2013 Travel Year In Review

Well, it's the last day of 2013, and wow, I've had an amazing year. Since my father's an Asian math nerd, according to his excel spreadsheet, I have:

1. Flown approximately 84,860 miles this year.
2. Taken 48 flight segments (14 of which were 5-13 hours long).
3. Flown out of 32 airports.
4. On 12 different airlines.
5. Traveled to 10 foreign countries.
6. Earned 0 frequent flyer miles!

Of course, our #1 airline this year was United Airlines (14 flight segments), and we flew through Newark and JFK Airports most often (9 times each). My father earned United Gold Status and Aegean Airlines Blue Status for 2014, while my mother earned Aegean Airlines Gold Status and United Silver Status through 2014.

Most of our flights were paid for with out of pocket cash, though we did:

1. Save on my fare since I flew as a lap child for most of 2013;
2. Save $1,721 by using our Citi Thank You points for free flights to LA, Memphis and Phoenix;
3. Save another $1,348 by using British Airways Avios miles for our recent trip to Puerto Rico;
4. Taking advantage of mistake fares, such as the time we flew to Argentina on TAM for just $400/person (vs. $1,200/person normally); and 
5. Capitalize on United MileagePlus Awards for some of our long haul international business class flights (Thailand, Germany/France and Israel).

On the hotel side, we have:

1. Stayed 129 nights in hotels this year
2. Across 34 different cities
3. In 21 unique hotel brands

The hotel brands with the most stays was a tie between #1T Sheraton and #1T Hyatt Place (15 nights each) followed by #3 Westin (14 nights) and the #4T W Hotels (12 nights) and #4T Park Hyatt (12 nights, including the amazing Palacio Duhau Park Hyatt Buenos Aires seen here). This year we earned Starwood Platinum Status (50 nights) for 2014 and benefited from Hyatt Diamond Status (ending Feb 2014), Hilton Gold Status and Marriott Gold Status.

Now, while many of you may just assume we're millionaires, let me be clear - we are not! Because of the crafty use of hotel branded credit cards, sign up bonuses and seasonal promotions, we've been able limit the out of pocket cash expenditures. From the 129 nights spent in hotels this year, 28 of those nights were for work related travel and reimbursed ($5,060 spent for an average of $181/night). The remaining 101 nights were for "leisure" travel and cost us an average of $83/night in out of pocket cash from using free night awards and Cash & Point discounted rates.

A quick recap of some of our favorite photos from 2013.

 

  

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Koh Samui Airport

Flight #35 - Bangkok Airways 145
Bangkok (BKK) – Koh Samui (USM)
Sunday, Feb 17, 2013 
Depart: 1:30PM / Arrive: 2:35PM
Duration: 1hr 5min
Aircraft: Airbus 319 
Seat: 1E and 1F (Economy) 
Mileage: 304 miles
Lifetime Miles:  71,711 miles

We got a taxi from the hotel around 11AM to catch our 1:30PM flight to Koh Samui (island).  This might seem a bit early for our flight but we didn't want to stress if we got caught in the famous Bangkok traffic.  However, it wasn't the car traffic that was the problem (took 40 minutes), it was the human traffic when we went to check in for our flight on Bangkok Airways.

Oftentimes, foreign carriers are usually in an alliance with other airlines like how Thai Airways is in the Star Alliance along with United Airlines.  And when you're an elite in one, you get many of the same benefits when flying on their partner airline (such as being able to check in at their business class desks, expedited security lines, free/extra checked bags).

But unfortunately, Bangkok Airways isn't affiliated with United (nor American nor Delta, for that matter).  They have a code-share agreement (meaning you can earn miles) with a few random international carriers, but nothing that would help my father.

My father glanced over to the empty Bangkok Airways "Blue Ribbon" (premium class) check in desk and sighed as he made his way over to the end of the long line in Economy.  The line wrapped around 6 times but since we were there early (11:50AM), we figured we'd still have plenty of time.

After finally getting our tickets (around 12:25PM), we went straight to the departure gates since the flight was boarding at 12:50PM.  Bangkok offers all economy passengers access to a club lounge (separate from their first class lounge) but we decided to pick up some fast food for the flight instead since it was lunchtime and we weren't sure they were going to serve anything on a 1 hour flight.

Surprisingly, however, they did serve a full meal and coffee/tea while in the air.  By the time the meal was cleared, we were descending to Koh Samui Airport, the "most beautiful airport in the world."

Koh Samui Airport isn't like other utilitarian regional airports.  It was built 30 years ago by Bangkok Airways specifically to access the island by air.  Before it was completed, travelers had to take a long train/bus ride from Bangkok and then take a ferry to Samui.

But now, it's an hour flight to a beautiful (and eco-friendly) airport that's designed stylishly like a tropical resort hotel property.  As Bangkok Airways said, "We want your vacation to start as soon as your plane lands."

And now, we were off to find our pre-arranged ride (van & boat) to Koh Phangan island...