As I predicted
last year, I had a substantial drop off in travel this year. My BIS miles were my lowest since 2011, so here's hoping for a better travel year in 2018.
Miles flown 49945
Flights 43
Longest flight NH LAX - HND, 5475 miles
Shortest flight AS YVR - SEA, 127 miles
New Cities/Towns Egmont (CDN-BC), Langdale (CDN-BC), Madeira Park (CDN-BC), Hakodate (JP), Iriomote (JP), Yokohama (JP), Hialeah (USA-FL), Miramar (USA-FL), Reno (USA-NV), Pittsburgh (USA-PA)
New countries 0
Airports visited 22
New airports visited 5 (HKD, IND, ISG, PIT, RNO)
Airlines flown 9
New airlines flown 1 (HD - AirDo)
New flight experience AA CR9 F, DL 717 F, HD 763 Y
Best flight experience HD 763 Y (Most empty flight in ages, boarded about ten minutes before door closed and the airline itself featured very cute branding)
Best lounge visited The new SkyClub at ATL. Wow.
Enjoyed
- Taking the Amtrak Coast Starlight from Portland to Los Angeles in a Superliner Roomette w/the GF. It's something I've wanted to do for years and years and it was fun to watch the scenery while drinking from the little private bar we set up in our room. The only downside was the dining situation in which we had to sit with other couples. Two of the meals feature especially bizarre conversation and of course, the food was pretty poor in general.
- Checked another Major League Baseball park off my list, PNC Park in Pittsburgh.
- Exploring a tiny bit of the Sunshine Coast, where we rented a lovely home in Madeira Park. The highlight of the trip was swimming at Ruby Lake, which the six year old loved to bits. The views during the ferry rides from Horseshoe Bay to Langdale vv were spectacular.
- Checked another Nippon Professional Baseball park off my list, the Sapporo Dome. Sadly, Shohei Ohtani did not play in the game we went to.
- Consuming so many grilled skewers of meat and kaku highballs in Sapporo, Hakodate and Tokyo.
- Iriomote, while slightly difficult to get to, was completely different than the Japan I have visited many times. It was awe inspiring to see so many stars so clearly at night. In addition, I enjoyed my first snorkelling experience, despite the scar on my right calf that I now have.
- Heading into New York City on two separate nights during a work trip to Long Island. It felt like my first actual New York City visit.
Didn't enjoy
- The approach into RNO both times I flew PDX - RNO featured some of the worst turbulence I have encountered in years. I actually could hear screams from someone a few rows back.
- Aforementioned awkward dining arrangements on Amtrak
- Terrible traffic between Vancouver and Horseshoe Bay, which would've caused us to miss out flight except...
- I guess I should mention the fact that our QX YVR - PDX flight was cancelled, morphing into a YVR - SEA - PDX flight the next day. We got to set our alarms for 3:45am... oh joy.