The team that brings you Going Global travels a lot to find, capture and curate the best stories of travel from around the world. It’s a tough job but hey somebody has to do it 🙂 Most of our major travel for 2019 is completed but so far this year our search has taken us another 4.5 times around the earth, that’s over 110,000 miles in airplane seats if anyone is counting.
In 2019 we completed 49 flights taking us almost halfway to the moon. We spent 243 hours and 43 minutes on planes, which is equivalent to over 10 days. We took 15 domestic and 34 international flights and visited 52 cities in 14 countries. All together we were on the road 148 days.
Our travels this year have so far taken us to 24 airports while flying 38 different routes. We flew on 17 types aircraft with 13 airlines. We had most flight on a B789 Dreamliner which is a great plane for long haul travel.
All this flying means we will once again qualify as top tier on our main airline, which is SuperElite 100k on Air Canada and will also receive Star Alliance Gold. And thanks to Hyatt’s relationship with AA we have been gifted Executive Platinum status until January 31, 2021, which also includes oneworld Emerald benefits. We spent lots of nights at Hyatt properties so are once again Hyatt Globalists and Marriott Platinum Elite. We should remain Radisson Gold but aren’t sure if we’ll keep IHG Platinum status of Club Accor Gold.
As hotel and airline loyalty programs become much more revenue-based in terms of earning status and then being able to redeem for flights or free nights, we find it’s become more important to be strategic with your travel dollar spend. That said we also enjoyed some wonderful nights at smaller, boutique properties this year which have no loyalty programs. Hotels like The Royal Portfolio in South Africa and the Palais Faraj in Fez, Morocco were simply stunning and great places to stay simply because of their location, service and style. It’s not always about earning rewards or re-qualifying for program status, it’s also about the experience.
For 2020 we have lots of plans and big expectations for Going Global. We’ll detail those in future posts, but for now, we think some of the most interesting destinations in 2020 will be Colombia, Vietnam, Austria, Philippines and Mexico. There’s a big planet to explore and our goal is to scour the globe to bring you the best the world has to offer.
And of course for fans in the US and UK, remember that you can always stream our shows for free with your Amazon Prime subscription. Thanks for all of the support this year and here’s to a great year of travels for everyone in 2020. And just for the record, we expect/hope/look forward to flying another 4.5 Times around the earth next year to find you the best travel stories from the four corners of the earth.
US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07K9KFP3H/
UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07K9VJH79/
