2015 was a relatively strong year for me for business travel, with the first and last thirds of the year being particularly busy. Due to that, my total flights and hotel nights just edged above 2014’s numbers, for another record year.
Table of Contents
Flights
Map generated by Paul Bogard using the Great Circle Mapper - copyright © Karl L. Swartz
I had 89 flights this year—79 for work and 12 personal.
I didn’t take as many personal flights this year, but travel for my job more than made up for the difference.
Hotel Nights
That’s not to say that I didn’t do a lot of personal travel, but a lot of those personal trips were by car. I came out with 31 personal hotel nights and 79 business nights, for a total of 110 nights (the same total as last year).
New Airports
I visited six new airports this year:
| # | Code | Airport | First Visit |
|---|---|---|---|
| 55 | LIT |
Arkansas,
United States
|
21 Jun 2015 |
| 56 | YVR |
British Columbia,
Canada
|
21 Jul 2015 |
| 57 | YYZ |
Ontario,
Canada
|
24 Jul 2015 |
| 58 | SPS |
Texas,
United States
|
19 Oct 2015 |
| 59 | COS |
Colorado,
United States
|
2 Nov 2015 |
| 60 | BNA |
Tennessee,
United States
|
21 Dec 2015 |
I ended the year with 60 total airports visited, and am well on my way to my goal of visiting 100 airports.
New Airlines
My only new airline this year was Air Canada.
Frequent Traveler Status
My flights were much more spread out among airlines this year, so I ended up getting the lowest tier status on two airlines (Gold on American Airlines and Silver on United) rather than last year’s mid-tier status on one airline. For hotels, I was easily able to pick up the 60 nights required for Diamond status with Hilton, and I even managed to pick up enough Marriott nights to get Silver. (Last year, my United Gold status gave me Marriott Gold status as well, even though I barely stayed with them.)
Trivia
- Longest Flight: SEA–CLT (2274 miles or 3659 km)
- Shortest Flight: DFW–SPS (112 miles or 180 km)
- Lowest Altitude “Flight”: SPS–DFW (0 feet above ground level)
