My 1000th Flight On A 737 (And other Flight Milestones)
Jan 3, 2009, 9:50 am
#1
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Original Poster
Join Date: Apr 2001
Location: East Ester, Alaska
Programs: Alaska Million Miler, United Million Miler, Wyndham Rewards Diamond, Choice Hotels Diamond
Posts: 12,148
My 1000th Flight On A 737 (And other Flight Milestones)
With so many FlyerTalkers now providing links to their flight statistics via sites like flightmemory.com or openflights.org, I thought some of you might get a kick out of some of the numbers I’m starting to attain, totals that some of you may also someday reach, if you haven’t already.
Most frequent flyers have a rough estimate of how many miles they fly each year. Some of them may even know that over a certain period of time they’ve flown over a million miles. Beyond that, it all gets a bit hazy. Frequent Flyer Programs generally track only mileage and/or segments. There are no awards for flying every aircraft in the fleet (Collect them all!) or logging 200,000 lifetime miles on United DC-10s.
For those of you saying to yourself “Who cares?”, I understand where you’re coming from. You don keep no stinkeen flight logs! You just want your flight to get you to your destination safely, comfortably and on time. The aircraft type and registration number are of little or no importance. As for flight trip reports, you want the basic facts. Were the seats comfortable? Were the Flight Attendants attentive? Was the food sufficient and reasonably edible? How was the entertainment system? I completely understand and my response is a warning rather than an apology. Turn back now! While I’m just having a bit of fun here, the more pragmatic amongst us will relate to very little if anything in this thread. If this describes you, hit the back button on your browser and find yourselves a thread more in keeping with your pragmatic sensibilities.
*** *** ***
One of the benefits to keeping track of anything is watching the numbers add up. Be it a bank account, a calendar or your car’s odometer, it’s nice to know where you stand. Sometimes it’s nice to know exactly where you stand. Who hasn’t ever made a point of being sure to watch as their car’s odometer rolled over 100,000 miles, or even better, 111,111.1 miles?
Certain milestones carry more significance than others. The start of a new decade or century, our 21st birthday or any birthday ending in a 0. Why do we not just celebrate New Year’s Eve but also have an actual countdown to the new year? Because we like to know exactly when the new year starts.
What if you didn’t know? What if you were simply told that it’s now 2009. Or guess what? You’re now 30 years old. In fact, you’ve been 30 for about four months now. That would take a lot of the fun out of it, don’t you think? Then again, does it really matter if we know exactly when we turned 30 or 50 or 100? I suppose that depends upon your perspective but most people like to know anyway. It certainly makes for a more relevant birthday celebration to actually celebrate on your birthday.
To those of us for whom air travel is an integral part of our lives, enough so that we actually bother to log our flights, wouldn’t it be neat if we knew exactly when we passed the million miles flown mark? Or when we flew our 100th flight or 100000th mile aboard a specific aircraft type? And, knowing such a milestone was coming up, wouldn’t passing it be worthy of an upgrade and/or maybe a glass or two of your favorite libation to commemorate the event?
Unless you’re aware of each and every flight that you’ve taken, it would be impossible to know exactly when you’ve passed some milestones, such as total lifetime miles flown. Few of us have had enough interest in commercial flight from an early age to bother with such details.
I am one of the exceptions.
I’ve loved commercial jetliners since the day I first ever saw one, much less flew upon one. My mom played a big role in my early interest. She loved to travel but unlike most women, she also took a real interest in the mechanisms of travel. Be it a train or a plane, she was well aware of what she was traveling upon and she always looked forward to getting there as well as being there. Suffice to say, her enthusiasm was infectious. To me at least. I have three sisters who could care less about “getting there”. My dad, by the way, was an original member of United’s Million Miler Club but aside from sending me neat postcards of airliners he’d flown upon, his personal interest in flying was otherwise minimal.
As a kid, I remember afternoon trips out to Denver’s Stapleton International Airport where a parking area was located alongside the east-west runway. The predominant jets of the early 1960s were 707s and DC-8s, big four engine jetliners that made a lot of noise and left big trails of smoky exhaust during takeoff and climb out. It was always a thrill to hear one of United’s noisy DC-8s take off or watch as a smoky Convair 880 approached from afar. Wow! Here comes a red Braniff 707! Afterwards, we would often visit the airport restaurant where I remember remarkably tasty club sandwiches and excellent views of the tarmac.
I was fortunate to grow up in an age when air travel, particularly jet travel, was still a novelty and flying anywhere was treated as a special event. Pretty much everyone dressed nicely and even adults seemed excited about the flight ahead. More often than not, boarding involved walking out onto the tarmac and climbing up a portable air stair into the aircraft. The sights, sounds and smells of the airport were much more pronounced outside than what we experience today from inside the terminal. Walking up to your waiting 707 past those big, low slung fanjets and climbing up the stairway was far more dramatic than the comparatively sterile entrance via jetway that most airports provide today. Walk up close to any modern jetliner and it’s much easier to see it as the magnificent flying machine that it is. Look at that same jetliner from the gate lounge and it’s just an airplane.
By the time I was 12 years old I’d only flown fifteen times, but each and every one of those flights was indelibly etched into my memory. Six years of flying back and forth to school in New York and California along with miscellaneous summer excursions added another 82 flights and by the time I entered college I’d flown 102 flights on eleven airlines for a grand total of 74,530 miles.
Although I first listed my flights when was about 8 years old, I started my first proper flight log during a slow day in my 7th grade Latin class. With less than 20 flights to my credit at the time, my first log was a fairly simple document, listing flights by origin, destination, airline, aircraft type, mileage flown and length of flight. As the total number of flights increased, my log became more detailed. I began to calculate total flights, miles and hours flown per airline and per aircraft type as of each flight. I also started keeping track of aircraft registration numbers.
By the time I turned twenty-one I had well over 400 flights to my credit. I went down to an aircraft supply store in Denver and purchased a Senior Pilot Master Log. This log was designed for pilots rather than passengers but I was able to easily convert the various columns to my needs. With so many columns and way too much spare time on my hands, I began to calculate even more data per flight. Over the years I added such eclectic statistics as flights and miles per aircraft type by airline (i.e. while I may have flown upon 720 Boeing 727-200s, how many of those flights were upon Braniff 727-200s), how many flights per specific aircraft (i.e. how many flights upon Braniff 727-200 N408BN), how many times I’d flown a given route and the total unduplicated route mileage per airline and in total. Unduplicated route mileage represents the sum of each unique route flown. So as an example, even though I’ve flown the 1448 mile Anchorage to Seattle route over 200 times, my total unduplicated route mileage for that route is counted only once at 1,450 miles. At present, my total Unduplicated Route Mileage is over 800,000 miles, far more than the total combined route mileage of most any airline in the world.
Noting the registration numbers has occasionally revealed some fascinating aircraft histories as well. A good example of this would be Alaska’s 737-200 N745AS which was comprised of three different airplanes. The majority of the airplane was from an airframe delivered to Air Zaire, the right wing was from a Brittania Airways jet and the galley was from the Aloha Airlines plane that had the inflight peel back of fuselage skin due to corrosion from the salty air.
Now that I’ve logged over 4.6 million miles on nearly 5000 flights aboard 172 airlines, the statistics in my flight log have begun to take on a life of their own. There are many aircraft upon which I’ve flown multiple times, such as an Alaska 737-400 on which I’ve logged 28 flights or a British Airways 747-400 upon which I’ve flown 26,460 miles. There are at least twenty examples of aircraft that I’ve flown in the service of one airline and then flew again years later after they’d been sold to another airline. I even know the disposition of each aircraft I’ve flown. Many of them have been retired and scrapped, at least a couple of dozen have crashed in locations all over the world and many still soldier on as freighters. It’s always fun to see a Fed Ex DC-10 or most any UPS DC-8 and know that I spent some quality time in a comfortable seat aboard that very same aircraft only twenty or thirty years ago.
It is because of this type of record keeping that I’ve been able to be aware of and celebrate the following milestones:
My 1000th Flight: 1982 Honolulu to San Francisco in First Class aboard a Western Airlines DC-10.
My Millionth Mile: 1985 On my birthday aboard a United DC-10 flying Seattle to Denver. Once I knew I had a reasonable opportunity to log my one millionth mile on my birthday, I flew just enough flights in advance to make that happen. In First Class.
My 2000th Flight: 1991 Charlotte to Chicago in First Class aboard a United 737-300.
My 2 Millionth Mile: 1999 Seattle to Anchorage aboard an Alaska 737-400
My 5000th Hour: 2000 San Francisco to Seattle aboard a United 737-300.
My 100th Airline: 2001 New York LGA to Ft. Lauderdale aboard a Spirit DC-9-80
My 3000th Flight: 2003 London to San Francisco in First Class aboard a British Airways 747.
My 3 Millionth Mile: 2005 Caracas to Lima in Business Class aboard a LAN Chile 767-300.
My Millionth Mile in First Class: 1998 Chicago to San Francisco aboard a United A320
My Millionth Mile Aboard United Airlines: 1997 Denver to Portland in First Class on an A320
My 1000th Flight Aboard United: 1997 Anchorage to San Francisco in First Class aboard an A320
My 1000th 737 Flown: 2008 Seattle to Dallas aboard American 737-800
My 300,000th Mile Aboard an MD-80: 2008 Chicago to Seattle aboard American
My 4 Millionth Mile: 2011 Portland to Los Angeles in First Class aboard an Alaska Airlines 737-800
My Millionth Mile Aboard Alaska Airlines: 2013 Austin to Seattle in First Class on a 737-900
My 1500th 737 Flown: 2013 Istanbul to Kigali in Business Class aboard a Turkish 737-900
My 1.5 Millionth Mile flown aboard a 737 2014 Baltimore to Seattle
Coincidentally, my 1000th flight and one millionth mile aboard United both happened in the same week. I thought United’s Public Relations department might get a kick out of this, so I sent them copies of my flight log in advance (over 100 pages copied). They responded by throwing a little celebration for myself and all the other passengers onboard my Anchorage to San Francisco flight. At the gate were two big cakes and coffee followed by the presentation of a nice plaque commemorating the milestone and a leather United duffel bag. Afterwards, all of the United personnel came out on the ramp to wave goodbye to us. It was as much a thrill for all of the other passengers as it was for me.
My most recent travels had me visiting friends all over the U.S. as well as working to maintain elite status in my frequent flyer program. During that time I logged my 1000th flight aboard a 737, my 300,000th mile flown aboard an MD-80, my 750th flight aboard Alaska Airlines and my 100th flight on a 737-800.
I’ll log my 4000th flight next year. My 4 Millionth mile should happen in about 2010. One interesting milestone coming up will be having spent an entire year of my life aloft. That translates to 8,760 hours. At present I’ve logged 8,305 hours and I average about 325 hours per year aloft, so I should reach that level in 2010. (At present I've logged 10,868 hours aloft on 4890 flights)
So for those of you thinking of starting a flight log, I hope this has provided some incentive. And for those of you who’ve been faithfully logging for years, it’d be fun to hear of some of your stats as well.
Happy Contrails, Everyone!
RESOURCES
Flight Memory
An excellent place to log your commercial flight data online. Lots of stats and nice maps
openflights.com
Another popular place to log flight data online.
airfleets.net
Want to research that old DC-9-50 you just flew? All you need is an aircraft registration number. This site also provides MSN (Manufacturer’s Serial Number) and Line numbers
Bureau Of Transportation Statistics
Can’t find that N-Number from your flight? This site will do it for you, but you’ll have to wait until about three months after your flight for the data to be loaded. This only works on US airlines operating from US airports.
Flight Logs
For those of you who also like a hand written flight log, this store would be a good resource.
Most frequent flyers have a rough estimate of how many miles they fly each year. Some of them may even know that over a certain period of time they’ve flown over a million miles. Beyond that, it all gets a bit hazy. Frequent Flyer Programs generally track only mileage and/or segments. There are no awards for flying every aircraft in the fleet (Collect them all!) or logging 200,000 lifetime miles on United DC-10s.
For those of you saying to yourself “Who cares?”, I understand where you’re coming from. You don keep no stinkeen flight logs! You just want your flight to get you to your destination safely, comfortably and on time. The aircraft type and registration number are of little or no importance. As for flight trip reports, you want the basic facts. Were the seats comfortable? Were the Flight Attendants attentive? Was the food sufficient and reasonably edible? How was the entertainment system? I completely understand and my response is a warning rather than an apology. Turn back now! While I’m just having a bit of fun here, the more pragmatic amongst us will relate to very little if anything in this thread. If this describes you, hit the back button on your browser and find yourselves a thread more in keeping with your pragmatic sensibilities.
*** *** ***
One of the benefits to keeping track of anything is watching the numbers add up. Be it a bank account, a calendar or your car’s odometer, it’s nice to know where you stand. Sometimes it’s nice to know exactly where you stand. Who hasn’t ever made a point of being sure to watch as their car’s odometer rolled over 100,000 miles, or even better, 111,111.1 miles?
Certain milestones carry more significance than others. The start of a new decade or century, our 21st birthday or any birthday ending in a 0. Why do we not just celebrate New Year’s Eve but also have an actual countdown to the new year? Because we like to know exactly when the new year starts.
What if you didn’t know? What if you were simply told that it’s now 2009. Or guess what? You’re now 30 years old. In fact, you’ve been 30 for about four months now. That would take a lot of the fun out of it, don’t you think? Then again, does it really matter if we know exactly when we turned 30 or 50 or 100? I suppose that depends upon your perspective but most people like to know anyway. It certainly makes for a more relevant birthday celebration to actually celebrate on your birthday.
To those of us for whom air travel is an integral part of our lives, enough so that we actually bother to log our flights, wouldn’t it be neat if we knew exactly when we passed the million miles flown mark? Or when we flew our 100th flight or 100000th mile aboard a specific aircraft type? And, knowing such a milestone was coming up, wouldn’t passing it be worthy of an upgrade and/or maybe a glass or two of your favorite libation to commemorate the event?
Unless you’re aware of each and every flight that you’ve taken, it would be impossible to know exactly when you’ve passed some milestones, such as total lifetime miles flown. Few of us have had enough interest in commercial flight from an early age to bother with such details.
I am one of the exceptions.
I’ve loved commercial jetliners since the day I first ever saw one, much less flew upon one. My mom played a big role in my early interest. She loved to travel but unlike most women, she also took a real interest in the mechanisms of travel. Be it a train or a plane, she was well aware of what she was traveling upon and she always looked forward to getting there as well as being there. Suffice to say, her enthusiasm was infectious. To me at least. I have three sisters who could care less about “getting there”. My dad, by the way, was an original member of United’s Million Miler Club but aside from sending me neat postcards of airliners he’d flown upon, his personal interest in flying was otherwise minimal.
As a kid, I remember afternoon trips out to Denver’s Stapleton International Airport where a parking area was located alongside the east-west runway. The predominant jets of the early 1960s were 707s and DC-8s, big four engine jetliners that made a lot of noise and left big trails of smoky exhaust during takeoff and climb out. It was always a thrill to hear one of United’s noisy DC-8s take off or watch as a smoky Convair 880 approached from afar. Wow! Here comes a red Braniff 707! Afterwards, we would often visit the airport restaurant where I remember remarkably tasty club sandwiches and excellent views of the tarmac.
I was fortunate to grow up in an age when air travel, particularly jet travel, was still a novelty and flying anywhere was treated as a special event. Pretty much everyone dressed nicely and even adults seemed excited about the flight ahead. More often than not, boarding involved walking out onto the tarmac and climbing up a portable air stair into the aircraft. The sights, sounds and smells of the airport were much more pronounced outside than what we experience today from inside the terminal. Walking up to your waiting 707 past those big, low slung fanjets and climbing up the stairway was far more dramatic than the comparatively sterile entrance via jetway that most airports provide today. Walk up close to any modern jetliner and it’s much easier to see it as the magnificent flying machine that it is. Look at that same jetliner from the gate lounge and it’s just an airplane.
By the time I was 12 years old I’d only flown fifteen times, but each and every one of those flights was indelibly etched into my memory. Six years of flying back and forth to school in New York and California along with miscellaneous summer excursions added another 82 flights and by the time I entered college I’d flown 102 flights on eleven airlines for a grand total of 74,530 miles.
Although I first listed my flights when was about 8 years old, I started my first proper flight log during a slow day in my 7th grade Latin class. With less than 20 flights to my credit at the time, my first log was a fairly simple document, listing flights by origin, destination, airline, aircraft type, mileage flown and length of flight. As the total number of flights increased, my log became more detailed. I began to calculate total flights, miles and hours flown per airline and per aircraft type as of each flight. I also started keeping track of aircraft registration numbers.
By the time I turned twenty-one I had well over 400 flights to my credit. I went down to an aircraft supply store in Denver and purchased a Senior Pilot Master Log. This log was designed for pilots rather than passengers but I was able to easily convert the various columns to my needs. With so many columns and way too much spare time on my hands, I began to calculate even more data per flight. Over the years I added such eclectic statistics as flights and miles per aircraft type by airline (i.e. while I may have flown upon 720 Boeing 727-200s, how many of those flights were upon Braniff 727-200s), how many flights per specific aircraft (i.e. how many flights upon Braniff 727-200 N408BN), how many times I’d flown a given route and the total unduplicated route mileage per airline and in total. Unduplicated route mileage represents the sum of each unique route flown. So as an example, even though I’ve flown the 1448 mile Anchorage to Seattle route over 200 times, my total unduplicated route mileage for that route is counted only once at 1,450 miles. At present, my total Unduplicated Route Mileage is over 800,000 miles, far more than the total combined route mileage of most any airline in the world.
Noting the registration numbers has occasionally revealed some fascinating aircraft histories as well. A good example of this would be Alaska’s 737-200 N745AS which was comprised of three different airplanes. The majority of the airplane was from an airframe delivered to Air Zaire, the right wing was from a Brittania Airways jet and the galley was from the Aloha Airlines plane that had the inflight peel back of fuselage skin due to corrosion from the salty air.
Now that I’ve logged over 4.6 million miles on nearly 5000 flights aboard 172 airlines, the statistics in my flight log have begun to take on a life of their own. There are many aircraft upon which I’ve flown multiple times, such as an Alaska 737-400 on which I’ve logged 28 flights or a British Airways 747-400 upon which I’ve flown 26,460 miles. There are at least twenty examples of aircraft that I’ve flown in the service of one airline and then flew again years later after they’d been sold to another airline. I even know the disposition of each aircraft I’ve flown. Many of them have been retired and scrapped, at least a couple of dozen have crashed in locations all over the world and many still soldier on as freighters. It’s always fun to see a Fed Ex DC-10 or most any UPS DC-8 and know that I spent some quality time in a comfortable seat aboard that very same aircraft only twenty or thirty years ago.
It is because of this type of record keeping that I’ve been able to be aware of and celebrate the following milestones:
My 1000th Flight: 1982 Honolulu to San Francisco in First Class aboard a Western Airlines DC-10.
My Millionth Mile: 1985 On my birthday aboard a United DC-10 flying Seattle to Denver. Once I knew I had a reasonable opportunity to log my one millionth mile on my birthday, I flew just enough flights in advance to make that happen. In First Class.
My 2000th Flight: 1991 Charlotte to Chicago in First Class aboard a United 737-300.
My 2 Millionth Mile: 1999 Seattle to Anchorage aboard an Alaska 737-400
My 5000th Hour: 2000 San Francisco to Seattle aboard a United 737-300.
My 100th Airline: 2001 New York LGA to Ft. Lauderdale aboard a Spirit DC-9-80
My 3000th Flight: 2003 London to San Francisco in First Class aboard a British Airways 747.
My 3 Millionth Mile: 2005 Caracas to Lima in Business Class aboard a LAN Chile 767-300.
My Millionth Mile in First Class: 1998 Chicago to San Francisco aboard a United A320
My Millionth Mile Aboard United Airlines: 1997 Denver to Portland in First Class on an A320
My 1000th Flight Aboard United: 1997 Anchorage to San Francisco in First Class aboard an A320
My 1000th 737 Flown: 2008 Seattle to Dallas aboard American 737-800
My 300,000th Mile Aboard an MD-80: 2008 Chicago to Seattle aboard American
My 4 Millionth Mile: 2011 Portland to Los Angeles in First Class aboard an Alaska Airlines 737-800
My Millionth Mile Aboard Alaska Airlines: 2013 Austin to Seattle in First Class on a 737-900
My 1500th 737 Flown: 2013 Istanbul to Kigali in Business Class aboard a Turkish 737-900
My 1.5 Millionth Mile flown aboard a 737 2014 Baltimore to Seattle
Coincidentally, my 1000th flight and one millionth mile aboard United both happened in the same week. I thought United’s Public Relations department might get a kick out of this, so I sent them copies of my flight log in advance (over 100 pages copied). They responded by throwing a little celebration for myself and all the other passengers onboard my Anchorage to San Francisco flight. At the gate were two big cakes and coffee followed by the presentation of a nice plaque commemorating the milestone and a leather United duffel bag. Afterwards, all of the United personnel came out on the ramp to wave goodbye to us. It was as much a thrill for all of the other passengers as it was for me.
My most recent travels had me visiting friends all over the U.S. as well as working to maintain elite status in my frequent flyer program. During that time I logged my 1000th flight aboard a 737, my 300,000th mile flown aboard an MD-80, my 750th flight aboard Alaska Airlines and my 100th flight on a 737-800.
I’ll log my 4000th flight next year. My 4 Millionth mile should happen in about 2010. One interesting milestone coming up will be having spent an entire year of my life aloft. That translates to 8,760 hours. At present I’ve logged 8,305 hours and I average about 325 hours per year aloft, so I should reach that level in 2010. (At present I've logged 10,868 hours aloft on 4890 flights)
So for those of you thinking of starting a flight log, I hope this has provided some incentive. And for those of you who’ve been faithfully logging for years, it’d be fun to hear of some of your stats as well.
Happy Contrails, Everyone!
RESOURCES
Flight Memory
An excellent place to log your commercial flight data online. Lots of stats and nice maps
openflights.com
Another popular place to log flight data online.
airfleets.net
Want to research that old DC-9-50 you just flew? All you need is an aircraft registration number. This site also provides MSN (Manufacturer’s Serial Number) and Line numbers
Bureau Of Transportation Statistics
Can’t find that N-Number from your flight? This site will do it for you, but you’ll have to wait until about three months after your flight for the data to be loaded. This only works on US airlines operating from US airports.
Flight Logs
For those of you who also like a hand written flight log, this store would be a good resource.
Last edited by Seat 2A; Oct 29, 2014 at 1:30 pm
Jan 3, 2009, 11:39 am
#2
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: Argentina
Posts: 40,210
I admire your discipline and dedication on keeping records and statistics of all your flights Seat 2A. ^
I wish I still had the enthusiasm for flying that I had many years ago but to be honest, there are not many flight experiences that get me too excited these days. Flying has become too much of a chore nowadays even flying in F.
Apart from visiting family I could quite easily accept not having to step on another plane in my life although I will no doubt have to.
I wish I still had the enthusiasm for flying that I had many years ago but to be honest, there are not many flight experiences that get me too excited these days. Flying has become too much of a chore nowadays even flying in F.
Apart from visiting family I could quite easily accept not having to step on another plane in my life although I will no doubt have to.
Jan 3, 2009, 12:12 pm
#4
Suspended
Join Date: Jan 2007
Posts: 1,423
One trouble I have is my scattered records. I have reasonably good records (with some minor guesses) from birth to flight #400. Then I have a whole bunch of tickets rubberbanded together (several bundles totalling 2 feet thick) These are in disarray. I then have good records from 2003-present. I may have 1000 flights bundles in that pile.
Even my good records are not 100% complete with N-numbers. I do have flight numbers for 99% of them and I have the general type of plane in 100% of them (I might have records of it being a 737-300 but not always down to the 737-3H4)
Even my good records are not 100% complete with N-numbers. I do have flight numbers for 99% of them and I have the general type of plane in 100% of them (I might have records of it being a 737-300 but not always down to the 737-3H4)
Jan 3, 2009, 4:40 pm
#8
Moderator, Hilton Honors
Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: on a short leash
Programs: some
Posts: 71,422
I can't believe I have more unduplicated route mileage than Seat2A, having recently past 900,000 unique miles. I'm not sure if I'll reach 1 million unique miles this year or not. Another recent milestone (passed on the same trip) was flying into my 200th airport.
One trivia I've been tracking for myself lately is which continent pairs I have flown between. I think there are 13 with commercial nonstop flights, of which I've now flown 11.
Jan 3, 2009, 5:44 pm
#9
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Original Poster
Join Date: Apr 2001
Location: East Ester, Alaska
Programs: Alaska Million Miler, United Million Miler, Wyndham Rewards Diamond, Choice Hotels Diamond
Posts: 12,148
Jan 3, 2009, 6:24 pm
#11
Join Date: Apr 2000
Location: Northwest NJ, USA
Programs: HHonors (Gold), One Pass (Peon)
Posts: 680
Seat 2A,
How do you get all of your miles? I have flown quite a bit in my carrer and have used a fair amount of miles of award flights, but have never been awarded additional miles for the award flights (on CO and UA).
In your records, do you have a % of paid flights vs award flights?
I am amazed by your trip reports. I would imagine that your tours are of the same caliber. We are planning a trip to AK in the next year or so. What are the chances of getting you as a guide - can we specifically request you?
Keep up the good work!
DD
How do you get all of your miles? I have flown quite a bit in my carrer and have used a fair amount of miles of award flights, but have never been awarded additional miles for the award flights (on CO and UA).
In your records, do you have a % of paid flights vs award flights?
I am amazed by your trip reports. I would imagine that your tours are of the same caliber. We are planning a trip to AK in the next year or so. What are the chances of getting you as a guide - can we specifically request you?
Keep up the good work!
DD
Jan 3, 2009, 8:31 pm
#12
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Sacramento
Programs: UA 2MM/GS; SPG Lifetime Plat; MHC Lifetime; Tar Heel forever; and I "Dig the Pig" at Piggly Wiggly
Posts: 12,152
Wow.....how many times over the years have I thought "I should start a log!" And I never did. 
My first flight was JFK-FRA on a LH Super-Connie. That I know because my Mother often told the story; I was only 4 months old.
I've flown about 175,000 miles on Concorde (43 segments JFK-LHR/CDG and a few Rio, Baharain, and Barbados. Flew one R/T on the TU-144 SST (I think the city to/from was Alma Ata?).
I have flown all varieties of Boeing, Airbii, and DC/MDs.....I think.
But I really wish that I had a journal, going all the way back to my childhood, in which I had recorded every flight. That would be awesome!
My first flight was JFK-FRA on a LH Super-Connie. That I know because my Mother often told the story; I was only 4 months old.
I've flown about 175,000 miles on Concorde (43 segments JFK-LHR/CDG and a few Rio, Baharain, and Barbados. Flew one R/T on the TU-144 SST (I think the city to/from was Alma Ata?).
I have flown all varieties of Boeing, Airbii, and DC/MDs.....I think.
But I really wish that I had a journal, going all the way back to my childhood, in which I had recorded every flight. That would be awesome!
Jan 4, 2009, 9:51 am
#13
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Original Poster
Join Date: Apr 2001
Location: East Ester, Alaska
Programs: Alaska Million Miler, United Million Miler, Wyndham Rewards Diamond, Choice Hotels Diamond
Posts: 12,148
Seat 2A,
How do you get all of your miles? I have flown quite a bit in my career and have used a fair amount of miles of award flights, but have never been awarded additional miles for the award flights (on CO and UA).
In your records, do you have a % of paid flights vs award flights?
I am amazed by your trip reports. I would imagine that your tours are of the same caliber. We are planning a trip to AK in the next year or so. What are the chances of getting you as a guide - can we specifically request you?
How do you get all of your miles? I have flown quite a bit in my career and have used a fair amount of miles of award flights, but have never been awarded additional miles for the award flights (on CO and UA).
In your records, do you have a % of paid flights vs award flights?
I am amazed by your trip reports. I would imagine that your tours are of the same caliber. We are planning a trip to AK in the next year or so. What are the chances of getting you as a guide - can we specifically request you?
Although I keep a record of how much I pay for my flights both individually and in total, I've yet to calculate what percentage are "free" vs. revenue. Might be interesting to check that out sometime.
As for Alaska, it'd be great to see you up there someday! However, the chances of requesting an individal driver as a guide are not good due to multiple bid periods throughout the season with varying days off and times of runs. Reservations has no more idea who'll be driving any given bus than operations if you're booking a couple of weeks out, and if you attempt to book any earlier than that you risk not finding a seat(s) during the peak summer periods. Do drop me a line if you're coming up though.
One other thing I note in my personal handwritten log (once again, a classic case of waaaay too much time on my hands) is meals, including First Class vs. Coach totals. It's kind of a moot entry for US domestic travel these days but was fun back in the day when you could get a full hot dinner on a one hour SLC-DEN flight.
kevinsac, you would have an awesome flight log! How's your memory? You could always log what you can remember. I suspect in the interim some of the missing flights might then start to fall into place.
Jan 5, 2009, 8:14 pm
#14
Join Date: Apr 2000
Location: Northwest NJ, USA
Programs: HHonors (Gold), One Pass (Peon)
Posts: 680
Seat 2A,
I just finished reading your "airline promotions", and I know that I could not do it! I assume you are not married (or were not married at the time), as Mrs. DoggyDaddy would never put up with this lifestyle. You have to be really dedicated to do what you do. However, there are rewards - I remember reading your Trip Report about flying around the world in First Class!
You mentioned in the above report that you were thinking about building a house. I assume it would be in the Fairbanks area. Have you done it? I have been to the Fairbanks area a few times (on my way to Fort Greely), and the area is beautiful, although the road conditions in winter leave a bit to be desired.
If we do get up to the area for a tour, I will write you - maybe we can hook up to trade stories, although I am sure your tales will be far superior to mine.
Keep up the good work!
DD
I just finished reading your "airline promotions", and I know that I could not do it! I assume you are not married (or were not married at the time), as Mrs. DoggyDaddy would never put up with this lifestyle. You have to be really dedicated to do what you do. However, there are rewards - I remember reading your Trip Report about flying around the world in First Class!
You mentioned in the above report that you were thinking about building a house. I assume it would be in the Fairbanks area. Have you done it? I have been to the Fairbanks area a few times (on my way to Fort Greely), and the area is beautiful, although the road conditions in winter leave a bit to be desired.
If we do get up to the area for a tour, I will write you - maybe we can hook up to trade stories, although I am sure your tales will be far superior to mine.
Keep up the good work!
DD