mad_atta

A record year for me, eclipsing my previous best by just over 10,000 miles.

Total distance flown: 94,071 miles = 51,053 in J | 30,002 in PE | 13,016 in Y
Airports: 32, including 10 new: LBJ, CGK, SOQ, TTT, MCT, VCE, LIN, LIS, OPO, PSP
Carriers: 18, including 5 new: Batik Air (ID), Mandarin Airlines (AE), Cathay Pacific (CX), OmanAir (WY), TAP Air Portugal (TP)
Countries: 16, including 3 new: Slovenia, Malta, Portugal
Aircraft types: 18, including 2 new: A359, Bombardier CS100 (now Airbus 220-100)

Flights
Quantity: 50
Longest flight: SYD↔LAX, 7490 mi, 14:55
Shortest flight: BHE↔WLG, 50 mi, 00:30
Average: 1881 mi, 04:15



My flying on OpenFlights, or 2018 in Great Circle Mapper, if you prefer.

Airport records
Northernmost: FRA (50.03°N 8.57°E)
Southernmost: CHC (43.49°S 172.53°E)
Westernmost: LAX (33.94°N 118.41°W)
Easternmost: WLG (41.33°S 174.80°E)

Notable new (to me) products tried:

• Batik Air J (I swear the pitch was well short of the advertised 45”)
• CX longhaul J on A333 and B773 (great hard product, mediocre soft)
• SQ regional J on A333 (showing its age but fine for short haul)
• SQ new A380 J (a very mixed bag)
• CI new PE on the A359 (comfortable despite sliding seat robbing legroom)
• QF business suites on the A333 (a very slick product – best staggered biz I’ve tried, but I prefer reverse herringbone or Apex Suite)
• MH staggered longhaul J on A333 (decent but unexciting)
• WY longhaul J on A333 and A332 (superb product)
• LH longhaul J (nice service but sadly I was in no state to enjoy it - see 'lowlights' below)
• OZ ‘Smartium’ J on the 772 (already pretty tired and dated – disappointing after wanting to try it for many years)
• VA longhaul PE (a worthy competitor to NZ and QF, but basic seat design is a limitation)

Travel highlights:

• The incredible life above and below the water in Raja Ampat (even though traveller’s tummy meant we couldn’t dive)
• A self-heating bento box on the Shinkansen from Tokyo to Osaka
• Amazing service and stunning rooms at the Conrad Osaka
• OmanAir’s impressive inflight product and sparkling new lounge at MCT
• A fabulous road trip through Northern Italy and Slovenia in an Alfa Romeo, including finally visiting Venice and Lake Garda
• A 10 day Atlantis cruise around the Med in the company of 3,000 gays (nearly killed me, but a lot of fun)
• Discovering Malta, one of the Med’s best-kept secrets. I’ll be back!
• The super-stylish Areias do Seixo hotel on the coast north of Lisbon
• Eating the mother of all Portuguese tarts at Pasteis de Belem in Lisbon

Travel lowlights:

• Wings Air cancelling our flight from Raja Ampat, triggering several missed connections and an expensive rebooking of our SQ flights home
• Coming down with a form of gastro on the first leg of a marathon 35 hour trip home (including layovers) IST-FRA-KIX-SYD

Looking forward to some already-booked travel highlights of 2019, including attending SXSW in Austin, sampling a United lounge that actually makes the grade (Polaris IAH) and *finally* making it to Mexico and Cuba in March. Hope your travel year is a good one

T8191

mad_atta ... glad you found Malta!!
Long way for you, but we met a member of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra on a recent trip!,

pbl22

Another below average year for me (2nd worst since I discovered FT). Concentrated on visiting much more of Australia. A free weekend on a rare work trip saw me mop up some European cities that I had previously visited by bus and visit some new cities/countries on new airlines.

Total Airports: 47
Total Flights: 110
Total Miles: 123,732

New Countries (3): Bahrain, Belgium and Portugal
New Airports (23): AMS, AUH, BAH, BDB, BRU, CPD, DPO, GET, GLT, ISA, KGC, KMG, LIS, MGB, MIM, MQL, MYA, NAA, PLO, SUB, VIE, WGA, WOL
New Airlines (16): Air France, Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines, Cathay Dragon, China Eastern, Etihad, Fly Corporate, Joon, Garuda Indonesia, Gulf Air, KLM, KLM CityHopper, Hi-Fly, NAM Air, Sriwijaya Air, TAP Portugal

Shortest Flight: ABX-WGA - 68 miles
Longest Flight: AUH-SYD - 7494 miles

Highlights:

• First time first class on TG, EY and QF (well, seat only on the latter)
• The incredible flight from DPS to SUB over/past the East Javan volcanoes
• Visiting my 50th (and 60th) Australian airport
• Flying on my 100th airline
• The view of the LHR runway action from the Renaissance Heathrow

Lowlight:

• My EY 380 F was downgraded on day of flight to a 77W -- still nice (best sleep ever on a plane), but no First Apartment, which was the whole point of a quick trip to UAE
• The sprint through FRA to make my OS flight -- my fault for not allowing a longer connection (although had little choice), but I hadn't realised the immigration queue sizes/lack of priority lanes/complexity of FRA

jcsimard

Total Flights: 59
Total Distance: 88,540 miles
New countries / territories visited: Sumatra, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Okinawa, St. Kitts, Antigua, Montserrat, Dominica, Armenia, Lithuania, Moldova, Transnistria, Seychelles, Mauritius, The Gambia

Great Circle Mapper

Anglo Large Clawed Otter

Slowest travel year in fifteen years, but still very enjoyable.

Total Airports: 34
Total Flights: 61
Total Miles: 70,790

New Countries: Vietnam
New Airports: BJX, CUU, HDC, LMM, PDL, PIX, ROA, SAF, TER, XQU, YAZ, also flew into Tuan Chau Marina in Halong Bay Vietnam, and Hot Springs Cove on Vancouver Island on seaplanes.
New Airlines: Azores Airlines/SATA, Hai Au Aviation, KD Air, Pacific Coastal Airlines, Tofino Air, Vietnam Airlines, VivaAerobus
New Aircraft Types: Airbus 321-200neo, Beech 1900C, Cessna 180J, Embraer Legacy 500, Piper PA-31-350 Chieftain

Shortest Flight: Tofino Harbour to Hot Springs Cove with Tofino Air (42 Mi)
Longest Flight: HKG-EWR with CX (8,062mi)

Highlights:
Amazing week-long trip to the Azores (stayed on the islands of Sao Miguel and Pico)
Staying in a Chesterman Beach Loft Suite at the Wickaninnish Inn in Tofino, B.C. for a long holiday weekend
Discovering Guanajuato, Mexico (enjoyed it so much we visited twice, and will probably return this year)
Seeing Mexico's Copper Canyon and taking the new Chepe Express Train from Divisadero to Los Mochis
First stay at a Rosewood property (Inn of the Anasazi in Santa Fe)
JL's new Sky Suite J product on the 789
A three night stay at Bettei Senjuan Ryokan in Minakami, Japan, paired with a visit to the Snow Monkey park near Nagano while it was snowing
A Halong Bay Cruise followed by a three night stay in a Prestige Suite at the Sofitel Legend Metropole Hanoi (will definitely return to Vietnam)

Lowlights:
VivaAerobus
The town of Los Mochis

marbe166

In 2018 I:
* Took 27 flights, the same number as in 2008.
* Flew to/from 3 new airports (KEF, GLA, ZAG)
* Flew on 4 new airlines (Eurowings, WOW Air, TUIfly (Eurowings) and Edelweiss Air)
* Flew on 1 new aircraft type (Embraer 170)
* Most frequent aircraft type: Airbus 319 and Airbus 320 (7 flights each)
* Most frequent aircraft: TF-PRO and D-AKNQ (2 flights each).
* Longest distance aircraft type: Airbus 321 (7077 km, 6 flights)
* Flew 15 new routes (LHR-CGN, SKP-ZRH, ZRH-CGN, FRA-KEF, KEF-DUS, DUS-FRA, DUS-ZRH, ZRH-BCN, BCN-ZRH, ZRH-DUS, DUS-LCY, LCY-GLA, GLA-LHR, CGN-ZAG, ZAG-CGN)
* Busiest routes: CGN-LHR and LHR-CGN (2 flights each).
* Had my first diversion, the flight KEF-FRA had to divert to DUS because of heavy rainstorms at FRA.

Links to previous years:
2017

2016

2015

2014

2013

2012

2011

MrDplus

Total distance flown: 75,408 miles = 6,762 in F 65,206 in J 3,440 in Y

Airports: 24, including 7 new: ARN, DBV, EDI, SOF, TNG, KEF, TLL

Carriers: 11, including 1 new: Bulgaria Air (FB)

Countries: 16, including 6 new: Bulgaria, Croatia, Estonia, Iceland, Morocco, Sweden

Aircraft types: 17, including 5 new: A320neo, A359, A346, ATR 72-600, B737-700,


Flights

Quantity: 49

Longest flight: MEX↔ICN, 7516 mi, 15:32

Shortest flight: DBV↔FCO, 313 mi, 01:08

Average: 1539 mi, 03:34


Airport records

Northernmost: KEF (63.99°N 22.61°W)

Southernmost: SIN (1.35°N 103.99°E)

Westernmost: MTY (25.78°N 100.11°W)

Easternmost: ICN (37.47°N 126.45°E)


Travel highlights:

• Added another A380 F product to my list, SQ SIN-LHR
• First time reaching status with any airline, Silver with BA, and Gold with DL
• First time reaching Diamond status with Hilton (had reached Gold last year)
• First time flying across the Pacific, AM MTY-ICN and ICN-MEX
• First time in Africa (Morocco)
• Highest number of segments and mileage since I started flying
• Finally flew AM long-haul. Growing up in Mexico, I’ve been wanted to do it for awhile.

Travel lowlights:

• LH bad service when dealing with changes due to bad weather.

Schweden

Flew very little this year due to driving instead and still got shafted by IRROPs.

Total Airports: 12
Total Flights: 15
Total Miles: 22,792

New Airports: YTZ

Shortest Flight: YYZ-YOW 226mi (3 hour delay and 1 cancellation in 2 flights)
Longest Flight: IST-YYZ 5,108mi

2+ Hour Delays: 5
Cancellations: 1
Diversions: 1

Stefan Sip

2018 was a bit of a grind for me. Perhaps I am just getting old.

Total Miles: 312,000 miles

New Countries (4): Uzbekistan, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Djibouti

Travel Highlights:

• Diving in Palau
• Sunset at Everest Base Camp (on the Tibetan side)
• I promised my 2 kids we will go to 50 countries before they go to college. They are now 11 and 14. We have just surpassed that goal. The wife is definitely less competitive/goal driven on the travel front, but she travels well.
• Feeding hyenas in Harar (Ethiopia)
• Family shedding a few tears experiencing the abject poverty in Africa

Travel Lowlights:

• Getting eaten alive by mosquitoes at the Lake Abbe bush camp in Djibouti