Punki

Hunki woke me up yesterday with the news that in 2012 they were going to start dismantling the viaduct (our route to work) in Seattle, and that once that started he wasn't going to go to work any more. I can see his point. They closed it following our last serious earthquake, 2/28/01, and I must admit that trying to get to work was a 1.5 hour nightmare through the city, rather than our normal, amazingly beautiful, 10 minute drive down the viaduct.

We then proceeded to talk about how much more travel we could enjoy if we weren't working. We have already traveled over 125,000 miles a year for the past ten years so I am wondering just how much more travel we would really be doing.

So, from those of you who are alrady enjoying the big "R", do you really travel more? Take longer trips? Advice?

Rudi

So, from those of you who are alrady enjoying the bib "R", do you really travel more? Take longer trips?

not more, but longer trips yes (2 weeks Australian Tennis Open instead of just the second/final week - 2 weeks Olympia in Beijing - 10 days in Shanghai for the tennis Masters - a whole week @ Whistler skiing instead of just a long weekend, etc. etc.).

and last but not least: 60 days of skiing in total this winter season (before that it was < 30 days/season) profiting to the max from our home-away-from-home Wengen place.

and while before trips/flights had to be on specific days now I profit from my flexibility (and wait and search until I can get that longhaul award flight in first-class!)

I love it.

Rudi

in 2012 they were going to start dismantling the viaduct (our route to work) in Seattle, and that once that started he wasn't going to go to work any more.

Isn't that viaduct also your way to the SEA-TAC airport?

Punki

Yes, the road dubbed in 1998 by Quiet Lion as the Secret Freeway.

tom911

I was fortunate, when I did work, to bank my overtime and holidays and have 12-14 weeks off a year, so I was a pretty heavy traveler even before retirement. The downside of that was I had to break it up into two blocks of time and not spread it out over the entire year. Retirement lets me spread my travel over the entire 12 months.

One thing I have found is the flexibility to do more mileage runs when cheap fares do appear, as I use the miles from those for more expensive trips. In the last week I've been to both San Juan and Jacksonville, and one more to San Juan this week. With the double status miles promo, I'll requalify for EXP this coming week.

Upcoming trips, all using miles, include 16 days around Asia/Australia on a One World award in business (1-4 nights in HKG, SIN, SYD, HBA, BNE, YVR), 10 days at Olympic Trials (Swimming) in Omaha in June/July, and another 10 at the Olympics in Beijing in August (also in business), with stopovers in HNL and KIX along the way. I did have award travel to London planned for late April (40K off peak--one of AA's best values) but had to cancel that due to a family issue.

I find that my trips are shorter now (two weeks or less) compared to some 3-4 week trips I did before. I attribute this to having more available travel time over the year.

One thing that has worked against me is the weak dollar, as I have historically spent 6-8 weeks a year in Europe. This year I've only spent 5 nights in Frankfurt. When we get further into summer I'll likely book some more award travel to DC/NY and Asia for later in the year.

Cholula

Having opted for a planned early retirement nearly 3 years ago, I find myself traveling considerably less while Mrs. Cholula travels considerably more. And we both travel together so go figure.

But it's all a matter of perspective. She had a non-travel job and mine required extensive travel.

My day job over the last 30 + years with various companies required extensive national and international travel. I'm guess I've racked nearly 4 million BIS miles over the years. I say "guess" as my heaviest travel period was in the 70's and early 80's prior to FF programs. Since the FF programs began I've racked up millions more but a lot of them are bonus miles and the like.

And I estimate I spent nearly 4K room nights in hotels over my career.

So I've found, in retirement, that I actually like to stay home and enjoy the so-called "normal" life I never knew.

We've budgeted for extensive travel and I'm lifetime top tier in a couple programs but we find that we don't have the desire to hit the road 24/7/365. We take fewer trips than planned but the ones we take are top drawer. First class airfare, 4 and 5 star hotels and gourmet meals when and where possible.

So we're traveling less than planned (by design) but enjoying it more.

toadman

I'm not retired or any where near it but all the people I know that are retired take about the same number of trips but instead of the week or two week trip they are gone for 3 weeks, 4 weeks, even 5 weeks. They occassionaly do the short notice 5 day or 1 week trip when a cheap bargain last minute fare comes up too.

Karen2

We are traveling more, though some of it is Mileage Runs. Mr Karen2 flew on business around 100K mi/yr, mostly on United. Now we almost always stick with United. I nearly dropped them this year over its very restrictive open jaw policy (think about it, Punki, when you go on all the free/cheap cruises). There is a One World award that is perfect for open jaws but nothing good with United. We find we cruise a lot more and this year, went on a 25 day one. That was very hard to do when we were working. We also had my dad to look after until last year so could not go on long trips. This next month we will be almost constantly in the air over the United DEQM promo, something we could not have done while working. And, we were able to do the runs on cheap fares - I liked that a lot!

With the boomers coming along, I would really like to see the airlines consider the traveling needs of seniors when it makes up its policies. Cruising is a perfect example of vacationing for seniors (certainly not exclusively). It makes me crazy when United sells an illegal open jaw through the cruise company but not to me directly. It was the only airline wanting double for the fare if an individual bought it. Does the airline not value my business? Glenn needs a lot more letters from seniors...Alaska Airlines sells one way award tickets for half the price of a round trip. Now that is fair.

I hate the fact that Hilton dropped Senior HHonors. Their reason was that not many seniors bought it. Two factors kept seniors away: yearly fee and hardly any hotels offered Senior HHonors rates. Well, duh. No wonder not many signed up. For us, it was worth the yearly fee (about $75) just to be a Gold for 8 stays. Obviously, not everyone thought so. A good Senior hotel program might actually lure me from Priceline. The rest of the chains offer lower rates but no special consideration for achieving status. When my husband stopped staying at Marriott on business, they dropped him like a rock.

Maybe we could collectively put together a list of reasonable requirements for senior travel and submit them through Randy for consideration. You would think it would be in the best interests of the airlines and hotels to court seniors. We are the richest bunch to come along and not afraid to spend money. Wisely. Hmmm. Well, sort of wisely...

magic111

Went to the Greek Isles for almost a month last year. This was also in addition to my b'day trip which was almost 3 weeks long and included Hawaii, Santiago, Easter Island, Toulouse, and Budapest.

Although I still take short trips taking the longer excursion happens more often. This summer I'll travel from July 6-25 and never leave the states.

Last year I probably spent at least a hundred nights away from home. So yes my experience is that I travel more.

See my profile to the right. YMMV

Punki

I am soooooooooo jealous, tom911, Cholula, Karen2, magic111, and, of course, Rudi.

We are still traveling over 130,000 miles per year, plus three or four little cruises and once ski trip to Whistler every year, but are still packing our trips into long weekends. For instance we leave for Tasmania Wednesday night and will be back inour office next Tuesday afternoon. That is crazy whirlwind travel for old people like us.

Our target retirement date was June, 2010, but this lousy economy has us rethinking that plan.

Rudi

I am glad that you 'will now give up' earlier - and Joe can ski with me the whole winter 2008/09 ^

Jailer

Maybe you best rethink that based on this exerpt from a research study that suggests the earlier you retire, the longer you live:

2. Longevity Vs. Retirement Age
The pension funds in many large corporations (e.g., Boeing, Lockheed Martin, AT&T, Lucent Technologies, etc.) have been “Over Funded” because many “late retirees” who keep-on working into their old age and retire late after the age of 65 tend to die within two years after their retirements. In other words, many of these late retirees do not live long enough to collect all their fair shares of pension money such that they leave a lot of extra-unused money in the pension funds resulting in the over-funded pension funds.
Dr. Ephrem (Siao Chung) Cheng provided the important results in the following Table 1 and the associated chart from an actuarial study of life span vs. age at retirement. The study was based on the number of pension checks sent to retirees of Boeing Aerospace.

Table 1 – Actuarial Study of life span vs. age at retirement.
Age at
Retirement
Average Age
At Death
49.9
86
51.2
85.3
52.5
84.6
53.8
83.9
55.1
83.2
56.4
82.5
57.2
81.4
58.3
80
59.2
78.5
60.1
76.8
61
74.5
62.1
71.8
63.1
69.3
64.1
67.9
65.2
66.8


I suspect that the formatting won't allign, so the first number in the set is the age of retirement, the second is age of death. So, if you retire at 65.2 you die at 66.8; if you retire at 49.9 you make it to 86, per the table. I'm not sure that this study isn't flawed, for a number of reasons, including bias that the type of person who retires at 49 may be significantly different that the kind of person that retires at 65. Yet, food for thought.

Punki

Whew. It sure is a good thing that Hunki didn't retire at 65. If he had, he would already be dead.

Maybe we should hold out and not retire until we are 82. I have it on good authority that no one who retires at 82 has ever died before they were 82.

lili

Recently retired at 67, after dealing for years with the constriction of 4 weeks vacation per year and would you mind taking them no more than one week at a time, I thought retirement would be FANTASTIC.

So far it isn't. I've added a few days here and there to pre-planned trips, but then sort of fumble about what to do. The issue is the fabulous Mr.lili really doesn't like to travel and after about 4-5 days I start feeling disconnected after speaking to no one but tour guides and bus drivers.

Mr.lili has agreed to go to OzFest 5 (or 6, whatever) in 2009 because I really need somebody to be with for a week or so in NZ or other areas of OZ. (His other choice was a 7-day cruise around New England on Holland that very dear old friends are still trying to sign us up for. Isn't Boston to Montreal about a 5 hour drive? And hasn't he already run three Boston Marathons and seen most of New England?) We both know I would jump overboard on day two, and I'm not sure he would still be onboard long enough to notice I'd done myself in. And it's more or less $10,000 for the two of us )

So, old friends, what do you suggest for NZ pre/post Ozfest? Seriously, we could be gone for a month, or more, but I'm thinking 7-10 days. His running friends have told he must go and he must go to Lizard Island. $1500 a night!! And no points!! Not happening.

birdstrike

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