2017 Travel Year in Review


A very busy travel year by my standards, involving some 56 flights (up from 27 the previous year). I visited the US for the first time, had a couple short trips to NZ and also headed to a number of Australian cities - some for the first time, some that I just hadn't seen for a decade or more.




Statistics

Flights: 56 segments
Distance: 48,682 miles / 78,346 kilometers
Flight Time: 4 days, 15:35 hours
Unique
Airports25
Carriers15
Countries3
Vehicles19
Distance
Total flown48682 mi
Around the world1.96x
To the Moon0.204x
To Mars0.0014x
Journey records
LongestAKL↔SFO, 6529 mi, 11:33
ShortestSEA↔PDX, 129 mi, 00:31
Average869 mi, 01:59
Airport records
NorthernmostSEA (47.45°N 122.31°W)
SouthernmostIVC (46.41°S 168.31°E)
WesternmostPDX (45.59°N 122.6°W)
EasternmostWLG (41.33°S 174.81°E)



Firsts

Quite a few new travel experiences for me in 2017, the stand-outs were:
  • First time in Business Class on VA, QF, NZ and AA.
  • Domestic First Class on AA and VX
  • First visit to the United States
  • Visiting Zion National Park, UT: just an amazing place, I'm glad I took so many photos
  • Seeing a Green Bay game live at Lambeau. It's a real shame that Rodgers wasn't playing but still an amazing experience

 
Lambeau Field

 

Status


As a result of all this flitting about, I hit Velocity Gold (and came very close to Platinum, well within striking distance now). Last few flights of the year moved me to Qantas Silver, with flights from early 2018 booked that should push me over the line to Gold.

 On the hotel side, I mainly booked through aggregators but I had enough stays direct through IHG to hit Gold with them. I came close to leveling up with Accor but the benefits didn't seem to justify specifically moving any bookings.

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