It’s the final week of the year and rather than moan on about how crappy christmas time is for someone who is seperated from their family (it is crap… avoid it), I am going to look back at some of the good times of the last 12 months. I did a MASSIVE amount of travelling in 2013. Both for work, pleasure and for the sheer hell of it. I did my first real mileage runs in 2013 with the BBQ run to Dallas and the Comfy run to Newark. Both taught me a few things about flying in the USA (never have tight connections in winter in the midwest, that is just CRAZY!). I tried a few new airlines, got to return to Asia and even managed 2 trips to the South Pacific.

Some of my favourite travel moments looking back over the last 12 months though all involve random events. Things like being photo bombed by a Qantas Cabin Manager

From Wedding Time Down Under

Having to replace stickers in LAX repeatedly

From LAX Avgeek Run

Or just random stupid things in New Zealand

From AOT NZ Megafamil – North Island

From AOT NZ Megafamil – North Island

All in all I had a great time this year travelling but it was a big big year. I haven’t fully broken down my stats to see what aircraft was top but it will be a close call between a 737 and an A320. Though to be honest this year was filled with so many different types it will be hard to tell. Some of the stats that I do know though:

New Airports: Salt Lake City – SLC, Dallas Fort Worth – DFW, Memphis – MEM, Atlanta – ATL, Newark – EWR, San Jose – SJC, Madison – MSN, Green Bay – GRB, OshKosh – OSH, Washington DC National – DCA, Phoenix – PHX, Philladelphia – PHL, Kansas City – MCI

New Aircraft – MD-88, A321, 767-300 (non ER)

New Airlines – Cathay Pacific, Hawaiian, Southwest, American, US Airways, Jetblue & numerous Regional Airlines flying under other carriers (for Delta, United, & US Airways)

The biggest stat for the year though is my total mileage. I don’t think I have ever flown as many miles in my life. It definately beats last year and I think also the year I flew around the world. My total mileage for 2013 was 83,071! That is a LOT! When you put all the cities on the one map it looks like this:

That is a LOT! Obviously the 3 trips across the Pacific gave me a good portion of that mileage (over half at least), but it was a pretty fun year. Not sure what travelling will entail in 2014, but i don’t think it will be as big… but who knows!