2016 Was One Of My Most Interesting Years Of Travel

Hear me out for just a second.  My fellow travel bloggers all reported on their 2016 year in travel a long time ago.  It’s been one of those things on my list for months, but I’ve had a hard time getting everything entered.  I debated not posting about my flights in 2016 but decided to do so for two reasons.  First, I enjoy looking back and writing about it.  And, since this blog isn’t going to replace my day job anytime soon, I try to write about things I enjoy.  Second, it was a really interesting year in travel for me.  I saw a lot of new airports, added a lot of new routes.

I spent a decent amount of time involved in a new project last year.  Dubbed the Results Junkies North American Tech Tour, I followed my friend Paul around the country to meet with entrepreneurs.  He toured the country in a pickup truck and Airstream.  I chose airplanes and hotels.  And, I ended up in a lot of new places.  Here’s what the map for 2016 looked like:

The big new destination for me last year was Sydney.  From the Park Hyatt to Bridge Climb, I had a great time during my short visit.

Salzburg and Vienna were new international stops as well.  Kelowna was a new international destination much closer to home that was a really pleasant surprise. Here’s how the numbers shaped up for 2016:

I thought for sure this would have been the most miles I’d flown in a calendar year but I only ended up with 136,000. That’s more than 5 times around the planet.

I spent 15 days (or a bit more than 2 weeks) physically on airplanes this year.  That’s one of the stats that I marvel at every year.  My flight from Sydney to the US was my longest of the year and my new longest.  At the time, it was the longest commercial flight available but has since been surpassed by other routes.

The Big Picture

The last 9 years have all been heavy travel years due to my job.  Couple that with showing our kids the world, and my lifetime travel totals are starting to get up there.  While puny compared to some of my friends who are in 3-5 million miles flow range, I’m well on my way to my 2nd million miles in the air:

And, the map of all those places is starting to look pretty, um, detailed:

Even though I added a continent this year (Australia) and a handful of new European dots, there’s still a lot of empty space on my canvas as it pertains to Africa, Asia and South America.

The list of my top 20 airports visited all-time tells a few stories:

The Washington, DC area has been my home for 20 years.  New York was home before that.  Seeing those airports in the top 20 makes plenty of sense.  DFW is absolutely a product of a decade of business travel mostly on American.  Recent changes have me focusing more on United, though I’m still not sure how long it would take for DFW to fall out of second place.  120 more stops in Denver is a lot, even with a continuing business interest there.

We have family in Halifax, and we spend a bunch of time in Orlando hitting up Disney World (emergency Disney trips are absolutely a thing).  Chicago, San Francisco, LAX and Houston are all hubs.  Between work and poker, I’ve spent my fair share of time in Vegas.  About the only airport on this list that surprised me was Seattle.  I guess I’ve been there more than I though.

I also added 7 new airlines.  I’ve already reviewed some of those:

• airberlin
• Alitalia
• Austrian
• Frontier
• Porter
• Qantas
• WestJet

Diehard AVGeeky Stuff

Still reading?  If you’re a collector of dots and lines, I’ve got some more nitty gritty (and, you should definitely be listening to the Dots, Lines & Destinations podcast).

I added a ton of new routes and airports in the US as well.  I hit 22 new airports, including:

• AVL (Asheville, NC)
• BZN (Bozeman, MT)
• DAY (Dayton, OH)
• DUS (Dusseldorf)
• FAR (Fargo, ND)
• FWA (Fort Wayne, IN)
• ICT (Wichita, KS, Air Capital of the World)
• IND (Indianapolis)
• LNK (Lincoln, NE)
• OKC (Oklahoma City)
• OMA (Omaha, NE)
• PIT (Pittsburg, PA)
• RSW (Fort Myers, FL)
• SAF (Santa Fe, NM)
• SYD (Sydney, Australia)
• SYR (Syracuse, NY)
• SZG (Salzburg)
• TUL (Tulsa, OK)
• TYS (Knoxville, TN)
• VIE (Vienna)
• YLW (Kelowna, BC)
• YTZ (Toronto City Center)

That brings my total number of airports to 132.  I feel like that’s a pretty respectable number, though I’m sure I have friends with bigger totals.  There were a ton of new routes this year as well:

• DCA-PHX
• PHX-DCA
• LAS-PHX
  DEN-YVR
• YVR-YLW
• YLW-YYC
• YYC-DEN
• MIA-PTY
• JFK-MIA
• PTY-MIA
• ORD-FWA
• IND-ORD
• IAD-PIT
• PIT-IAD
• BWI-RSW
• RSW-BWI
• ORD-TUL
• OKC-DFW
• DFW-SAF
• ABQ-DEN
• SLC-LAS
• LAS-RNO
• RNO-LAS
• ORD-LNK
• OMA-CLT
• DCA-STL
• IAD-YTZ
• YTZ-IAD
• ORD-FAR
• FAR-ORD
• ORD-YYZ
• SFO-YVR
• YVR-DEN
• SFO-SYD
• SYD-DFW
• DEN-BZN
• IAD-IND
• BZN-DEN
• CTA-DUS
• DUS-SZG
• VIE-IAD
• IAD-SYR
• SYR-IAD
• DFW-TYS
• AVL-CLT
• IAD-DAY
• CVG-DEN
• IAD-CMH
• CMH-DFW
• ORD-ICT
• ICT-ORD

Finally, I added a few more states (Oklahoma, Montana, North Dakota and Nebraska).  That leaves me with 5 states left to hit (Arkansas, Iowa, South Dakota, Hawaii and Alaska).

Summing It Up

My goal in 2016 was to travel less.  Technically, I actually did that.  In 2015, I traveled 149,000 miles.  In 2016, that dropped to 136,000.  That’s not a ton, but it’s headed in the direction I’d like it to.  I do love traveling, but business travel is a grind.  I think I’d be fine at my current level of travel if I could swap out a few business trips for more leisure travel.  But, the older I get, the more I’m just a little bit more content to be at home as long as it means time with the family.

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