I vowed last year to reduce my flying but it looks like I am on track to fly over 200 000 miles (almost 300 000 kilometres).

In fact this week, I will reach the dubious milestone of over 412 hours flown this year – the most number of hours I have ever done. I travel this week across USA and with Turkish airlines (who I have ever flown before( from USA to Europe)

This years so far, 20 airlines have taken me in 20 different types of planes to 53 Airports in 13 countries!

Two things about this week:

The first is I have a crazy schedule: five US cities in five days with flights from Auckland, New Zealand to Melbourne, Australia. Will be flying Qantas, United, Delta, JetBlue and Southwest.

The second is that I will fly the 900th flight of my life! Sadly, not a very exciting flight on  a Delta connection to Richmond, Virginia. Check out my flight memory which tracks where I have flown.

I have now flown over two million kilometres (1.2 million miles). That is almost 53 times around the world!

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This week I fly my 888th flight. It is a standard run of the mill Melbourne to Wellington with Qantas (it will be my 255th flight with Qantas).

I would have liked to have made the flight more special in some way. For example, it would have been nice to have made flight 888 first class on an ANA 787 but that is not going to happen!

I need to get better organised for my 999 and 1000th flights!  Open to any ideas to make those flights amazing!

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JetBlue has made a lot of fuss about the extra legroom in their cabins. It is one reason I love them. I also have been very happy to pay the premium to get the extra row emergency exit seats. They call this Product “Even More(TM) Space”.  On JetBlue’s Airbus A320 aircraft, Even More Space seats with 38-inches of legroom are offered in rows 2-5 plus emergency exit rows 10 and 11.

I like it because not only do you get more room (38″ instead of 33″), you also get Priority Boarding which means your luggage is first away. I have also found that these seats are the last to fill and I have often ended up with two seats to myself!  In some airports, Even More Space has meant priority security access.

JetBlue have announced they are adding additional Even More Seating space on their Embraer E190 fleet.  For an additional fee, sixteen seats in rows 1, 12, 13 and 14 now offer the extra legroom and benefits.

The small print is, of course, to give four rows 5″ extra, means that 20″ needs to come from somewhere. Does this mean twenty of the other rows will see their legroom fall from 33 to 32 inches? This seems a shame to reduce one of JetBlue’s advantages. The reality, however is that airlines seem to be all reducing their services and benefits and then charging people extra fees to enjoy for what used to be standard benefits!

At the same time, JetBlue are introducing a new tier to their Frequent Flyer Program: True Blue. The new tier is called TrueBlue Mosaic and includes:

• Free second checked bag for everyone flying on the member’s reservation
• Free Even More™ Speed, providing expedited security at 36 airports for everyone flying on the member’s reservation
• Early boarding with early access to overhead bin space for everyone flying on the member’s reservation
• Ability to use TrueBlue points to purchase Even More™ Space seats for extra legroom
• Access to a dedicated 24/7 customer service line

TrueBlue members will be automatically upgraded to TrueBlue Mosaic when they have earn 15,000  flight points in a calendar year.

I am interested that Mosaic holders do not automatically get the extra space seat. True they have the option of getting the seats for points and not cash but the airline still wants the revenue from these passengers. Most of the benefits they are offerring won’t cost the airline much. Faster security and priority boarding cost the airline nothing. An extra bag oir two costs a little in terms of fuel.

Over at Canadian carrier Westjet, the airline announced the introduction of Premium Economy seating across its entire fleet. The airline will provide introduce four rows of extra legroom seating with 36 inches of pitch. Bundled with that will be convenience features such as priority boarding and free on-board amenities. The reconfiguration will begin in August and will be completed in December 2012.

At the same time, WestJet is “standardising” its regular seat pitch at 31 – 32 inches. In other words, some of the other rows will lose some of their “excess space” to free up that space.

I fly for the 280th time through Melbourne (Australia) airport! This is the airport I have used the most through my life. 280 check ins! Altogether, that is a lot of time in the security lines, shops and lounges!  As of today, my ten most visited airports are:

1.   Melbourne, Australia (MEL): 279 times.  4.3 out of 5
2.   Sydney, Australia (SYD):  248 times.   3.0
3.   Los Angeles, USA (LAX): 89 times.  1.8
4.   Auckland, New Zealand (AKL): 69 times.  3.2
5.  Adelaide, Australia (ADL) 69 times.  4.1
6.  San Francisco, USA (SF):  46 times.  4.0
7.  London Heathrow, UK (LHR): 41 times. 2.6
8.  Wellington, NZ (WLG): 36 times.  4.1
9.  Brisbane, Australia (BNE), 33 times. : 4.0
10.  Chicago O-Hare, USA (ORD): 29 times.  4.0

I was interested how many of these airports are amongst my least favourites. Often its not the airport but the destination that is important. I detest LAX but most Australian and NZ flights to the USA hub through this airport so I have ended up there more times than I would have liked.

This is a crazy travel week this week!  Starting with a 200km Hungarian train journey, I end up covering 31 096 km (19322 miles ) with four air carriers and a rail company. I get two A380 rides from Paris to Los Angeles and then onto  Melbourne for Australian winter.

Anyone else being so stupid?!

Wishing you a good week.

The North America Airline Satisfaction Study was released on June 13 showing satisfaction with US  and Canadian airlines declined slightly from the previous year . This survey run  by  J.D. Power and Associates 2012 involves more than 13,500 passengers giving their input between May 2011 and April 2012. Power scores airlines out of 1000 points with points being awarded for  seven factors in this order of importance:

1. Cost and fees
2. In-flight services;
3. Boarding/deplaning/baggage;
4.  Flight crew;
5. Aircraft;
6. Check-in;
7. Reservations,

Overall North American airlines rated 681 points down from 683 in 2011.

Low cost carriers (average score 754 up 3) performed better than traditional carriers (average score 674 down 4 points).

A few interesting points emerged from the survey:

• JetBlue were number onewith 776 points. This was their seventh time in number one place.
• Delta Air Lines was the only traditional carrier to improve from 2011, jumping by 9 index points. I concur with this
• 34 per cent of customers now check in online.
• Overall satisfaction with the check-in process is highest when passengers check in using a mobile device (845), compared with curbside (840) and using a traditional computer/laptop (825).
• Check in satisfaction is much lower when using a kiosk (793); or the main counter (778)
• Passengers who paid to check bags had an average satisfaction score 85 points lower than other passengers. Looks like airlines have a long way to go for passengers to accept they have to pay for what was a given. My thinking is one bag free and then charge.
• While the cost and fees factor is important, more than 70 percent of passenger satisfaction is driven by other parts of the overall experience.
•  Attributes pertaining to a carrier’s process and people, rather than price, are more highly correlated with passengers’ intentions to fly with an airline again in the future.
• There is a major gap between United and Continental which have now merged. It will be interesting to see in 2013 what the result is for the combined airline. We may also see AirTran vanish from the rankings as Southwest absorb them.

This table lists the airlines in the order of their overall Power Rating. I also note where a particular area stands out. I have also listed my own scores for the airlines.

I also rank JetBlue as the best. For me Virgin America are an equal first. I put Frontier and Continental a lot higher than  survey respondents and Southwest I give fifth place while survey respondents gave them second place. I rank AirTran slightly above merger partner Southwest while the surveyed public had Southwest ahead.  AirTran have been great to me (with one exception) and I am sad to see them go. American, United and US are consistently my least favoured carriers. Power respondents also gave them the three lowest votes. I have never flown Westjet.

I flew my 250th Qantas flight, last week, from Sydney to Melbourne, Australia. It was also my 860th flight of my life! Five weeks of my life spent inside Qantas planes travelling the equivalent of 16 times around the world! As you can see from the map below, the Australian flag carrier has taken me to five continents.

What is interesting is how many of the Qantas routes I have flown on have now vanished: Harare to Perth, Bangkok to London, Sydney to San Francisco, Christchurch to Melbourne, and Auckland to Los Angeles are all gone.

I have dedicated a few posts now to the future of Qantas. Right now, the future of the international operations are under the spotlight. Last Tuesday (June 5, 2012), Qantas announced it expects a profit of  between $50 million and $100 million for 2011-2012, a 90 per cent drop from the $552 million it achieved the previous year. The Qantas share price went into freefall this week, dropping below $1 a share for the first time ever. A billion dollars was wiped off the market value of Qantas.  Qantas shares were worth $1.90 one year ago and $5.91 in October 2007.

For the first time, questions have been publicly raised about the tenure of CEO Alan Joyce. Joyce has had several plans for the International Division. One has been the shifting of unprofitable services over to discount subsidiary Jetstar. Then came the shifting of some international services to Qantas domestic services or New Zealand based Jetconnect, both of which have a lower cost base largely because of lower wages paid to staff. Another, was the employment of non Australian cabin crew at much lower wages. Last year’s brain wave was the formation of an international airline division based in Asia -this has flopped so far. This was accompanied by major cuts to Qantas international services. Now Qantas has been split into a Frequent Flyer, domestic and international division with their own management structures.

None of these have focussed on some key issues:

• Over the last few decades, Qantas has gone from having a majority of the international passengers to and from Australia to less than a fifth
• 25 per cent of European bound customers in the last six months have shifted from flying through an Asian to flying through a Middle Eastern hub – this is the Emirates, Etihad and Qatar Airlines effect
• There is a strong perception that Qantas customer service is inferior. My experience is that they still have great service but their service has declined.
• There have been significant questions by the public about Qantas safety which have not been adequately addressed
• Qantas international staff are very unhappy with their management- this does not help with service
• Many Qantas frequent flyers feel alienated by the airline- especially management attitudes.
• Qantas planes are getting very old- especially when compared to Singapore Airlines, Air Asia and the middle eastern carriers. Qantas is in the midst of a re-fit
• Qantas routes have not been evolving fast enough. For example, Qantas has no Middle East presence. As previously stated, I think Emirates is the most logical tie up there- especially as Virgin Australia has Etihad as partner.
• Qantas are also too Sydney focussed with most international flights out of Brisbane, Melbourne or Adelaide requiring a change in Sydney

After this week’s news the pressure is well and truly on Joyce to turn the international division around – fast. The pressure will be on new Qantas International CEO Simon Hickey. Their time is running out. There are four choices:

• Sell all or part of Qantas International (British Airways IAG Group or Emirates seem most likely candidates). Whether the government will allow some modification of the Qantas sale act which limits foreign  ownership of Qantas remains to be seen.
• Develop a comprehensive partnership- Emirates or Singapore seem the two most likely candidates
• Shut it down – this would impact negatively the highly profitable Frequent Flyer program and the domestic feed
• Start fixing it – this should have happened already

Will I be able to have my 500th flight with Qantas? Watch this space. Who knows right now?

Today’s flight with Virgin Australia from Los Angeles to Melbourne, Australia tipped me over two million kilometres (1.25 million miles)  travelled by aeroplane!  This is a distance equivalent to 50 times around the earth. I have eaten, read, slept, chatted and worked for 16 and a half weeks of my life in the air.

I record all of my 857 flights at Flightmemory.com. This database allows me to keep all of my flight information in one place and print maps based on the data. In case you think I am completely geeky, here is the blog post which explains how my friend Tony started using Flightmemory. His memory is one motivation for continuing to record my flights.

Key Stats:

 This flight also re-earnt me my Platinum Status with Virgin Australia.  I now hold Platinum with them until December, 2013. Flying a lot has some rewards.

This week I fly nowhere (unless I win the lottery!)

I am Wild about Flying and thanks to my friend Tony (see separate story), I have a very accurate record of my travel. This means I know for a certainty, that as at today’s date I have flown 812 times in my life-   111 times in 2011.   Question: Do I need to fly 112 times next year? 111 times in a year is about twice per week. In total a scary 412 hours of my year was spent in aeroplanes- two and a half weeks!!

Distance Flown
I  travelled 304 560 km  (189 245 miles). That number is meaningless to me as a quantity but it is 7.6 times right around the earth!!!  This is the most I have flown in my life and brought my total miles flown in my life to:  1,161,075 miles/  1,868,569 kilometres.  At current flying patterns, I will hit two million kilometres by mid 2012! Like to bet when?

The Overall Experience.

For me, flying was not quite as good an experience as it was in 2010, but way better than the first five years after September 11. My overall score for flying in 2011 was 4.3 out of 5 (86%). Flying is made more pleasurable for me by looking for the good in it, not checking bags in, having high frequent flyer status and seeking after exit row seats as much as possible. Its let down by crappy US airlines, US security lines and proceses (although TSA personnel are much happier now).

Greenhouse emissions

My plane travel resulted in a staggering 39.4 tonnes of greenhouse gas, which I offset 110% by purchasing 163 trees. We also added offset to some tickets as we bought them from the airlines. Its kind of like double dipping in a good way.

Airports Visited 

The airports I visited the most were Melbourne and Sydney (Australia), Los Angeles, Auckland and Perth, I added a lot of new airports in the year mostly in South America and the Middle East.

Airlines Flown- Qantas drops from my most flown airline

In terms of the 27 airlines I used in  2011, the Virgin Australia group were the ones I was with the most travelling with them 20 times for 61 000 km. Qantas came second 15 times for 43 000km, While a lot, my Qantas flying has firmly dropped – see the table below of annual Qantas travel which shows a reduction from a peak of 61 to 43 to 15 flights over the last three years).

I had quite a sour taste in my mouth about Qantas which I have blogged about previously. I am curious as to how many other Qantas Platinum customers have done the same reduction in travel.

New Airlines

Experienced Etihad  for the first time (trip report to come), as well as V Australia (now part of Virgin Australia, Royal Brunei and Royal Jordanian and Korean Air. In total in my life I have now travelled with 81 airlines- some of which are defunct. See my blog tomorrow for my top (and bottom) airlines of 2011.

The Planes

The real excitement (for me) in 2011 was managing to time my 737th, 747th, 757th, 767th and 777th flights of my life to be on the aircraft of the same number. So my 737th flight was with  Southwest for example on a 737 from Portland to Spokane. It was a brilliant flight! I was very excited by this achievement although I was a little disappointed that I didn’t manage:

• 707 – I don’t know John Travolta well enough to ask to go in his 707
• 717 – I didnt manage to get an Air Tran flight timing right
•  727  -The only airline with 727 in regular service is in Iran a
• 787- the first B787 flight ended up being after my 787th flight and despite lobbying efforts I did not get near it

The other was an additional three A380 products: korean, Air France (to come) and Lufthansa.

How was your 2011?

Related Posts

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I did it! My 747th flight- in a 747!

My 757th Flight on a United 757-uber fail

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Trip Report: Perfection 777th flight on an NZ B777

How I got hooked on Flightmemory.com