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2008 Year End Summary/Achievements
How was your 2008 flying?
My 2008 Flightmemory.com data says 18 flights and 35,960 great circle miles. Not too bad, but not record breaking either. Four new airports for me - XIC, CTU, OKC and CAE. One new airline - Air China (I had flown on the old CAAC, but not since part of it became Air China). --- On the other hand, my 65-year old mom has an incredible 2008 flying year. Just the number of flights and airlines are staggering. And this is all just for leisure and visiting family and friends. Airlines she's flown in 2008 include: Continental (& Express) American Delta Northwest (& Airlink) Southwest Air France KLM Cathay Pacific Air China Shenzhen Airlines China Eastern Qantas Omni Air International |
2008 YTD
53,954 miles 24 flights 1 new airline - Vueling 4 new airports - MAD (Madrid), GRX (Granada), BCN (Barcelona), OMA (Omaha) Best flight: HKG-LAX in Jan 08 on Cathay Pacific, op-up to Business Class. I still have one more flight to take, on 12/31/08, LAX-BOS red-eye, arriving Boston on 1/1/09. Those 2,611 miles will put me just over 50K miles on AA this year to keep me qualified as a Platinum elite. :D |
I don't keep track of my flights to that detail, but I flew over 75k miles on SkyTeam airlines (DL, NW, AF, and KL this year) on revenue tickets. I also logged another trip from Europe to Japan and back on Air France on miles.
To round out the year, I also added in a trip from Copenhagen to Singapore, and back, on Star Alliance airlines. And I had a roundtrip on Bangkok Airways from Singapore to Koh Samui. Also did a flight from CPH to AMS on Transavia (new airline), AMS to LCY on VLM (new airline), along with CPH-LON (5 flights on BA, SK, and Sterling). To round it out, I did some time on SAS for a roundtrip to Dublin, and 3 trips on some combination of SAS and Swiss from CPH to ZRH. |
Not number or airline, but our greatest flight achievement was flying 4 family members Boston-Anchorage and then Vancouver-Boston using FF miles in summer peak using minimum number of required miles.
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My best 2008 flight achievements -
1) Obtaining two Business Class tickets from Singapore to Christchurch using United FF miles and $25 per ticket 2) Two separate trips from Singapore to Colorado using United FF miles to upgrade from Economy to Business Class and acquiring double PE miles for one of them during a UA promotion 3)Earning about 60k PE eligible miles on UA, thereby earning my PE Gold for 2009 Only new airport for me this year was SEA. But hands down, my greatest flight achievement of 2008 was surviving my final flight on Garuda Indonesia after having to fly them for four years! |
http://tinyurl.com/8fzx7g
Not quite 100K BISM, but enough for AA EXP renewal. Longest flight - HKG-JNB in CX business class coffins. Most enjoyable (from a flying point of view) - CPT-LHR on the upper deck of a BA 744 in the daytime, so could actually see Africa passing below. Best service - LAX-NRT in AA first class, with movie stars present. Happiest flight to deplane - Aer Lingus, LHR-DUB. Talk about a cattle car. Moo. New airline - Virgin America (biz class, SEA-LAX) - tragically hip. Meh. |
Including one more flight on Wednesday, I will have the following for 2008:
40 qualifying flight segments (Mileage Plus/Star Alliance) 85,535 elite qualifying miles (about 10k earned through the United double EQM promotion earlier in the year)--so roughly 75k BIS miles 32 flights on United; 3 on USeless Airways (misplaced a gate-checked bag last week, not happy with them); 3 on Swiss; 1 on Lufthansa; 1 on some European carrier I don't recall, which was operating a wet lease for Swiss In addition, one non-qualifying flight of approximately 900 miles on Aegean. New airlines: Aegean and Swiss New airports: Bangkok (BKK), Florence (FLR), Venice (VCE). I flew into the old Athens airport many years ago, so I think I can also include the new ATH in this list. I requalified for Premier Executive in August and thought about making a run for 1K, but simply did not have the time (it would have taken a couple of trips). Best flight: UA Chicago-Narita on the upper deck of the 747. Worst flight: aforementioned US flight last week from LAS-PHX; lost one of our bags and the seat in front of me was broken and fully reclined for the entire flight, including take-off and landing. |
All on UA this year.
45,297 BIS miles 60 flights Yes, I make 1P on segments. I hate regional jets. Used 160K miles for two seats ORD-LHR in Business and used another 280K for two seats in first ORD-LAX-SYD for 2009. (ORD-LAX in E+ but trying for upgrade) Flights from MKE or ORD to EWR, EWR, OKC, DAY, MSP, ATL, CIA, LHR, BWI, ATL, LGA, BOS, LGA, HPN, LGA, STL, MCO, RIC, BDL, BDL, SEA, BOS, EWR, RDU. |
To top things off, I just found out that on my last 2008 flight (mentioned above: red-eye LAX-BOS on 12/31/08), my upgrade has come through. Nothing better than to end the year in an F seat (albeit a 757).
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41 Star Alliance revenue flights (UA 28, US 9, NZ 2, NH 2)
64,701 BIS miles of leisure travel 1,692 BIS miles of business travel ===== 66,393 BIS miles on *A carriers 28,710 EQMs from double EQM offer (thanks to Melnq8) 10,542 bonus EQMs from other offers ====== 105,645 EQMs on Star Alliance, so I'll have United 1K status again. Also had two additional US flights go to my DM account. Also two jetBlue flights with a third tomorrow. One award roundtrip on AC, another on SQ, another on UA and another on US. So 53 flights, total, including Firefly. Three new carriers: AC, SQ, and Firefly New airports: ZQN (Queenstown, NZ) ROT (Rotorua, NZ) MEX (Mexico City) SIN (Singapore) PEN (Penang, Malaysia) LGK (Langkawi, Malaysia) MCO (Orlando, FL) OAK (Oakland, CA) YVR (Vancouver, Canada) KMJ (Kumamoto, Japan) Best flight this year was the return leg of a trip to Auckland with my brother. This was Air NZ in business class AKL-SYD and United SYD-LAX in first class (upgraded from biz class using SWUs). This one-way earned 12585 EQMs and 18539 RDMs. The business class roundtrip tickets for both of us, total all in, cost $3056.60 on a United mistake fare. Trip of a lifetime. |
mrwunrfl -
Well done. Always happy to help. |
Also new: MFN, YWH
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Very light year for me. 1st time with no international trips in 10+ years. I think I actually had more road miles for work than air miles in 2008 - literally.
One new airline. Virgin America. tragically hip is probably a good description. I'd like to see them prosper but who knows. Two new airports. LAS and ABQ. On the plus (??) side we did manage to accumulate 100k plus miles on AA using credit cards. Hmmmm. Maybe that's not so much a plus after all. Another plus. No serious disruptions, or when there was a hiccup the airline accommodated me well. |
bill, no one does it better. :-) hny
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Best new airplane flown in 2008:
Singapore Airlines Airbus 380 New airports in 2008: Panama City, Panama Bocas Del Toro, Panama San Jose, Costa Rica Quepos, Costa Rica Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania Zanzibar, Tanzania Arusha, Tanzania Nairobi, Kenya Kuching, Borneo Kota Kinabalu, Borneo Sandakan, Borneo Vientiane, Laos Phonsavan, Laos Luang Probang, Laos Hanoi, Vietnam Hue, Vietnam Da Nang, Vietnam Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam |
hny2u2 ken
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Wow, you guys get around.
After taking a different job assignment in 2008 I had a very light air travel year. No international flights for the first time in recent memory. However, the air miles have been replaced by road miles. (34,000 miles in the car I got in June) Only one new airport for me in 2008 - MCI. I guess the good news is that I have no horror stories to tell. |
Approximately 83,000 AA elite qualifying miles earned. Flights taken in 2008:
January: DFW to LGW (coach); theatre and museums in London February: DFW to OGG (AA Award coach); whale watching in Maui February: DFW to CDG (coach); museums in Paris March: DFW to SAN (first)with trip to Baja Mexico to pet gray whales! April: DFW to CDG (coach) Trip by car to Loire Valley May: DFW to ANC (AA Award coach); driving trip to Denali and Seward May: DFW to ZRH via JFK (first and coach) double elite miles. Trip by car through Bavaria and Switzerland June & July: DFW to YYC (Calgary); Banff, Jasper, and YoHo National Parks August & September: DFW to JAC (AA Award coach) Yellowstone National Park September: DFW to GYU (AA Award coach); flights from Guayaquil to Galapagos on Tame. Five day cruise- Galapagos Islands. October: DFW to CDG (coach and business); museums in Paris October & November: DFW to CDG (coach and business); driving trip to Giverny and Loire Valley November: DFW to LHR; museums and theatre in London New airports: Guayaquil, Galapagos (landed at one departed from another) Highlights: Playing with the gray whales and their babies in San Ignacio Lagoon with a group of whale enthusiasts. Visiting a nearly deserted Denali National Park in mid-May; driving from Wrangell-St. Elias to Valdez (one of the most gorgeous drives ever); staying at the Marriott Residence Inn at Anchorage for around $125 night for a two bedroom suite. Travelling to South America and visiting the Galapagos Islands; booking last minute allowed us to pay 1/2 the regular cruise cost. Seeing the iguanas, Lonesome George, and the seal lions was magical. Lowlights: None |
Hello there rkkwan :)
My DH earned AA Lifetime Platinum. \:D/ I should be there soon. Now I've got to go check out your link to flightmemory. Sounds interesting. Happy travels! |
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