How often do you fly?

[v]

Some comments in today's credit card thread made me wonder...

A round trip counts as flying once.

Count both leisure and business flights.

If you fly very infrequently (let's say less than one flight every two years on average), what keeps you from flying?  Fear?  Inconvenience of airports?  Price?  Prefer to travel by car?  Don't feel like traveling that far?

If you fly very frequently (let's say more than once a month on average), what keeps you in the air so often?  Anyone want to brag about their lifetime mileage?

[aurora]

I average 10-12 times per year. Typically 3-4 times per year are personal (largely to visit family) and the rest are work. Unfortunately boycotting the two most common airlines for my city has made it hard to earn mileage status.

[rikki]

I fly at least once, usually twice a month, most for pleasure. When I worked in consulting, I flew 126 segments (so like 60 round trips) in one year, and at least 100 segments another few years. I am a million-miler with American and have probably 500,000 points combined on other airlines, though I am starting to use them. I have enough Hyatt points to stay for a month at any Park Hyatt or probably 6 months at a Hyatt Place.

[cheezer]

I fly at minimum once a month - pretty much monthly for work and then a bunch of personal trips.

[Onetwothree]

I fly 1 - 2 times a year. My job doesn't require any travel and I don't have the money/vacation time to travel more frequently.

[v]

Mar 2, 2015 18:41:52 GMT -5 rikki said:

I fly at least once, usually twice a month, most for pleasure. When I worked in consulting, I flew 126 segments (so like 60 round trips) in one year, and at least 100 segments another few years. I am a million-miler with American and have probably 500,000 points combined on other airlines, though I am starting to use them. I have enough Hyatt points to stay for a month at any Park Hyatt or probably 6 months at a Hyatt Place.

Well, there's a blog waiting to happen...

[y4m]

28 times so far this year.

Well not full round trips, but you get the idea.

A lot.

[msmerymac]

When I lived on the west coast I would fly to visit family a few times a year. Plus things on the west coast are further apart, lol. Now that I can drive to see family, I probably only fly maybe 3 times per year. Probably 2-3 times this year. But that can change, depending on what types of vacations and stuff we want to do. My max was maybe 10-12 flights in one year, but none of that was business.

[ECB]

I used to fly more but these days, it's once a year, at most. Largely the expense is the reason. Like were driving to chicago next month because to fly and rent a car was just cost prohibitive.

But DH and I also like road trips, so it's not horrible.

[Susie]

I'm probably in the 6-8 range. Minimum of 4, usually 5 or 6 round trips/year for work, and maybe 2 personal.

My flights for leisure are limited for a few reasons:
- A lot of places I go, I can (and often prefer to) drive to. There's lots to do within 5 or so hours of my house, which is my approximate comfortable driving radius. My parents and brother are within that radius. Plus, road trips mean the Doggies Derkins can come, and I can bring my bike(s) and other large toys.
- I take the train whenever I go to NYC for work or to visit friends.
- My home airport is small, and doesn't have nonstops to many desirable places. Once you add a layover in there, you might as well either drive or take a train instead, for all the hassle of security, arriving early, blah blah blah.

[WinterWine]

Probably at least one trip every other month. H and I both moved into roles with more travel in the past 6 months though. So for 2015 I'm averaging a trip every few weeks, between work trips, and joining H to make long weekend out of his trips away.

Historically we haven't don't much domestic flying for personal trips as we like to do outdoor activities in places that are easier to drive to.

[aurora]

Mar 2, 2015 18:47:35 GMT -5 y4m said:

28 times so far this year.

Well not full round trips, but you get the idea.

A lot.

Considering we're only 61 days into the year, impressive.

[y4m]

Mar 2, 2015 19:00:00 GMT -5 aurora said:

Mar 2, 2015 18:47:35 GMT -5 y4m said:

28 times so far this year.

Well not full round trips, but you get the idea.

A lot.

Considering we're only 61 days into the year, impressive.

More like exhausting!  I've flown an average of like 700 miles a day this year, apparently.

[kadams767]

Just about once every other week on average, mostly for work. Last year, I flew 27 round trip trips, only 3 of them were for pleasure. My job keeps me in the air this often - I live and work in western NY state, but most of my clients are in major east coast cities and I spend a lot of time there instead.

[hamster]

It used to be generally once a year for work, now it's rarer.

I just don't like flying that much. I have control issues, I hate hate hate turbulence, and it always requires a connecting flight based on our airport. But, you can only get to so many places driving from Oregon.

[v]

Mar 2, 2015 18:47:35 GMT -5 y4m said:

28 times so far this year.

Well not full round trips, but you get the idea.

A lot.

I want to hear more!

I find lives like this fascinating.

I'm sure you don't exactly love having that kind of fascinating life 

[LoveTrains]

A few times a year. Frankly, I prefer to take the train, but I fly if I don't have time to take the train. My H is not a huge fan of flying - its just such a hassle. The crowds, being smushed in the plane, etc are all reasons I prefer the train.

ETA: I do have to travel for work, but we mostly go to NYC and Boston which are both accessible by car or train for me. I used to travel at least once a month on the us air shuttle to NYC from Boston, which I actually found to be pretty convenient. Now with my location the flight times suck and getting to Logan is a PITA, so train it is when we go to NYC. 

[raangoli]

Most of my travel is for work. Personal trips (flights) are about once a year. Other personal travel is either car trips or via train.

[y4m]

Mar 2, 2015 19:03:20 GMT -5 RockNVoll said:

Mar 2, 2015 19:01:22 GMT -5 y4m said:

More like exhausting!  I've flown an average of like 700 miles a day this year, apparently.

Holy crap.  Is this likely to be what the rest of the year is like?

I think the year was front-loaded, but I won't have any trouble making 100K miles this year (which is what I need to maintain top-level status on my airline).

My company is in CA - so I'm out there probably 8x a year, plus another few trips to see my family.  I'll have a few trips to London this year (which BTW - we totally failed to see each other, didn't we RockNVoll !  I'll be back...).  We went to Hawaii (work/fun) which is a solid 7500 (although I had to return on a different airline and not with my husband because I was needed for a meeting somewhere else - and which meant I had to pack a suit alongside THE Suit).  And then weeks I don't have a major trip like those I probably fly 1-2 day trips to places like Pittsburg or Atlanta or NYC for meetings with customers or with the teams I manage or to interview new hires.  The good news is I live so close to DCA that I can leave home like an hour before my flight and make it easily with time to spare.  That kind of proximity to an easy but large airport changes everything.

2015 will just be like this and I've accepted it (and love it to some extent).  But I know I can't sustain this pace a whole lot longer than that.

[audette]

Mar 2, 2015 19:01:22 GMT -5 y4m said:

Mar 2, 2015 19:00:00 GMT -5 aurora said:

Considering we're only 61 days into the year, impressive.

More like exhausting!  I've flown an average of like 700 miles a day this year, apparently.

Damn!

Considering I'm on the border between the 6-8 and 9-12 (I'd usually say 8-10/year on average), I rack up miles disproportionate to the number of flights. Lots of overseas flights. Last year was only 6 trips, I think. And earned, uh, (checking) slightly over 75k miles (on 22 segments flown).  Whee!  That was low for trips, but about average for miles.

I've had half a half a trip so far this year (the move from Korea, so a one-way trip), and have a trip to Germany coming up next week.  Right when the airline is offering a bonus for flying to Europe, yay, miles!

Most of my travel is for work.  By the time I deal with the jetlag/disconnect from life from those trips, I really don't feel much like doing any other flying.  Each trip is 1-3 weeks long, and usually ties up both weekends on either side of the trip.  That kinda sucks.

[delawarejen]

I fly about once a year now - I didn't fly at all between 2000 and 2008 because I had no need to. I don't travel for business, and a lot of my leisure travel is within driving distance. There are flights I've taken that I would have driven instead if I could have taken more time off work.

[Deleted]

Mar 2, 2015 18:57:46 GMT -5 RockNVoll said:

I don't know how to answer this since it varies so much from year to year. Most years it's probably somewhere in the 1-5 range, now that I don't really travel for work much. I am also not airline loyal, buying whatever's cheapest if it's on my own dime so my lifetime mileage on my two most frequent airlines only adds up to about 430K miles.

Ditto this.

The past 2 years were unusual when I was living in SA traveling for work (a first for me) and traveling more for pleasure. I probably flew about 12 times in 18 months. 

But a normal year is about 2-4 times all for pleasure. 

The reason I don't fly more? I do a lot of traveling, but it's mostly within driving/train distance. For example, I drove to Montreal 2 months ago, I'll be in NYC 3 times this month, at least once in DC next month, etc. 

2 flights on the radar for this year are Japan and Puerto Rico. 

[mich1]

When I was in my LDR, I was flying almost monthly. Now that I have moved out with SO, it's been more like about 6 trips/year. Right now, I'm on my 4th trip since October and have 3 more scheduled before July.

[Deleted]

Depends on the year. Last year I flew 3x - twice for pleasure, once for a work conference. The year before, I think I may have only flown once (for vacation). This year, I may not fly anywhere - which is highly unusual, BTW - because the only trip I have planned is a road trip.

I think probably on average over the last decade or so I fly around 2x a year.

[lolo]

Right now, it's 2-3 trips to my hometown plus another 1-2 trips/year.

When I was in my previous role, it was about every other week on average.

[spunkarella]

I voted 3-5 but it's probably more like 2-3. Twice to see family and one more if we go on a vacation that requires a flight (2 of those in 4 years). I rounded up because I'm optimistic about venturing out more for vacations.

[Pom]

We've flown 6 trips in 6 months. Plus Mr P flew 2 more business trips. This is way more than our norm and mostly personal travel, FIL related. I'd say more like twice per year on average personal and for H's work this year 3-4 maybe. When we normally go to our vacation house or my parents house in Florida we drive and take kitties for those extended trips.

[mbcdefg]

Once or twice a year, max.

A lot of my work trips are within driving/train distance. MH doesn't travel for work at all.

Most of our vacations are to semi-local places. We like driving.

ETA: It's hard to book a vacation during the school year because MH works and can't really take time off. I wanted to fly to a warm place like NOLA for a break from all this winter weather, but his work schedule wouldn't allow it so we're not going. 

Also, our families are all local, and we don't have to drive more than an hour or so to see everyone. All our friends are within a 30-minute drive, too. So we only fly together for vacation, and I only fly solo for work. 

[konapoppy]

I used to fly a ton for work and pleasure (every other week), but short flights. I already have 5 round trips this year. I expect it to be 1-2 times a month for the rest of the year. It is just enough to miss all of the benefits lol.

I know someone with global services. I would never want to travel that much for the perk.

[SJ]

I voted 13-24.

I fly about once a month for work- sometimes more, sometimes less.

And then 3-5 times per year for leisure?