Jet Lag 2010

This has year has, by far, been the busiest flying year that I have ever experienced.  While international business travelers rack up over one hundred thousand miles per year, I was very pleased to reach 25K with Alaska Airline partners and get MVP status.  When I was in graduate school at UAF I reached the MVP status with Alaska Airlines by flying enough segments while working in rural Alaska and by making a few trips to visit Molly in Seattle.  Back then I think they let you check an extra bag for free as an MVP.  Now I am not sure that I will see much benefit from my status other than selecting exit row seats online.

My Flight Map for 2010.  Many of the paths were flown more that once.

I realized that my most recent trip to Washington DC marked by eighth trip across the country this year.  When I returned from DC it was December and looking back it appears that I have flown at least once in every month of this year!  This might sound like a lot of bragging, but that is really not the point.  Almost all of my travel has been for work.  I would love to have some local work, perhaps right here in Puget Sound.  Instead, of the four jobs I worked on this year, three were on the east coast and one was on Lake Michigan.  I also attended two conferences for work, one in Florida and the most recently one in Washington DC.  Molly traveled a lot this summer as well and worked for over three months in Alaska.  This summer when I was not traveling for work I was often in Alaska to visit Molly and our families.  So far I have made four trips to Alaska (April, July, August, and September).  I have just one scheduled flight remaining this year.

Yesterday I purchased my ticket to fly one way from Seattle to Anchorage.  From there I will be helping my Dad drive his truck and trailer down to Seattle for Christmas.  After that he will be driving the rest of the way across the country to Florida.  All this adds up to a whole lot of money spent and fuel burned.  I hope that I might travel to less distant places for work next year, but I wouldn’t bet on it.  Until then I will continue to rack up the airline miles and enjoy the modern marvel that flying is.