Just enough time before I head to the gate to close out this trip. The flight to Newcastle has been reported so many times that unless something noteworthy happens you can consider it as inoffensive as always
Firstly, a sincere thank you to everyone that contributed along the way. I love the interactions and it’s always great to wake up to a load of overnight banter.
Some final scores on the doors:Total trip time: almost exactly 400 hours
Total time spent in airports and in the air: almost exactly 100 hours
Total distance travelled according to circle mapper 40,175 km which is slightly over the circumference of the Earth
Favourite long-haul airline: Singapore airlines
Favourite Short-haul airline: Air Bulgaria!
Favourite crew: Air New Zealand
Favourite Hotel: although the intercontinental was far away the best hotel my favourite was actually Amadea, despite only having the most basic of rooms. The staff and the vibe were lovely.
Favourite airport lounge: has to be the Concorde room, I will definitely miss it after April.
Highlight of the trip: Hobbiton
Least favourite long-haul airline: Air New Zealand. Fantastic crew, but that new seat layout just needs to be trashed.
Least favourite Short-haul airline: no surprise at all, British Airways
Least favourite crew: Turkish Airlines SIN-IST by far
Least favourite Hotel: that award obviously goes to Hotel Niky
Least favourite lounge: probably the Aspire lounge at Newcastle because familiarity breeds contempt?
Lowlight of the trip: Ignoring the various maladies, that Singapore food tour because the spiel set high expectations.
Items packed and not used: only one, a pair of sandals as it was never dry enough to wear them.
Items I should’ve packed more of: instant coffee sachets!
Biggest Irritation: Flyertalk, Cloudflare, and Holafly. Cloudflare hated Holafly eSIM and re-authenticated every second post. Back to Airalo next time.
Sleep debt and jet lag - immeasurable!
With so many moving parts, I think this trip has hung together amazingly well. There’s been a few little bumps along the road but overall it’s been remarkably smooth. If I was to change one thing, I think it would be the return legs being much quicker and taking the pain. Over two full days to get from Istanbul to Newcastle is too long. It worked out this way because I was booking a redemption and that was the availability, I should’ve simply paid for the most efficient flight back.