2009: Your Travel Year in Review

[wenkroy2]

Total miles flown 34,860

Total segments 11

F 1
J 5
Y 5

Domestic 3
International 8

Airlines

AC 3
BA 4
CX 4

[gardkarlsen]

Hi

Happy New Year to everyone. Hope that you all had a great new year celebration. It has been a pretty exciting year for me as I have got to visit new places and I have also revisited places that I have been to before. It has also been an exciting year when it comes to just the flying bit - in total I had almost 50 flights and in total it was over 100.000 km (or 155 hours in the air).

I stopped by Amsterdam in March and I have been there on vacation before. But I have to admit that I had totally forgotten how charming this town really is. This time I did not get to see and do anything more or less but I have been tempted to re-visit this city on vacation in the future.

In April it was time for a brand new experience - a trip with the relative new Airbus A380. Yes, this is the plane with two floors and I had the pleasure of flying it from London to Dubai on Emirates Airlines. I have posted pictures and videos of the flight experience on http://gardkarlsen.com/blog/?p=31 . On this trip we ended up in Ho Chi Minh City (Vietnam) (see trip report on http://gardkarlsen.com/Ho_Chi_Minh_C...rip_report.htm ) and Siem Reap / Phnom Penh in Cambodia (see trip report on http://gardkarlsen.com/Angkor_Wat_Ca...rip_report.htm ). Both Vietnam and Cambodia was countries that we had not been to before and it was great to experience a new culture, new food, new people. I would love to go back to Vietnam to explore more of the country in the future.

Due to a great offer from Lufthansa we ended up going to Dubai in May. Dubai can offer shopping, insane building projects and beaches but I'm stuck with mixed feelings after the visit. There are many other places that are more fun to visit in my opinion. Anyway - here is my trip report http://gardkarlsen.com/Dubai_UAE_trip_report.htm

In September I spent a long weekend in London and I have been there several times before. During visit in the past I have not had any great feelings towards the city but maybe I have changed because this time I was stuck with a WOW feeling when I went home. It is an amazing place when it comes to sightseeing, food, shopping, history etc. I have posted some info in the blog on http://gardkarlsen.com/blog/?tag=london-2009 and I'm also working on a trip report.

In September I spent a few frequent flyer points to fly on First Class to Hong Kong with Lufthansa and back again on First Class with Thai. It was a brand new experience for me and I wish that I could travel like that every time The service was incredible both at the airports and in the air. I have posted photos and videos on http://gardkarlsen.com/blog/?tag=fir...xperience-2009 . Feel free to visit the link and find out what life on first class is like

And to round the year of we took a trip to Thailand and Phuket. We have also been there before but we were tempted to re-visit as SAS had a good offer. We had a nice hotel on Kata beach but there is no doubt that Phuket is really busy with tourists. And you know that when you get the menu in both English and Swedish, there must be many Scandinavians in the area. I have posted some thoughts about Thailand on http://gardkarlsen.com/blog/?tag=thailand

That is a short summary of my year ;-)

[Savage25]

Flight miles: 80,110 mi
Flight segments: 40
Average Flight: 2,003 mi, 4:06 h

Longest Flight: 7,318 mi, 13:35 h, DEL-EWR CO
Shortest Flight: 150 mi, 0:46 h, LHR-MAN BD

Segments by class of service:
Y: 10
C: 21
F: 9

Segments by carrier:
IT: 11
AF: 4
AY: 4
BD: 4
BA: 3
CO: 2
CX: 2
FR: 2
LX: 2
NW: 2
TK: 2
SQ: 1
TG: 1

Total number of airports: 19 (*4 new)
BKK BOM CAI* CDG DEL EIN* DTW EWR GOI HEL* HKG IAD IST* LCY LHR MAN SIN STN ZRH

Total aircraft types: 14 (*2 new)
146 319 320 321 332 333 343 738 744 772 77W DC9 E70* Q200*

Hotels stayed in: 23
AMS: NH Carlton Amsterdam
BHX: Holiday Inn Birmingham Castle Bromwich, Holiday Inn Express Walsall
BKK: InterContinental Bangkok
BOM: InterContinental Lalit
CAI: InterContinental Semiramis
Cardiff: Best Western New House Country Hotel
DEL: InterContinental Nehru Place, Crowne Plaza Gurgaon, Ginger Hotel New Delhi
HKG: InterContinental Grand Stanford
LHR: Hilton Heathrow, Yotel Heathrow
LON: InterContinental London Park Lane, Crowne Plaza Docklands, Holiday Inn Express Docklands, Holiday Inn Mayfair
Ludhiana: Nagpal Regency
MAN: The Atrium, Holiday Inn Manchester West
Nottingham: Holiday Inn Express Nottingham City Centre
PHL: Embassy Suites Philadelphia Center City
SIN: InterContinental Singapore
Utrecht: Hotel Mitland

Lived in:
London (Jan-Apr)
Manchester (Apr-Dec)

Highlights:
Kingfisher First flights between LHR and BOM - fantastic crew.
Surprisingly decent train rides on Indian Railways between Delhi and Ludhiana.
Avis Chairmans Club upgrades.
Passed my UK driving test in a manual on my first try

[jspira]

2009 was a relatively light year for me in terms of trips and flying.

It started off - quite literally - on a high note with the Neujahrskonzert (New Year's Concert) of the Wiener Philharmoniker (Vienna Philharmonic) on the first of the year at the renowned Musikverein in Vienna.

In late January, I made my annual pilgrimage to IBM's Lotusphere, a large (ca. 10,000) gathering of knowledge workers interested in collaboration and knowledge sharing solutions in Orlando, Florida.

In February, it was off to London.

In April, it was off to San Francisco for some meetings, followed by a pleasant drive down to Los Angeles in an M3 for the launch of BMW's new Z4 Roadster.

September saw a return to Austria to spend time in Austrian Wine Country, visiting several dozen vineyards and having the opportunity to learn about wine-making.

During this trip I had the opportunity to try a number of good restaurants in Vienna I hadn't yet been to.

October saw a return to San Francisco for meetings.

And finally, at the end of the year it was off to Munich to take delivery of a new BMW 335d at the BMW Welt as the last European Delivery of 2009.

On this most recent trip, I drove from Munich to Lindau, then to Berchtesgaden, then Roßfeld, then to Graz, and then back to Munich.

[skywalkerbeth]

Feb - London
May - visited family in PA
May/June - France
July - visited second home in SC
July - France
August - visited family in PA
September - visited second home in SC
October - London
November - Belgium

Hey Jonathan! Didn't know you were here too, but it makes sense! Another Bimmerfester here...

[jspira]

Originally Posted by skywalkerbeth

Feb - London
May - visited family in PA
May/June - France
July - visited second home in SC
July - France
August - visited family in PA
September - visited second home in SC
October - London
November - Belgium

Hey Jonathan! Didn't know you were here too, but it makes sense! Another Bimmerfester here...

I was just reading your post and saying to myself, I knew about several of those trips...

[PresRDC]

January

SJU-MIA American Airlines A300 J Class (last AA A300 flight)
MIA-JFK American Airlines 767-200ER F Class
JFK-NRT Japan Airlines 777-300ER J Class
NRT-SIN Japan Airlines 777-200ER J Class
SIN-HKG Cathay Pacific A340-300 F Class (last flight on old CX F class)
HKG-SIN Cathay Pacific 777-300ER F Class
SIN-NRT Japan Airlines 747-400 J Class
NRT-JFK Japan Airlines 777-300ER J Class

February

None

March

JFK-LHR American Airlines 777-200ER J Class
LHR-CPT British Airways 747-400 F Class
JNB-MUB Air Quarius F-28 Y Class (operated on behalf of Air Botswana)
Various Light Safari Aircraft Between Safari Lodges
MUB-JNB Air Quarius F-28 Y Class (operated on behalf of Air Botswana)
JNB-MRU Air Mauritius A320 J Class
MRU-JNB British Airways (operatedby Comair) 737-300 J Class
JNB-LHR British Airways 747-400 F Class
LHR-JFK American Airlines 777-200ER J Class

April

None

May

None

June

None

July

None

August

None

September

LGA-ORD American Airlines MD80 F Class
ORD-PVG American Airlines 777-200ER F Class
PVG-HKG Cathay Pacific A330 J Class
HKG-NRT Cathay Pacific A330 J Class
NRT-DFW American Airlines 777-200ER F Class
DFW-BDL American Airlines 737-800 F Class

October

BDL-DFW American Airlines 737-800 F Class
DFW-EZE American Airlines 777-200ER J Class
EZE-DFW American Airlines 777-200ER J Class
DFW-BDL American Airlines 737-800 F Class

November

JFK-SFO American Airlines 767-200ER J Class
SFO-JFK American Airlines 767-200ER J Class
JFK-LAX American Airlines 767-200ER F Class
LAX-NRT American Airlines 777-200ER F Class

December

NRT-NGO Japan Airlines 777-300ER Y Class (one class flight, seated in new F Suite)
NRT-LAX American Airlines 777-200ER F Class
LAX-JFK American Airlines 767-200ER F Class
BDL-SJU American Airlines 737-800 J Class
SJU-STT-VIJ Air Sunshine Cessna 401C Y Class
VIJ-SJU Air Sunshine Cessna 401C Y Class
SJU-BDL American Airlines 737-800 J Class