri Lankan, Finnair, Nordic Regional (N7)
New aircraft: A350 (JL), ATR-72 (N7)
Shortest flight: CBR-SYD and vice versa - over and over again (236km)
Longest flight: PER-LHR (14,498 km)

Dislike: Anything to do do with SriLankan airlines - their booking process; charging me for seat selection (that was labelled "free" on the web site and should have been free as a OWE perk) and then point blank refusing to refund; dreadful rude, rushed and could not care less "service" in Y - want water, too bad; dirty, tired, stinky aircraft; and do NOT get me started about the lounge situation in CMB. Never again.

Like: EK first lounge in DXB; Iceland (what an amazing place to visit, just spectacular, will be going again sometime to see more), the Baltics generally

Best Flight(s): QF5/9 SYD-PER-LHR.
I was not sure how I would feel about such a long flight but it was fantastic all round. It was a delight to have the short hop from Sydney to Perth - time to eat a nice meal, have a couple of glasses of bubbles and just enjoy the ride. And the long leg from PER-LHR was amazing, with no intermediate ports of call and therefore no disruption for descents. Also no interruptions for meals. I slept the best and longest I have ever managed on a flight (7.5 hrs sleep in one stretch) and felt quite refreshed on arrival at LHR. I'm sure it would be much worse in Y, but in J this was amazing, and will be my new go to flight if I ever need to go to UK or western Europe again.

Milestones and Memorable Moments:
I got classic reward flights for us on various connecting legs around the Nordic/Baltic area - HEL-KEF, OSL-xHEL-VNO - very affordable and a good use of points.
Took my first cruise - jury is till out as to whether I loved it or hated it!
Iceland - such a beautiful place, just spectacular
Silja line Tallink ferry from Tallinn to Helsinki - a trip I took on recommedation of several people from AFF, and it was fabulous.
Paying $11.50 for a tiny cup of coffee in Torshavn, Faroe Islands. Needs must!

 

[burneracc]

My year will be quite a giveaway of how new I am to semi frequent flying, as there are a lot of firsts here that are probably quite mundane to many people here. Also probably a dead giveaway of my age but thats also fine

Number of flights: 19 (10 domestic), with 71,951km flown
New countries: China, Netherlands, Serbia, Hong Kong
New airports: HKG, SHA, SZX, BEG, AMS
New airlines: China eastern, CX, KLM, air serbia
Shortest flight: AMS-LHR 369km
Longest flight: LHR-PER 14,506km

Best flight: Qantas classic upgrade from Y to J on QF1 as a bronze flier. They totally got me with this one, I am hooked for life and am now chasing WP. Incredible experience for my first ever long haul J.

Worst flight: SYD-PER that had a defect on the plane, resulting in a reroute over the mainland (pic attached), stretching the flight time way beyond the usual ~4-5h. Comically bad experience on top of it already being a b737. This was on QF653, September 17th.

Dislikes: Nothing new but the QF Perth terminal is so archaic when it comes to passport control. Hate having to wait to be manually processed. On that note, our IPC system also sucks and should have been digitised long ago.

Likes: CX pier lounge in HKG was lovely, and so was the QF LHR lounge. It's also lovely having some level of status now, as I can select extra legroom seats for free on CX. Best travel moment of the year was staying at the Shanghai edition.

Biggest like of all: the AFF forum! It's been invaluable being a member here.

 

[andye]

My biggest ever travel year with 4 trips to/via UK (family holiday, conference, funeral and uni reunion).
I didn't repeat a single sector (i.e all had different origin to destination though had a couple of return trips)

Distance flown: 98,361 miles
Flights: 29 (8 J, 3 Y+, 18 Y)
New airlines: NH, UL
New airports: CMB, new IST, AGP
Best bit:South African safari
Worst bit: Typhoon cancelling DOH-HKG in QR F so still never done First

 

[Scarlett]

Number of flights: 62 (with an amazingly uniform 31 Y / 31 J split - three of the J flights were called 'First' domestically in the US but that doesn't count as real F)

Distance travelled: 128,600 KMs

Requalified VA WP; TK Elite (*G); and QF SG (only due to lifetime gold!)​

Countries: 16

New countries: 9 - Jamaica, Bahamas, Cayman Is, Turks & Caicos, Liechtenstein, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Saudi Arabia​

Airports: 35

New airports: 15 - NLK, PHE, FLS, YIA (have previously flown into the old Yogyakarta YOG), DCA, MBJ, KIN, GCM, NAS, PLS, TAS, ASB, SJJ, RUH, MED​

Carriers: 15

New airlines: 5 - KX (Cayman Airways), JY (InterCaribbean Airways), NH (ANA), SV (Saudia) & Dawn Drifters!​

Different aircraft types: 22

New aircraft: 3 - ATR42-500, Embraer ERJ-190 E2 and a Kavanagh B-350 (balloon)​

Shortest flight (distance): Balloon flight within the ACT where we covered about 6KM.
Shortest flight (time): FLS-LST 38 minutes, just edging out a couple of SYD-CBR and vv trips.

Longest flight: IAH-NRT 10,600KM / 13h 45m. (in J with UA)

Games of golf: 32 - Twelve of them overseas and twenty in Aus.

Likes:
- How surprisingly good Uzbekistan was.
- No lost luggage!
- No broken golf clubs or damaged bag!
- Having the means and the opportunity to travel internationally, for leisure, multiple times in a year. (only one international work trip)
- First ever balloon flight! (especially after having two previous bookings cancelled over the years: firstly in the Hunter Valley due weather and secondly in Marrakech due to the airspace being closed so the King could fly in).
- All the useful information on AFF

Dislikes:
- Any flight in whY over about 90 minutes duration.
- VA's minimal lounge network.
- I don't think I'll be able to match this year's effort in 2026.

 

[CNS_AMS]

Hi.
From my Qantas account:
* 44 flights
*167,348 kms
* 29 domestic, 15 international.
* A handful of others with KLM & BA.

I always ask the desk at the Business & 1st Class lounges whether they really want to let someone like me into their fine establishment.
I roll my eyes at the people in those lounges who “accidentally” talk loud enough, I think, to ensure those nearby hear all about their latest business deal or how “we need to ensure this client is happy in order to grow our customer base”. Uh huh; okey dokey champ. Or those go-getters wandering around, talking to fresh air and their ear buds. Am I the only person who thinks that’s weird?

Status Braggers: Should a distinction be made between self-funded high status persons and high status persons who’ve not spent a cent of their own dime? I’m not sure if I’d have the gall to brag about being high status if someone else had paid for it all, and all I had to do was to park my cough in a seat, or lie-flat bed. Or should the real bragging rights go to those who’ve earned, say, Platinum One by being completely self-funded and with only economy flights?
In any case, I’ll die a happy man if I can live my lifelong dream of dropping a turd in every 1st Class lounge in Europe and the Middle East. I think achieving goals is important.

 

[wannabeinvestmentbanker]

This is always my favourite thread all year I look forward to. I’m back out on the road for the year so grabbing a bite in Brisbane thoroughly enjoying everyone’s posts and hoping to get around to posting mine tomorrow. Was a quieter year at 86 flights but appreciate everyone’s efforts to post here and wish more did!

 

[lepetitprince]

• Number of flights: 27 flights (14J, 13Y) (4 domestic, 23 international)
• Kms flown: 146, 333
• Countries visited: 10
• New airports visited: HYD, MAD, BCN, ORY, CDG, HND, LAX, BKK, FRA, DXB, AUH,
• Airlines flown: SQ, Air Arabia, TG, ANA, Vueling, LH (I mostly only fly SQ, but some *A)
• Best flight: SYD – HND (NH890) – never travelled ANA before – it was a revelation! So good!
• Worst flight: None
• 2026: 8 trips already booked, but will be a bit easy as kiddo is in year 12!

 

[lepetitprince]

.....

.....

Status Braggers: Should a distinction be made between self-funded high status persons and high status persons who’ve not spent a cent of their own dime? I’m not sure if I’d have the gall to brag about being high status if someone else had paid for it all, and all I had to do was to park my cough in a seat, or lie-flat bed. Or should the real bragging rights go to those who’ve earned, say, Platinum One by being completely self-funded and with only economy flights?
In any case, I’ll die a happy man if I can live my lifelong dream of dropping a turd in every 1st Class lounge in Europe and the Middle East. I think achieving goals is important.

A person I helped in the course of my work today used the term "dick swing" - AFF forum can sometimes feel like that!

 

[wannabeinvestmentbanker]

Some interesting comments above…you seem to think work travel is easy. Try spending over 100-150 days a year away.
Sorry to take off course but it really offends me when people have a crack at work funded travellers. We sacrifice a lot and this forum is supposed to be a safe space for like minded people who share factual feedback to help the greater good including self funded travellers. Someone has to pay for your redemptions and if there aren’t corporate travellers filling the high yielding seats you aren’t getting your redemptions or sale/saver classes.

Join the toxic Facebook groups if your primary objective is to have a whinge.

Some interesting comments above…you seem to think work travel is easy. Try spending over 100-150 years away.
Sorry to take off course but it really offends me when people have a crack at work funded travellers. We sacrifice a lot and this forum is supposed to be a safe space for like minded people who share factual feedback to help the greater good including self funded travellers