It’s that time of the year again – time to look back on 2014 and take a look at some of my travels! This past year had been marked by a couple of firsts (new countries and a new continent), travel to familiar places to see familiar faces, and one road trip that took me around the state of Florida that seemed like a better idea before I spent 25 hours behind the wheel of my car.
For starters, this year marked a decrease in work travel for me. It wasn’t until August that I had my first work trip and then there would only be three others after that. Work travel usually helps me round out my personal travel and helps keep me at Platinum Medallion on Delta. Since of those trips, three of them were on the east coast, it kept my Medallion Qualification Mile earnings pretty low – and that is despite multiple leisure trips to the west coast (San Diego, Seattle, and Portland). As such I will drop in March 2015 from Platinum to Gold Medallion, which I have been since late 2011. It’s going to suck not being Platinum anymore, I’ll be honest, but at the very least I have managed to hang on to Gold Medallion so that I continue to receive Sky Priority and SkyTeam Elite Plus benefits.
If I had to pick the big highlights from my travels this year they would be:
- Seeing penguins swimming in the Beagle Channel off of Ushuaia, Argentina
- Touring the Boeing 737 production line as part of AvGeekFest 2014 in Renton, WA
- Visiting two friends that I had not seen in many years out in Portland
- Finally driving to Key West from Panama City Beach – Yes, it’s a long, long drive
Flights:
Number of Flight Segments: 49
Number of Airlines: 32 (Delta Air Lines (45), Aerolineas Argentinas (3), KLM Royal Dutch Airlines (1))
Total Miles Flown: 43,722
Time Spent in the Air: 5 days, 0 hours, 0 minutes (Interesting how that turned out, eh?)
Average Flight Distance/Length: 892 Miles / 2 hours 26 minutes
Longest Flight: ATL-SCL (Atlanta, GA to Santiago, CL) – 4,715 miles, 9 hours 34 minutes
Shortest Flight: AGS-ATL (Augusta, GA to Atlanta) – 143 miles, 1 hour 1 minutes
Aircraft Flown On: 717 (18), 757 (8), 737 (7), MD-88 (7), 767 (2), A319 (2), 777 (1), E190 (1), CR9 (1), CR7 (1), A320 (1)
Airports:
Airports Flown Into/Out Of/Through: ATL, ECP, PHL, SAN, AEP, SEA, SCL, GRU, AGS*, PDX, USH, MLI, EWR, EZE, LGA, MDW, MKE
Number of Connections in ATL: 22
*Diversion due to weather
SkyMiles Earnings:
SkyMiles Status: Platinum Medallion in 2014 | Gold Medallion for 2015
Total Medallion Qualification Miles Earned: 58,594
Total SkyMiles Earned: 140,398
Total SkyMiles Redeemed: 345,000
Travels:
Countries: Chile, Argentina, Brazil (Transit Only)
Cities: Seattle, Portland, San Diego, Philadelphia, Orlando, Miami, Key West, Tampa, Atlanta, Santiago, Buenos Aires, Ushuaia, Chicago, Sheboygan, Burlington (IA), New York City
Other Places: Boeing 737 Assembly Line (Renton, WA), Beagle Channel/Tierra del Fuego, Everglades
Number of Trips: 12
Days “On The Road”: ~59
Average Trip Length: 4.9 Days/Trip
2014 Trip Reports and Reviews:
- Quick Review: Hilton Pensacola Beach Gulf Front
- Portland to the Nines
- DoubleTree Hotel San Diego Mission Valley – Presidential Suite
- Hotel Review: Le Méridien Tampa
- Hotel Review: Conrad Miami
- Hotel Review: Casa Marina Resort Key West
- Way Down South: An Adventure to South America
- Hotel Review: W New York – Downtown