It is so nice to read all reports, big and small!

For a few years I haven't even had the energy to sumarize the flightyear myself. First the rise of a coronavirus, then the rise of mordor.
Demotion to Gold, after the destruction of Finnair plus was just the final nail - it was time to realise the flying era was over and the 15 platinum card was an collection of antiques.

If the change early 2020 into zero flying was abrupt, the recovery was stealthy to me. First not a single flight in 17 months, and then just some scattered shorthauls. My abscense from longhauling was a whopping 34 months.

So forgive me for thinking I had nothing to report.

When in fact, 2024 was a record year.

Segments: 94
Kms flown: 171 617
Longest: SIN-CPH 9 967 km
Shortest: CAN-HKG 135 km


Distance travelled is all time second best year, only surpassed by 2017 (178 479 km). By segments it is best year no doubt. Putting even 2017 to shame with its meagre 66 segments.

But a very different year for me.
First the shameful admittance that premium cabins are not as dominating as they used to be.
Share of premium cabins
55,7% by distance
25,5% by segment
(normally ≈85% and ≈50% respectively)

This of course comes from a changed flying pattern, with more shorthauling and a great deal of it in SAS plus.

Another anomaly is seen on the map - almost a balance between going westwards and eastwards. That's a pretty big change for me!



One anomaly that isn't visible is how much more redemptions I've done. Maybe more than any other year, while at the same time Finnair vouchers expired unused.


First times
Airlines: VN, DL, MS, SN
Airlines, First time in J: LX, UA
Airports: CAI, SGN, PQC, PDX, SFO, LAX, ATL, GVA, GDN
Airplane: A220 (I almost forgot about this, been interested to fly A220 for a long time, always thought it would be on BT but LX won)



Match Miles&More
I did the SEN challenge with intention to actually retain SEN for some years to come, if I get a chance to do some trips to AY, Japan, Korea and such. At this point, well, let's see how that turns out.

I'm not at all impressed with LH-gruop on-time performance, check-in, boarding, app performance or CS. At least in my case they have not used the challenge period to show off anything special (but I hear others have had upgrades thrown at them right and left)
When their tech wouldn't allow me to chose seat, at least SEN line helped me get the wanted seats. In the end, the LH group airline didn't honour that. This poor user experience has been significant though my short SEN-hood.
The LH-app tells more fables than chat-gpt.
I've booked tickets on LH site, logged in and had the site pre-fill my SEN number, only to be told the number isn't correct.
SN overbooked a flight, upgraded me to business but offered economy service (being ignored by purser and having staff from economy cabin (!) specifically attending only me).
Adding the SEN number to a booking in the app won't take, and only at the airport are they able to force the system to get priority and lounge on BP. And so on.

I've had only one impressive flight, and that was after buying an upgrade on shorthaul Swiss. My 70€ bid was accepted on GVA-CPH and while food wasn't impressive (a sallad) the service was and mini-me got great attention. The young male FA tried to speak Swedish to our amusement, and mini-me paid back by speaking what she believes is French. Good flight!


Sorry for this post getting even longer, but this section turned into several mini-tripreports.

Highlights

Singapore Airlines
I was able to redeem 2 tickets in business on SQ, CPH-MAN-SIN-MEL-SIN-CPH. And do it over Christmas. Not just a killer redemption, but also yielding 1 month of quality time teaching mini-me how to live life like an Aussie.
Flights were good (not stellar) but mini-me received great attention on all. On one segment she was adopted by crew and spend most of the time in the galley training for FA.

Cost: 275k miles and 250€ for 2 pax. At this time, no way to redeem any such ticket with FInnair plus points. Finnair offered revenue tickets for around 10 000€ each (LOL) and then half of the trip would be on fancy jetstar. Never have I felt more validated for dropping Finnair plus.


United Airlines
I had to go to the US and a friend holds the UA super-tier Global Services. With highest priority on upgrades and such, it seemed a combination for the win. He added me to the upgrade list on an award booking. The red-eye return to Europe quickly cleared but as days passed we saw the open seats on the outbound flight slowly dwindle. Still, a lot of unsold seats and I'm no.1 on waitlist. Plus the history of "GS on waitlist always clear" made us confident. Departure neared but still no upgrade. Tried to force an upgrade (a GS perk handled via CS) but it was only allowed when the GS is in the travel party. Still convinced it would clear at time of boarding (US-style) but the connecting LH flight was delayed and when I arrived at the gate, J cabin was filled.
So I slummed it out, 12 hours in 58Ö. It was survivable, and like mentioned in another thread, I was served just as much food as I would have been served in Finnair business..
Surprised with language skills too. Several FAs in economy spoke excellent German and remembered which customer preferred it.
Going to NA via Germany is of course not a winner in total flight time, but value for money was unbeatable!

The return LAX-LHR in Polaris was really neat. Good food/drinks. Ice cream excellent (neither SKs "plate an isicle" nor AY's "rockhard Jymy you need a jackhammer to eat" doesn't compare very well...)
A friendly, caring and easy going male FA made flight enjoyable. Made an effort to say my name right and decided to show off some Swedish too. Turned out he had toured the nordics on a motorbike one summer.
He had started his flying career with PanAm and still looked younger than me, d*nm it!


US domestic First
I had a short hop in US and couldn't find a reasonable redemption. Revenue econ was cheap, but not enticing.
Ended up with Delta F on a 2:10 hop. I had some business to tend to and wasn't sure which departure I would make. The F-fare included same day change and full refund and (by some luck) I timed a dip in prices and got an undesirable departure at a price ≈2,5x base economy. Without cash refundability it was ≈2x - this is also an interesting realisation. A lot of fares are refundable to credit certificate, not like Europe where you now basically need up into full flex fares to have refundability.

Business was done quickly and I swapped departure and got the last F seat. So i was on the popular departure that sold at very high prices.

Stupid me went to the lounge and was met with
- Sir, do you have your Amex Platinum with you?

Of course I knew in the back of my mind how lounges work on domestic US routes, but force of habit made me assume a premium ticket would include lounge. After this walk of shame, eating a 13$ burger, and waiting for the laughably long list of people who are allowed to board before group 1, I was in row 1.

Kind of fun how concepts are so opposite. In Euro-business there would be lounge before departure and food onboard. But service sometimes economy-ish with seating 3+3 and blocked middle seat at best.
Here a separate cabin with 2+2 and a dedicated FA, but no lounge and only snack-service on "shorter" routes. Now, I would have liked a combination of the two. But the dedicated FA was really nice, attentive and easy-going. I sometimes describe Finnair service like being invited to your girlfriends mum. There might be 35 years between you but you'll get fed and taken care of in a mum-ish way.
This flight was like being at a bro's house. I enjoyed every minute of the flight and neither noticed time nor how drunk I had gotten until getting off it.

Egypt Air
I had to do a complicated run to CAN. It had to be completed in one weekend, ie no infringement on company time. To be in shape for work it had to be in business. On the booking, 2 people to CAN, only me for the return. No visa for me, so it had to be designed with 24h TWOV rules in mind.
With these limitations it had be to as straight and quick as possible into CAN, at least 8h but less than 24h stop, then via a third country before returning to CPH before monday morning 8 am.

Not that many airlines fly from 'here' to CAN, and choices were between TK, QR and MS. TK had too long stops in IST. QR would be possible to route inbound to CAN and outbound from HKG, but offered only very short stop in CAN. I ended up redeeming 2 pax business on MS CPH-CAI-CAN friday afternoon and return 1 pax economy on CX/AY CAN-HKG-HEL-CPH.

Finnair prices were "ohemula" (yes, that is a real word meaning ≈ "unchecked", dating back to at least 1587 and thanks to Tove Janson and character 'Hemuli' it still thrives). 1100€ for a oneway econ, compared to the sub 1000€ a return MS in business was going for.

Anyway, MS and CAI was a first and an experience. Pretty chaotic on the ground, quite OK in the air.
Another interesting angle is that once again redeeming using miles was way easier than anytime I've battled using finnair plus points lat few years.

Vietnam Airlines
The only acceptable fare on Finnair for me this year was BMA-SIN in econ light with U availability. Told cistavoda about it, and suddenly there was an entourage of Finns! Loved it!
But of course I had to do a sidetrip. SIN-SGN-PQC r/t and I loved this too. VN was a mixed bag, service onboad in Y was not bad at all. Ground was so-so and tech was sub-par. Was unable to get Skyteam status onto BP at any point during the trip. Got into lounge by using another card. At one point I spent a long time trying to get a check-in agent to make sure the FF# was entered correctly and when she realise I wasn't budging she said I needed to contact sales. Went across the hall and found sales, who took my papers, walked me back to check-in and told them it's there job. 5 seconds later I have a BP. 2 minutes later, in priority line for security check it doens't work. I gave up.
I did however loved being in Vietnam and hope to fly them longhaul business there sometime.