Thai | Jason Around the World

2013 Travel Year in Review

Mar 172014

Yes, I’m fully aware that it’s mid-March and this is a bit late, but better late than never! It’s already been a very busy travel year in 2014, both actual travel as well has planning out the whole year ahead of time due to:

1) United devaluing miles
2) Planning my remaining 42 countries to visit to ensure I meet my target of Labour Day 2016
3) The hardship of using up all those $10 tickets to Hawaii I scored 😉

Anyways, on to the year in review!

In 2013, I logged a total of 171,863 miles in the air, which was actually my highest total ever! In comparison:

2013: 171,863
2012: 139,197
2011: 134,823
2010: 106,046
2009: 136,612
2008: 147,092
2007: 153,691
2006: 161,596
2005: 128,713
2004: 105,301

My last year below 100,000 miles flown was in 2002, when I logged “only” 69,592. So far I have around 110,000 booked already for 2014, so with a few more random trips added in I’m sure I’ll be in the 130-140,000 range by the end of the year. The year’s travel map:

For those 171,863 miles I took a total of 109 flights for an average length of 1,577 miles. My shortest flight was only 72 miles from Malabo, Equatorial Guinea to Douala, Cameroon and the longest was 6,512 each way from Houston to Lagos, Nigeria.

As far as aircraft go:

Airbus: 47 total
A319: 15
A320: 13
A321: 5
A330: 8
A340: 2
A380: 4
Boeing: 43 total
737: 21
747: 6
757: 1
767: 6
777: 3
787: 5
MD90: 1
Canadair: 3 total
CRJ: 3
DeHavilland: 3 total
Dash: 3
Embraer: 14 total
E145: 4
E170: 5
E175: 1
E190: 3
E195: 1

For these 109 flights, 20 were in economy (of which 6 were economy plus), 56 were in domestic first/business, 10 were in international first, and 24 were in international business class.

For the true first class flights, 9 were on Lufthansa and the other 1 was on the Thai A380.

On the country front, I managed to visit 34 countries, of which 19 were new to me, bringing my total to 149 countries visited:

Benin, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Ghana, Kazkhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Montenegro, Niger, Nigeria, Peru, Serbia, Tajikistan, Togo, Tunisia, Uzbekistan.

I also flew a total of 25 airlines in 2013, of which 7 were new: Air Astana, Air Burkina, Air Côte d’Ivoire, Air Serbia, ASKY, TunisAir, and Uzbekistan Airways. This brings me to 125 total airlines flown.

2013 also saw visits to 53 unique airports (23 of which were new: Abidjan, Abuja, Accra, Almaty, Astana, Belgrade, Bishkek, Cotonou, Cuzco, Douala, Dushanbe, Lagos, Libreville, Lima, Lomé, Malabo, Moscow Domodedovo, Moscow Vnukovo, Niamey, Ouagadougu, Podgorica, San Jose CA, Sarajevo, Tunis), which is my second highest ever after 69 airports in 2012.

So, dear readers, how did your 2013 look? How did it compare to past years?

Sheraton Maui and three days on Maui

Attractions, Hawaii February 2014 2 Responses »

Feb 282014

Had no trouble finding the rental car shuttle from the commuter car terminal, and thanks to the fact we arrived at a different time from the mainland flights, there was no line to get the car. Thanks to the same website we were renting from Alamo again, and they tried to up-sell us from a “standard convertible” to a Camero for over $100 a day. Um, no thanks. When we got to the lot, we were extra thankful – the standard convertibles were Mustangs, which were just fine…although the choice was only black or white. We picked the white, and off we went.

The drive to our hotel, the Sheraton Maui in Lahaina, was about 30 minutes give or take, and soon we were there and valeted the car. The wait to check in was only a couple people, and soon it was time to play let’s make a deal…I mean check in. No, there were no rooms ready, but we’d been upgraded to a “standard ocean view” near the back of the property with two beds. I asked about a suite, and yes, we could have an Ohana suite near the back of the property with a “partial ocean view” but only with two beds again. I pressed, and she said there were also “deluxe ocean view suites, and let’s see if I can give you one.” She came back from the back room, and said unfortunately it would be an upcharge of $250 a night…but I can do it for $200. She could sense I was less than thrilled, and I asked if that was all she could do…then she offered it for $100 a night…given it was nearly 1,000 sq ft, a corner room with a view of the beach and ocean, I decided to go for it.

It would take about an hour to get the room ready, so she gave us a 35% off coupon for the poolside bar as well as welcome drink coupons, so we could grab lunch while we waited. Some tasty nachos were definitely on order, but we asked the waitress what she’d recommend. “Oh, you can get doubles FYI with those drink coupons…and I highly recommend the Old Fashioned Mai Tai.” I decided to give it a go….and drank nothing else for the next three days. Make with top shelf rum and shaved ice, it was absolutely delicious.

After about an hour I got a call that the room was ready, so we finished off our drinks and headed up to check in. Except, the line was now 30+ people deep, and when we tried to go to the platinum check-in line it nearly started a riot. The agent tried to explain to the people in line, but when they’ve been waiting on line for a long time, it’s understandable they were upset at the fact there were no more agents. They told us we could go around the corner to the valet to check-in, so we did.

It turned out not to work so well…he only could see the original upgrade, and not the suite we’d been waiting for. We had to come back two times, because he gave us keys to the wrong room. Nearly 45+ minutes later, however, we were finally to the room…with an amazing view:

The rest of the afternoon, we relaxed on the beach and just took it easy, enjoying the hotel and taking it easy. That evening, we met my friend Rita for dinner. I hadn’t seen Rita in over 20 years since she’d moved to Maui, and it was a real treat getting to catch up over some delicious beers at the Maui Brewing Company:

The next morning we got up fairly early, and after grabbing some Starbucks we headed out to drive the Road to Hana. It’s a nice drive on some pretty winding roads, and the frustration is you spend a good deal of time stuck behind people who might not live up to your driving skills.

Our first stop was at Twin Falls, maybe 30-40 minutes into the drive, where we were told the hike in to the falls was maybe 15-20 minutes. We stopped first at a small overlook:

Then, about ten minutes later, we were approaching the falls. The final part was maybe 50 meters or so through knee deep quite cold water, but it was gorgeous and refreshing:

Tunis to Yangon via Hong Kong on Lufthansa First + Thai A380

Airports, Flights, Germany, Hong Kong, Myanmar, New Years 2012-2013, Thailand, Tunisia No Responses »

Jan 212013

Slept nearly 10 hrs, and woke up feeling even more like death than the night before. Ugh!

Went to the Sheraton Executive lounge for the breakfast, where there was fresh-squeezed orange juice. Fantastic. I think I had 3 or 4 glasses, along with several espressos, and began to feel marginally functional. Rather than deal with a cab, I decided to take the hotel shuttle to the airport for 10 TND, and be at least marginally more comfortable.

Check-in for Lufthansa at Tunis took an eternity – or at least it felt like that. Waited in line for at least 15 minutes, and even then they could only check me in for the first segment to Frankfurt…and seats? It was one of those old 1980s sticker maps where they peeled a sticker off a sheet with your seat assignment. Once all the stickers were gone, there were no more seats. Anyone have a clue why Tunis operates SO old school? It’s as if they’re not connected to any global systems at all!

Through immigration and security, and into the TunisAir lounge which is used by Lufthansa. First time in ages I’ve seen a lounge where smoking is permitted…ug. Not what I needed with a horrid cold and congestion already. Combine that with three or four sick people in the lounge who made me look like I was a rolemodel of health, and it wasn’t the recipe for the best time. I was ready to get out of there! The lounge did have a buffet and drinks (I did have one glass of wine…it kills germs, I swear) but I didn’t explore it much so can’t really comment on the quality.

Lufthansa Flight 1323
Tunis, Tunisia (TUN) to Frankfurt, Germany (FRA)
Depart 13:40, Arrive 16:25, Flight Time 2:45
Airbus A319, Registration D-AIQF, Manufactured 1991, Seat 2F

I honestly don’t remember this flight too much. We boarded just 5 minutes before departure, and ended up leaving nearly 20 minutes late…getting into Frankfurt 20 minutes late. This brought my connection down to barely an hour….totally doable, but definitely not optimal in Frankfurt. There was a full meal offered with two meal choices, but I skipped it so can’t comment on it. Seemed to be the pretty typical Lufthansa meal, nothing overly special. I spent most of the flight dozing in and out and watching some tv on the iPad…just trying to get through it.

The one big disappointment upon landing in Frankfurt – although we were at a remote bus gate, there was no car transfer waiting for me. I had to take a bus to the terminal, and use the regular security lines with everyone else. I’m not complaining, but part of the reason I’d booked a first award was that being sick I wanted the absolute minimum time standing around and waiting, and wanted to be as comfortable as possible. Waiting in a cold bus, and long hot security lines…not my idea of fun. Service failure: Lufthansa.

Got to the lounge in Frankfurt with about five minutes to use it, but that was enough time to get a few glasses of water and freshen up again before heading to the next flight. The lounge agents were very apologetic, but nothing they could do about the missed transfer request at this point.

Lufthansa Flight 118
Frankfurt, Germany (FRA) to Munich, Germany (MUC)
Depart 18:00, Arrive 19:05, Flight Time 1:05
Airbus A320, Registration D-AIQK, Manufactured 1991, Seat 7F

For some reason, Lufthansa had blocked off nine rows for business on this flight, despite there only being 8 people total in business class. Economy was pretty full, so no clue what they were thinking. There was a small snack on this flight, but again, I skipped it and had only water so can’t really comment on it. We arrived in Munich nearly 20 minutes early, and at an actual gate, so I had plenty of time to unwind in the lounge – over two hours!

The lounge was actually relatively full when I arrived just after 7pm, but it did thin out quite a bit by 9pm. The lounge attendants couldn’t have been more wonderful. I was blowing my nose a lot, and she actually brought me two small packs of kleenexes to take with me on the flight – that’s service! Had several glasses of water, and couldn’t resist a couple glasses of champagne, otherwise just tried to relax and take it easy as much as possible. Caught up on some stuff online, and before I knew it it was time to head to the gate and board.

Lufthansa Flight 730
Munich, Germany (MUC) to Hong Kong (HKG)
Depart 21:55, Arrive 16:05 Next Day, Flight Time 11:10
Airbus A340-600, Registration D-AIHU, Manufactured 2008, Seat 2K

This flight was absolutely wonderful. That’s the only word I have for it. First was only booked to 5 of 8 seats, including a mother and approx 8yo son in the first row…but he was perfectly behaved. The minute I was seated, the pre-departure treats arrived! Mmmm macadamia nuts and champagne.