This year, I flew 39 flights (compared with 36 in 2024) and over 67,000 miles (compared with just 49,000 in 2024). The extra distance this year was due to two trips to Asia, our Bali trip in February/March and my YOLO Solo trip in July. Toward the end of the year, I did a few solo domestic trips as my wife recovered from yet another ankle surgery. Hopefully she’ll be good to go for next year.

In 2025, I flew seven international long haul flights. I’m counting the 6-7 hour flights between the Middle East and Bangkok as they “felt” like long-haul flights flying in First Class. I flew five international First Class flights this year which is by far the most I have flown in one year (and probably ever will) thanks mostly to my solo trip in July.

My favorite flight had to be Emirates 777 Gamechanger from Chicago to Dubai in July. The product felt like flying a private jet with floor to ceiling walls and a huge suite. The unlimited caviar, champagne and very expensive cognac took it to the next level.

Even though I took two other First Class flights with showers on that trip, I think second place goes to Cathay Pacific 777 First Class which my wife and I took from Los Angeles to Hong Kong on the way to Bali in February. This was our longest flight timewise for 2025 clocking in at 15 hours and 42 minutes. The seat was super-wide and probably the most comfortable First Class bed we’ve had. My wife slept for eight straight hours after she had caviar and champagne. The service was second to none as well. One area Cathay could improve is the ground experience for connecting First Class passengers in Hong Kong.

Beyond those flights, my Emirates A380 First Class flight from Dubai to Bangkok and Etihad A380 Apartments flights with showers were both fun, although I preferred the food, in-flight entertainment and service on Emirates. The Apartments separate bed was excellent though.

The first honorable mention goes to Qatar Airways A380 First Class from Bangkok to Doha. While there is no shower on that one and the food was a step down from Emirates, the onboard bar was lots of fun.

The second honorable mention goes to another Qatar Airways flight, an A350-1000 from Doha to Atlanta in March, which was actually our longest flight by distance coming in at 7,448 miles. We enjoyed the QSuites double middle suite and the a la carte on-demand dining where we ate lunch at 8am Doha time and breakfast at 10am Atlanta time to get our body clocks right.

We took a couple of other business class flights of note this year including a very old Cathay A330 from Hong Kong to Bali which still maintained the great Cathay service. We also took an overnight from Bali to Doha on a non-QSuites A350 with reverse herringbone seats which I (controversially) maintain is better for sleeping than QSuites.

I also took one of the shortest possible Q-Suites flights from Doha to Dubai, where Qatar Airways somehow was able to serve a small meal and a drink in the time it would take Delta flight attendants to do their safety briefing. I actually flew almost 16,000 miles on Qatar Airways this past year (in four total flights), second only to Delta at over 21,000 miles (mostly short-haul in 25 total flights).

I also want to note that for these big international trips, all the flights were pretty much on time. My wife and younger daughter did have a canceled Lufthansa First Class flight, but that was saved by Lufthansa moving them to Swiss First Class and they even arrived at their final destination earlier than planned. On the other hand, we had some terrible luck this year with domestic delays. There were several multi-hour delays including a storm delay from JFK with my wife and older daughter where we got home at 4am, a winter weather delay from Chicago where I got home at 2am and my saga getting home from Vegas a few weeks ago due to Delta maintenance problems. Hopefully, this was just bad luck and not a sign of future problems in the air traffic system.

Next year, we have so far booked Virgin Atlantic A350-100 Upper Class, American Airlines 787-9P Flagship Suites, Delta A350-900 Delta One Suites, and Japan Airlines A350-1000 (in both First and Business Class). We’ve also got domestic trips to New York, Las Vegas, Austin, Florida, and Washington planned with probably many more to be booked as our plans develop.

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