2018 Your Travel Year In Review
 

Tis' the season, and I'm happy to kick this thread off in 2018. I didn't travel much this year, so I am looking forward to living vicariously through you all :cool:

Total Airports: 18
Total Flights: 35
Total Miles: 21,297

New Countries (0):
New Airports (4): HSV, MGM, AUS, SJC
New Airlines (0):

Shortest Flight: EWR-DCA 199mi
Longest Flight: SAN-CLT 2,075mi

Pretty busy year for me, split about evenly between business and leisure. Still not done, possibly looking at heading down to GRU next weekend but we'll see.

Total Airports: 45
Total Flights: 112
Total Miles: 148,717

New Countries (9): Panama, Portugal, Nigeria, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Armenia, India, Ukraine and the Philippines. Brought me up to 50 total for the year.
New Airports (20): PBI, PIT, ICT, AUS, PTY, PDL, LOS, ENU, ABV, SVO, IEV, GYD, TBS, AUH, ATQ, BOM, DEL, JAI, MNL, HSD
New Airlines (8): Wizz Air, Buta Air (AZAL), Aeroflot, Air Peace, Jet Airways, Etihad, Vistara, Jetstar Japan, Eastern Air Transport
New Aircraft (5): ATR-72-500, 787-9, 737-9 MAX, 737-500, Ford Trimotor

Shortest Flight: HSD-HSD ~50 miles (joy ride on the Ford Trimotor)
Longest Flight: BOS-HKG 7,970 miles


Next year is already looking pretty busy as well with trips planned to SE Asia (Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia) in Feb, South Africa/Lesotho in May, Indonesia in Sept and a cruise stopping in Honduras in Oct. Not to mention the multiple weekend trips I'll do.

I wrote up trip reports for each major trip below. I haven't gotten to Ukraine yet (should finish it up this weekend) and Paris (went there last weekend) I'll write up by the end of the year.

A Landscape Photography Trip to Oregon
A Trip to Nigeria
A Trip to the Grand Canyon and Sedona
A Trip to the Azores.
One Week in India: Mumbai, Amritsar, Agra/Taj Mahal, Jaipur and Delhi CX and EY J
A Snowstorm in Tokyo and Volcanoes in the Philippines
New Year’s in Seoul, South Korea Delta A350 Suite

Quite a busy year for me after some three years of remarkably low activity due to moving to a new city and starting a new job - but managed to hit the skies back quite nicely getting to AFKL Flying Blue platinum and Turkish Miles&Smiles Gold in a year from scratch. The highlight definitely was the crazy Irkutsk error fare which turned out toe be even more epic than I thought (trip report can be read here), with my first ever SQ lobster thermidor a good second flying memory.

Total Airports: 37
Total Flights: 60 (four more still to come over the Christmas period which are not counted yet in the statistics)
Total Miles: 56,464

New Countries (5): Azerbaijan, Malta, Indonesia, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan – bringing the total number to 69
New Airports (18): SVG, BGO, TRF, OSL, CIA, MLA, IAS, IKT, AOK, KUT, GYD, TAS, CIT, RUH, CGK, SUB, JOG, TPE
New Airlines (8):Aeroflot, Air Malta, Azerbaijan Airlines, China Airlines, Garuda Indonesia, Saudia, Singapore Airlines, Sky Express,
New Aircraft (2): B787-100, A350-900
Shortest Flight: OTP-SBZ, 128 miles
Longest Flight: TPE-FCO, 5976 miles - although in reality the flight is much longer as it cannot fly the great circle route as CI has no overflight rights over mainland China and needs to make a huge detour over Vietnam and India (flight time: 14h40..)

Hopefully next year will bring the same amount (or even more flying!).

Busiest year ever for me, since my first flight in 1982. Here are the statistics for scheduled passenger flights.

Total Airports: 75 (plus 25 non scheduled/general aviation flights)
Total Flights: 103 (plus 36 non scheduled/general aviation flights)
Total Miles: 85,084

New Countries (5): Croatia, Lithuania, Montenegro, Serbia, Cyprus
New Airports (28):
EDDG ~ Muenster-Osnabrueck (FMO)
LEAG ~ Algeciras (Helipuerto)
GECE ~ Ceuta (Helipuerto)
LFML ~ Marseille-Provence (MRS)
KPNS ~ Pensacola Int'l, FL (PNS)
KOAK ~ Oakland-Metropolitan Oakland Int'l, CA (OAK)
LZIB ~ Bratislava-M. R. Štefánik (BTS)
LGAV ~ Athens-Eleftherios Venizelos (ATH)
LDPL ~ Pula (PUY)
UKKK ~ Kiev-Zhuliany (IEV)
UKDE ~ Zaporizhzhia (OZH)
EYVI ~ Vilnius (VNO)
EICA ~ Connemara (NNR)
EIIM ~ Inishmore (IOR)
EIIR ~ Inisheer (INQ)
EGEO ~ Oban (OBN)
EGPI ~ Islay (ILY)
EGEY ~ Colonsay (CSA)
USII ~ Izhevsk (IJK)
UERP ~ Polyarny (PYJ)
LYTV ~ Tivat (TIV)
LYBE ~ Belgrade-Nikola Tesla (BEG)
LCLK ~ Larnaca (LCA)
LGKR ~ Kerkira-Ioannis Kapodistrias (CFU)
VTBS ~ Bangkok-Suvarnabhumi (BKK)
VTSP ~ Phuket (HKT)
WBGW ~ Lawas (LWY)
YMML ~ Melbourne-Tullamarine, VIC (MEL)

+ 15 new airports on non scheduled/general aviation flights.


New Airlines (33):
TUIfly [TUI/X3] op for Eurowings
AIS Airlines [PNX/IS]
easyJet Europe Airline [EJU] op for easyJet
Helity Copter Airlines [HTY]
Twin Jet [TJT/T7]
Titan Airways [AWC/ZT] op for BA
Jet2.com [EXS/LS]
Virgin America [ASA/VX]
Azerbaijan Airlines [AHY/J2]
Olympic Air [OAL/OA] op for Aegean
Aegean Airlines [AEE/A3]
Motor Sich Airlines [MSI/M9]
Jota Aviation [ENZ] op for BA
Privatair GmbH [PTG] op for BA
Aer Arann Islands
Hebridean Air Services [HBR]
Izhevsk Avia [IZA/I8]
Yamal Airlines [LLM/YC]
S7 Airlines [SBI/S7]
Angara Airlines [AGU/2G]
Alrosa Air Company [DRU/6R]
Montenegro Airlines [MGX/YM]
SmartLynx Estonia [MYX] op for easyJet
Cyprus Airways [CYP/CY]
Sky Express [SEH/GQ]
Thai Airways International [THA/TG]
Thai Smile Air [THD/WE]
Malindo Air [MXD/OD]
Air Asia [AXM/AK]
MASwings [MWG/7B] op for Malaysian
Tigerair Australia [TGG/TT]
Jetstar Australia [JST/JQ]
Virgin Australia [VOZ/VA]

Shortest Flight: NNR-IOR 12 miles
Longest Flight: OAK-LGW 5382 miles

I can't see me improving on that next year.

Total Airports: 16
Total Flights: 27
Total Miles: 49959

New Countries (5): Israel, Vietnam, Laos, Slovenia, Poland
New Airports (7): TLV,KRK,VSA,HAN,SGN,LPQ,DCA
New Airlines (3):Vietnam, Alaska, Lao

Shortest Flight: PHL-PHL 0mi (3.5 hours out, engine trouble, 3.5 hours back:-( )
Longest Flight: HKG-ORD, 7790mi
Ancient Maya Cities: (14) Calakmul, Balam-ku, Kohunlich, Dzibanche, Kinichna, Xpujil, Hormiguero, Becan, Chicanna, Palenque, Yaxchilan, Bonampak, Pomona, Comalcalco

2018 was a really good one for travel for me! Lots of frequent flier miles and credits burned.

Thanks to Madone59 for starting this year's version of this thread. I always look forward to doing this. Surprisingly, my travel went up this year. I'm expecting similar next year except maybe with slightly more business travel.

Miles flown 56779 (+6834)
Flights 30 (-13)
Longest flight SQ SFO - HKG, 6914 miles
Shortest flight JL HND - KIX, 268 miles

New Cities/Towns Hachioji (JP), Hino (JP), Saitama (JP), Guanajuato (MX-GUA), León (MX-GUA), San Miguel de Allende (MX-GUA), Carlsbad (US-CA), Vista (US-CA), Hyattsville (US-MD), Mount Rainier (US-MD), Narragansett (US-RI), Warwick (US-RI), Salt Lake City (US-UT), Sandy (US-UT)

New countries 0 (again)

Airports visited 18 (-4)
New airports visited 2 (BDL - Hartford/Springfield, BJX - León) (-3)

Airlines flown 9 (no change)
New airlines flown 1 (AM - AeroMéxico)

New flight experience AM E190 Y, AS A321-200neo Y (new aircraft type), CX A350-900 Y (new aircraft type), DL 767 C, JL 738 Class J, JL 788 C, TG 77W C, TG 77W Y
Best flight experience JL 788 C KIX - LAX (great flight attendants and service, watched "Your Name" and slept like a baby), SQ 77W C SFO - HKG (great as usual but trouble sleeping, caught the new Kore-eda film "Shoplifters, great FAs as always), DL 767 C ATL - PDX (able to catch some precious sleep after a whirlwind 27 hours in Atlanta for MLS Cup with very little sleep... and "The Great Buddha+" was very enjoyable viewing)

Best lounge visited UA Polaris Lounge SFO but my connection time was halved, severely cutting into my lounge time.

Enjoyed
- Solo trip to Tokyo a few days after the New Year. Phenomenal weather along with the opportunity to visit two places I'd wanted to go for awhile, The Railway Museum in Saitama and Mount Takao to the west of Tokyo. Highlights were the JAL Sky Museum and hangar tour, where we got to see the Japanese Air Force one backing into the hangar along with the night spent making new friends at a yakitori place in Oshiage followed by our subsequent drinking in Asakusa.
- Crossing the Long Island Sound on two separate occasions while on work trips to the Northeast of the US. A great way to break up an afternoon of driving and it was a unique treat to stare at the sea while being on the clock when I usually sit in a cubicle.
- Memorial Day weekend trip up to Seattle on Amtrak with the GF. She used to live there, so it was nice to see the town from her perspective. She also got us a reservation to one of the country's oldest Japanese restaurants, Maneki, which was great. In addition, we went to Mariners games on consecutive days, including on Memorial Day where we were only a few rows back on along the third base line. Too bad the Mariners suck, though :D
- Guanajuato/León/San Miguel de Allende trip w/GF and the six year old. None of us had been to the state of Guanajuato before and we had a really lovely time. Guanajuato and San Miguel de Allende were beautiful, although I did prefer the food in Guanajuato. León was pretty cool, but our time there was pretty limited with one afternoon/night to explore and one evening at the football (Club León v. Mineros de Zacatecas).
- Another trip to see the Portland Timbers away meant another Major League Soccer ground checked off, Rio Tinto Stadium in Sandy, Utah. An unexpected four-one win on a chilly fall evening certainly helped the mood and made it feel like something special might happen this season.
- Getting to spend time with my parents and sister in Hong Kong (home) for the first time in probably a decade in a half. I honestly don't know if it'll ever happen again, which does make me sad.
- Also travelled to Bangkok with them, where I hadn't been in probably twenty plus years. I'd love to visit again to explore more of the area.
- After all these years of living in Portland, I finally got myself onto the non-stop from Tokyo.
- Going home to Hong Kong by myself for three days without any sort of agenda was really great. I spent my time visiting neighbourhoods I either had never visited or hadn't visited in decades and ate a lot, even when I wasn't super hungry. Squeezing in a three hour karaoke session alone was also great.
- Finally, an unexpected trip to the MLS Cup final with an almost two thousand strong contingent of Portland Timbers supporters, almost all of whom travelled from faraway was fun. It was great to see friends I don't often get to see, along with seeing close friends in a different setting. Atlanta United supporters were all very kind and gracious in victory.

Didn't enjoy
- Do not drive in Washington DC unless you absolutely have to. The parking situation was the worst I've seen in years and almost ruined a quick weekend trip to the area for the GF's friend's birthday. On the other hand, I did learn what a croquembouche was...
- Lack of time in Hong Kong while with the family. Too many relatives, family friends, etc. to see, which resulted in my scraping a visit to Takamatsu and instead returning to Hong Kong alone for a few days so that I could actually do something besides sit in a loud restaurant and answer standard questions about my life and career.
- My big vacation to Hong Kong and Bangkok seemed to feature way too many early morning flights, the kind that require a four or five am alarm. I usually like to reserve those for business trips.
- The insanely wet weather and chilly conditions in Atlanta the weekend of the MLS Cup final. Tailgating in a wet winter storm wasn't fun and it got to a point where it was difficult to move my fingers.
- Losing two-nil in Atlanta but boy, it was fun to be there and I'm so glad I went.

Total Flight Segments: 26
Total Miles: 18,443
Total Airports: 21 No New Airports
Total Airlines: 4 No New Airlines
Total Aircraft: 4
New Aircraft: 1, the Boeing 737-MAX8
Total Countries: 1, the USA
Longest flight, both distance and duration IAD-LAX 2,286 miles 4:57
Shortest flight, Distance: LGB-LAS 231 miles (0:41)
Shortest flight, Duration: DAL-TUL 0:38 (238 miles)
Total Routes: 20
Total New Routes: 11 totally new routes SAN-DAL; DAL-TUL; DAL-AMA; LAS-LIT; LAS-SAT; MCO-DAL; RDU-BNA; BNA-MKE; MKE-CLE; LAX-MKE; OAK-CMH
One Route IAD-LAX I flew for the first time since keeping records but I also flew that route in 1976, 1979 and 1980.

In addition to my flying I also joined the Greyhound Road Rewards and Amtrak Guest Rewards programmes so I now accrue points when I take Greyhound and Amtrak.

Last night, KL907, AMS-SVO, B738, PH-BCB, become my 47th and last flight for 2018.
In Miles 63,164
In Kilometer 101,653
Earth Circumnavigation 2.54 x
Hours 137:41
Days 5.7

Countries visited during 2018: 22, from them new: 0. Countries visited 64. Time spent outside my country of birth: 2483 days ~ 21,6%.
Countries in which I spent more than 3 days: Russia 260, Ukraine 8, Montenegro 8, Turkey 22, Argentina 48, Armenia 5, Poland 3.
Nights slept at home (including Moscow and Moscow Region) 236/365 - meaning 64,6%
Russian regions visited: 26/85, from which 4 (Kabardino-Balkar, Sakha, Udmurtia and Irkutsk) for the first time. Total visited: 51/85 (60%)
Argentine provinces visited: 9/23. Total visited: 23/23 (100%)

Flights:
Domestic (in Russia) 21
Domestic (in Argentina) 7
Intercontinental 12
Others: 7

Only route flown more than once: AEP-TUC, AR1446 and LA7574.
Top 5 Airlines: Pobeda x7, Alrosa x6, Iberia x4, Utair x4, Air France x2.
Top 5 Aircraft: Boeing 737NG x16, Airbus A320 x5, Tupolev Tu154 x4, Airbus A319 x4, ATR72-600 x4
28 window, 15 aisle, 4 middle.
Paid by myself: 47/47 - Reasons: to visit family 8/47, for something similar to work 2/47, 37/47 JUST FOR FUN..
BEST: 6R542 IKT-MJZ, first and only in TU3
WORST: IB6845 MAD-EZE, learned of my mother passing when landing.

Most used airports: DMEx12, VKOx12, AEPx6, ISTx4, TUCx4, EZEx4, MADx4
Longest flight in km: EZE-AMS, KL702, Dec 18th. 11475km, 12h53m
Longest flight in time: CDG-EZE, AF228, Nov 14th. 11112km, 13h02m
Shortest flight: KLF-VKO, UT135, Mar 8th, 130km, 0h19m

Inaugural flights: VKO-KLF-VKO (Utair), and VKO-PKV-VKO (Azimuth)
First time in SOF, TIA, KLF, AYT, ADB, ESB, AER, LEJ, BJV, LWN, PKV, IJK, IKT, MJZ, PYJ, KGD, EPA

First flight Jan 14th, SOF-IST (TK)
Last flight Dec 19th, AMS-SVO (KL)
No. Airports 35
No. Countries 11 (Bulgaria, Turkey, Albania, Russia, Spain, Argentina, Ukraine, Germany, Armenia, France, Netherlands).
No. Airplanes: 38, repeated: VQ-BLL, VP-VPL, RA-89095, RA-85684, LV-GUG.

Routes:
SOF-IST-TIA///DME-MAD-EZE///AEP-TUC-AEP///EZE-MAD-DME///VKO-KLF-VKO///LED-SVO///DME-OVB-SVX-VKO///ZIA-IST-AYT///ADB-ESB-KBP///DME-AER-DME///VKO-LEJ-VKO-LED-VKO///DME-BJV-DME///VKO-LWN///MRV-VKO-PKV-VKO///DME-IJK-DME-IKT-MJZ-PYJ-DME-KGD-VKO///SVO-CDG-EZE///AEP-TUC///AEP-ROS-AEP-MDZ///TUC-EPA///EZE-AMS-SVO
Add: 14245km driven, 3569km by bus and 1644 between trains and ships (it was a short ferry between Kusadasi and Samos and return).

9 entrances to the European Union (Slovakia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary, Spain, Greece, Germany, Poland and Netherlands).
8 entrances to Russia (Троебортное x2, Домодедово x2,Внуково, Верхний Ларс, Маманово-2, Шереметьево)
4 entrances to Turkey (Atatürk x2, Kusadasi, Milas)
And so many others!

I have enjoyed the trip reports from so many of you who have posted so far. Amazing and inspiring travel that gave me great ideas. Thank you!

My leisure travel was great this year, and I had a fun time.

Total Flights: 25 + 2 more scheduled
Total Miles: 31,501

Airports: 16
New Airports: MUC, ATH, JMK

Total Countries: 6 (US, Canada, Mexico, Germany, Greece, Japan)
New Countries: Greece
New Airlines: 2; Aegean, Air Canada

Longest: LAX-NRT (5441 miles), Shortest DTW-CLE (147 Miles)

New Plane: 787-9

Plus

ICE train from Frankfurt to Munich
and Round Trip ICE train from Berlin to Hamburg

A very slow year for me overall, even less than last year. Still have a few more flights to go.

New countries/territories visited: Sicily, Lampedusa, Tibet, Hainan Island, Prince Edward Island, St. Pierre et Miquelon
New Airlines: LAN Ecuador (XL), Mistral (M4), Ryanair (FR), Hainan (HU), Air Saint-Pierre (PJ)
New Airports: CUE, PMO, LMP, FCO, CTU, LXA, SYX, KWL, YQM, YHZ, FSP, CNY

BIS Miles:63565
Longest Flight: HKG-LAX (upcoming IAH-AKL will be new longest)
Shortest flight: AUS-IAH

Hotels:

Mine is completely boring as the vast majority of my flights are for work, and I don't live in a hub so I almost always have to connect hence the segments.

150 total segments

3 airlines! (DL, AA, HA)

6 countries (US, Jamaica, Canada, England, Germany, Austria - the last 2 vacation, others work)

138,500 miles (but this is includes minimum 500 on some shorter segments, actual BIS more like 120k)

Longest flight: ATL-MUC - 4797 miles
Shortest flight: JFK-PHL - 94 miles (yes, I flew that. I saw it was a widebody re-positioning, and I had to go that route anyway. Instead of taking the train I added it on to a multi-city trip. Never did get a chance to put my seat in flat-bed mode :) )

Airports where I started/ended: 28 (in my signature).
Airports where I connected: 3 (SEA, MIA, CLT)

Slow year for me and mostly short haul flights.

Total Airports: 26
Total Flights: 94
Total Miles: 65129

New Countries (1): Georgia
New Airports (4): JED, LCY, MAD, TBS
New Airlines (3): SV, TK, IB

Shortest Flight: STR-MUC 119 mi
Longest Flight: HND-CDG 6031 mi

Total Airports: 41
Total Flights: 62
Total Miles: 122,996

New Countries (27): Taiwan, South Korea, Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei, Philippines, Liechtenstein, Austria, Finland, Estonia, Lithuania, Belarus, Latvia, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Laos, China, Germany, Qatar, India, Sri Lanka, Denmark, Sweden, Norway
New Airports (30): TPE, ICN, PNH, SGN, BKK, CGK, KUL, BWN, MNL, HEL, TLL, VNO, MSQ, RIX, DAC, RGN, VTE, PEK, HND, FRA, DOH, DEL, JAI, CMB, CPH, JFK, ARN, OSL, ZQN, MFN
New Airlines (15): Qatar Airways (QR), Thai Airways (TG), Finnair (AY), Singapore Airlines (SQ), Bangkok Airways (PG), Air New Zealand (NZ), Air Baltic (BT), Belavia (B2), Korean Air (KE), Royal Brunei Airlines (BI), Milford Sound Flights, SilkAir (MI), Sri Lankan (UL), Jet Airways (9W), KLM Royal Dutch Airlines (KL)

Shortest Flight: ZQN-MFN (47 miles)
Longest Flight: AKL-DOH (9,041 miles)

Total Airports: 13
Total Flights: 53
Total Miles: 74,168

New Countries (0)
New Airports (2): PDX, MSP
New Airlines (0)

Shortest Flight: 334mi (MSP-ORD)
Longest Flight: 2,475mi (JFK-LAX)

Most Visited Airport: PHL (31)
Most Connected Airport: DFW (16)

Most Flown Airline: AA (39/51,057mi)
Most Flown A/C: B738 (24/25,902mi)

Fun Facts
Favorite seat is 7D, 7 times.
53 trips with 50 difference aircrafts, flown three aircrafts twice each.
27 flights on the Boeing family, totaling 29,017 miles. 23 on Airbus for 44,090 miles. One each for Bombardier, Embraer and MD for the remains 1,061 miles.