canyonwalker | Entries tagged with retrospective

One aspect of New Year celebrations, both secular and religious, is reflecting upon the year past. For several years now I've shared my annual retrospective on my blog. It's time to do that with my retrospective on 2025. As usual I've spent a few days composing my thoughts for this retrospective. That's why I'm posting it now, on January 4, instead of at 12:17am on the 1st. 😅

One of the things I've pondered over the past few days is what's an appropriate title for 2025. A few years ago I looked back at the malaise that hung over 2023 like a cloud of impending doom that shrouded all the good things that happened; I called it 2023: The Year that Was. When 2024 continued that trend as another year of constant worry that a downtown that never actually came was always only a few months away I titled it 2024: Another Year that Was.

I considered using the same moniker again for 2025— because it feels like it was another "Meh" year— but I really dislike the trilogy naming. It makes it seem like some completely uncreative Hollywood movie sequel slop. Instead I'm giving 2025 a name that reflects a related but different gloom. 2025: A Year of Waiting.

Waiting meme - from the TV show Narcos

Waiting for Illness to End

A lot of the waiting I did this year was waiting for illness (or its relative, inability) to end. Indeed, I almost chose 2025: Being Sick Sucks as the theme for this retrospective. That name was only runner-up because being sick was more my spouse's story than mine. Though I spent time sick, too— or standing by or supporting her while she was sick.

We were both sick to start the year in January after our star-crossed trip to Panama in Dec. 2024. While my sickness really only kicked in on the very last day of the trip as we were flying home and lasted a bit over a week into January, Hawk's sickness started during the trip and lasted into February. And it wasn't just one health issue but at least two.

One of those sicknesses was what I believe was a case of Norovirus Hawk's doctors refused to test for. They hand-waved it off as "traveler's diarrhea". But it lasted for 6 weeks! And at the same time she had a 2nd degree burn that took several weeks to heal. We lost 2 months to no travel because of these.

In May Hawk had food poisoning. And I don't mean an "Oh, I got sick after eating something and then slept it off" case of food poisoning. I mean, "Vomiting uncontrollably for 12 hours and then too weak and in pain to leave bed for days" level of food poisoning.

In June I had bronchitis and a cold that lasted almost two weeks. Hawk caught it, too, from me. We canceled a four-day holiday trip because of it.

In September Hawk broke one of her toes. Thankfully it was a small toe and a small/simple break, but still: it meant more trips canceled.

In October Hawk had a planned surgery on her foot. We hoped she might be ready for light adventure travel by the end of the year. Multiple complications during her recovery put the kibosh on that.

So, to total up time lost to sickness, it was: All of January, most of February, a week in May, half of June, half of September, half of October, and all of November and December. That's half the fucking year.

At least nobody died.

You want a second opinion on how shitty of a year 2025 was, health-wise? That's it, right there. 2025: At Least Nobody Died.

To be continued....

Every year around the start of the year I take stock of my balances in various frequent traveler points programs, both to see how we'll I've done in accumulating & using miles as well as to set goals for the coming 12 months. Yesterday I posted a wrap-up of my airline miles and status for 2025. Now it's time for the same with hotel points and status.

This check of points and status comes at an odd moment. I feel I am at a tipping point where it may be time to say "Game over" for the hotel points-and-status chase. Hotels have been watering down the value of elite status. "Room upgrades as available" often are not available. And when they are, the "upgrade" is something close to trivial like the same room on a higher floor or facing the garden instead of the parking lot.

At the same time hotels have been watering down the value of their points. They do this by increasing the amount needed for redemption. Yes, that's been a story most of the 20 years I've been in the points-and-status game, but over the past few years points inflation has gotten out of hand. Hotel rooms routinely now cost 2x the points they could be purchased for just a few years ago.

This runaway inflation puts emphasis on the strategy of earn and burn: earn points (from stays and credit card bonuses) and spend (burn) them quickly, before they lose value. The old strategy, from years ago, of saving up points for years to redeem them for a week-long stay at a top property is broken. Thus as I inventory my points and status I indicate accumulating too many points as a bad thing and managing to spend down my balances as a good thing.

⬇️ Hilton: More Burn than Earn... And I Got Burned!

Hilton edged out Marriott to be my #1 hotel chain again in 2025 (ditto last year, in 2024). I stayed 16 nights with Hilton. The majority, 13 nights, were paid. That's because either (a) they were for work, and the company was paying; or (b) the cash price was reasonable while the points price was through the roof. Unfortunately "through the roof" has become the new normal with Hilton as they have broadly increased their hotel points costs three times in just over a year. 😧

The one stay where I redeemed points was when both the cash price and points price were through the roof. When we visited Rome in May we stayed at the Waldorf Astoria Rome Cavalieri for 3 nights for a whopping 85,000 points per night. (After the latest devaluation it's 120,000 points per night.) I try to make Hilton points worth at least a half cent apiece, so that's $425 at par. But hotels were eye-wateringly expensive across the city at that time. Many were $600+, including the Cavalieri. So while it was a lot of points it was at least a good value.

Status-wise I regained Diamond (top tier) elite after dropping to Silver (bottom tier) at the start of the year. Diamond is a benefit of the Hilton Aspire American Express card I signed up for again in April. I say again because I canceled it in 2024 thinking I'd find some kind of sign-up bonus for it again. Alas I did not. Is the card with its newly raised $550(!) annual fee worth it without a big signup bonus? My plan is for the answer to be Yes; I'll check back on that after the card's anniversary in April.

Thanks to spending 255k points on that Rome Cavalieri stay I spent more Hilton points than I earned in 2025. My balance dropped from 477k a year ago to 385k today. My goal with the remaining balance is to find an enjoyable luxurious stay for 4-5 days. I need to do it ASAP before Hilton hits us with yet another deval It'll have to be cheaper than the Rome Cavalieri, though!

⬇️ Marriott: Bonvoy-age, Marriott!

Marriott was my #2 hotel chain again 2025, falling just behind Hilton with 15 nights (16 if I include one Hawk did on her account). Back in the 2010s Marriott was my #1 choice. I routinely hit 50+ BIB (butt-in-bed) nights a year with them. My overall amount of travel, especially business travel, has decreased since then. And Marriott has gotten... unfriendly. Their prices in many markets are 15-20% higher than their competition, and getting elite benefits from them is like pulling teeth. Benefits shouldn't be hard; I'm a Lifetime Titanium elite! But here we are.

You may have seen a news stories recently about a Marriott that shooed customers off a bench and a Fairfield Inn that posted that bottles of water are no longer an elite benefit! When they nickel-and-dime loyal travelers that hard getting a real benefit like a suite upgrade seems to have a snowball's chance in hell.

In 2025 I succeeded in spending down my Marriott points balance. It's a goal I'd been working on for years. Why was it so hard? It was hard because I insisted on getting good value for my points. The thing about airline/hotel points nowadays is that while you pretty much always can use them for any trip, you're frequently charged a terrible redemption rate. I spent my balance down from 160k last year to almost zero this year. With earnings from a few paid stays I made, I finished the year just 32k left.

For 2026 my plan for Marriott is, basically, "Bonvoy-age!" I'm done. I'm out. I'll be content to stay at Marriott and use my elite benefits if work sends me to a Marriott, or if I happen to find a Marriott at a competitive price (unlikely!) when traveling for leisure, but I am absolutely not going to go out of my way to choose them. Those 32k points? Meh. Once upon a time they would've bought a night at a resort high rise in Hawaii. Today they might— might!— be enough for a one-night stay at a Fairfield Inn along a highway. And I'll have to pack my own damn water bottles.

⬆️ IHG: Burn and Earn

Intercontinental Hotels Group (IHG), whose portfolio includes Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Express, remained my #3 hotel chain in 2025. I stayed 8 nights with them... though that increases to 12 if I count in the nights Hawk and I stayed with IHG on her account. (She's burning off points, too!) Every year recently it's looked like IHG will leap ahead of the others, as its footprint of plenty of decent limited-service properties in smaller towns than Hilton and Marriott fits our travel patterns well. But this year even their prices were just too high much of the time.

My goal with IHG for 2025 was to burn down my points balance of 212k. Hawk had a similar goal, too, as she had about as many points as I did! Plus we both have free-night certificates from the IHG credit cards we own. How did we do? We both spent our balances down somewhat. We used the certs first because they expire after 12 months, and we both redeemed some points, too. But then I signed up for another IHG credit card midyear, and earned 140k from the juicy signup bonus. I finished the year more than 100k above where I started, with 316k points.

Status-wise I remain Platinum with IHG, a benefit of owning their affiliated credit cards. Platinum is their second highest tier. In the past I've groused it's not worth much because there really aren't elite benefits to be had at the limited-service properties I make most of my stays at. Usually it's an "upgrade" to a "suite" at a Holiday Inn Express, where it's just a slightly larger than basic room. I mean, I appreciate it, but to me it's not worth more than maybe $10 a night.

For 2026 my goal with IHG swings back to Burn, baby, burn! 316k points is not the huge balance it may seem at today's devalued rates, but I'm going to see if I can redeem it for a 4-5 night stay someplace nice this year.

↔️ Best Western: What do I do with these points?

For several years Best Western was been down in my "Whatever" category (see below), the group of hotel chains I stay at so infrequently I just don't care. For example, I didn't touch BW at all for years. But the chain came back on my radar in 2024 as they do what IHG does at the lower end, but even moreso. And as IHG was too pricey much of the time, I traded down to BW several times in 2024. That left me about 24k points at the end of 2024... which I still have at the end of 2025. Thus my plans for 2026 remain the same: find some reasonable redemption, presumably a one-night stay somewhere not too swank, for my BW points.

↔️ Hyatt, Choice, Wyndham: Whatever

I have memberships in several other hotel rewards programs. Some still have scraps of points left in them from years past. Others are zeroed out due to expiry. I've barely paid attention to these chains for the past few years because the ones above largely meet my needs— and they control a huge portion of the mid-scale and upper mid-scale hotel market. That said, I did stay for 2 nights at a Hyatt (my employer's choice) and 1 night at a Choice (my choice). Plus we stayed 5 nights with Wyndham on Hawk's account. Between those two I was disappointed with Choice and slightly impressed with Wyndham. That reversed my expectations as previous I'd ranked Choice ahead of Wyndham. We should figure out if Hawk has enough Wyndham points yet to be worth anything, like my BW points (above) are worth potentially a few night somewhere.

I think my future will involve a lot more stays at these other brands as I see declining value in elite status and accumulating points, and instead pick whatever property offers the best quality/price tradeoff in the moment.

It's the end of the year, which means it's time for my taking stock of my balances in various frequent traveler points programs. This blog will be for airlines. A blog later this week will cover hotel programs.

Once upon a time I celebrated growing big balances of airline miles/points. I remember, for example, when a colleague and I were talking about having amassed 250,000 miles each on United after lots of job travel. "It's wild to think I could buy 10 people round-trip tickets anywhere in the continental US," he quipped.

The difference between then & now is that 250k no longer buys 10 round-trip flights between New York and San Francisco. Many days you'd be lucky if it buys three. Inflation is as much a thing in the points economy as it is in the real economy. Actually, it's worse. It's worse because there's no place to invest points to protect their value. Holding points is like keeping cash in a mattress. Keep a small balance that way? Meh. Keep a big balance that way? Holy smokes, no! Thus I consider having a big balance of points a risk. You'll see that how I characterize my balances in the following summaries.

⬆️ Southwest Airlines: Amassing another Mountain (of Risk!)

I've called my American Airlines points (see below) a mountain for many years as I've hovered over 750k with them. I've now built my Southwest balance up to that level. I finish 2025 with 770,000 Rapid Rewards points. That's a new high... and that's not a good thing, for the reasons I outlined above.

My Rapids Rewards balance with Southwest zoomed forward because I spent a lot of the year chasing status with them. My business travel is down from even a few years ago, so to keep renewing elite status I did most of my leisure flying on cash vs. on points. I would've preferred to spend points and save cash, but here I decided chasing status was more important. I cinched Companion Pass in September and made A-List Preferred again with the help of a mileage run in late December.

All that status-chasing helped me earn 229,000 redeemable points with Southwest. I spent less than 28k points. Thus my balance lands at about 770k. Three-quarters of a million.

For 2026 my goal is to spend down that balance. 770k is way too much to have stuffed in a mattress. But I'll see if I'm content to give up the status chase into 2027. 😨

↗️ United Airlines: Earn and Burn (but Mostly Earn)

I seem to alternate between up and down years with my United MileagePlus miles. After having a down year with UA last year and also in 2023— remember, down is good, because I'm redeeming points to secure value from them— 2025 was an up year. My points boosted from 62,000 to 177,000.

It's not that I flew UA a lot, though. I earned only 18k from butt-in-seat time. The lion's share of my points are from credit card sign-up bonuses. I opened two of them in the past 14 months that paid in 2025. Together they paid 200,000 points. So why didn't my balance zoom up to almost 300k? That's because while I earned a lot of points this year I also burned more than half of them, redeeming them for flights and other awards— and making sure to do so at decent rates.

Status-wise I maintain Premier Gold with United, a benefit of reaching Million Miler lifetime status years ago. What's the value of that status? Plenty, actually. First, I can reserve a seat in Economy Plus at booking. Those seats with extra legroom are a valuable perk that make flying actually bearable. It's worth at least a few tens of dollars per flight. That's what UA and other airlines charge to reserve comparable seats without sufficient elite status. Then there's free checked bags. I used that a few times. Then there's lounge access when traveling internationally. We had a good time relaxing at the Air Canada Maple Leaf lounge in Toronto in August. Oh, and my designated partner gets all these Premier Gold benefits, too, since I'm a Million Miler. Upgrades? Yes, those are a benefit, though as a lowly Gold it's rare I get one. I did score one coming home from Toronto. All in all these aren't gonzo benefits, but as little as I fly United anymore— not enough to earn even Silver status on a per-year basis— I certainly appreciate the lifetime status from my blood, sweat, and tears of the past.

For 2026 my plan with United is to continue spending down my balance. I don't think that'll be too hard as 177k points isn't a lot anymore. I spent about 107k this year, and that was just for a few, unexciting flights. The only question is, will 2026 be another year of spending on a bunch of small award flights like I did this pat year, or will I find an opportunity to spend a lot of points on something big, like a fun overseas trip? I hope for the latter.

⏸️ American Airlines: Paused atop the Mountain

I've had a crazy big balance with AA for years now. What's "crazy big"? If you thought my three-quarters of a million with Southwest was wild, try this on for size: I have nearly 900,000 AA points.

What's even crazier is that this is exactly what I had last year, too. In 2025 I didn't earn a mile with AA, I didn't spend a mile with AA. I have almost a million miles in their program, and I didn't do a damn thing with them.

My plan with AA in 2026 is the same as it has been for years now: find good ways to spend all those points!

↔️ Delta: 15k and Not Even Trying

Rounding out the list here is Delta Airlines. While it's been over two years since I flew on AA it's been at least three since I set foot on Delta or one of their partners. I retain a pile of points with them— though it's a waaaay smaller pile than with AA. It's not a mountain but a molehill. My balance of Delta Skymiles is a mere 15k.

My plan with Delta in 2026 is also the same as it has been for several years new. I will keep ignoring Delta 🤣 until their flights and offerings seem relevant to me again. Meanwhile, my paltry 15k miles never expire. Though by the time I grow them into something useful that 15k might only be enough to buy a sandwich in-flight.

Every year around the new year I write a variety of retrospectives about the year just finished. Several of those are about travel, as that's the main theme of this blog and one of the things I most enjoy in life. My travel for 2025 is done for the year so I can post this summary a few days early.

Here are Five Things about my travel in 2025:

I traveled 89 days and 72 nights in 2025. These figures are down slightly from 2024's tallies of 94 and 81. I/We just didn't get out as much as I/we wished. More on that below.

Business travel was up.... Business travel made up 40% of my travel in 2025. That's double 2024's 20% share. Partly that's because I actually traveled on business more in 2025 than 2024. Though it wasn't for customers and trade shows. I mean, I did travel for a few each of those, but not significantly more than in recent years. The increase in 2025's business travel came from internal training meetings.

...And leisure travel was down. Business travel took a larger 40% share of my travel in 2025 not just because I had more days on the road for my job than in recent years but also because I spent fewer days traveling for fun. Why? Basically because being sick sucks. January was a loss because Hawk was sick for 6 weeks. October was a loss because she was recovering from foot surgery. Other than last Sunday's same-day mileage run December was a loss as well due to sickness. And the suckiness of being sick is going to pinch leisure travel this coming year, too, as Hawk has another surgery in late January. Aside from business travel I do solo, we likely won't go anywhere in January, February, or March.

I flew 48,300 miles in 2025. That's down from nearly 55k in 2024 but is in line with my average over the past few years. Next year might be a lower mileage year with a few months of no leisure travel... but if I follow through on plans to retire early in the year I expect to travel a lot more.

Bucket List items checked off: 1. It's been a slow year for progress on bucket lists. This year I didn't visit any new national parks. I'm still at 53/63. I finished visiting all 50 states and Washington, DC in 2024. I did visit two more countries this year, Italy and Spain, bringing my tally to 25 countries.

More 2025 retrospectives to come.

Here are a few thoughts from our Thanksgiving trip on what worked well, what didn't work so well, and what we might do differently the next time around.

1. Red-eye flights barely work. I confidently booked a red-eye flight out to the East Coast to start the trip after a tolerably okay red-eye experience flying to Toronto in August. In doing this I realized an important difference: the Toronto flight was in first class, enabling me to sleep for most of the flight. This trip I flew in coach, and I was stuck awake most of the overnight flight, unable to fall asleep even though I was tired because I was so uncomfortable. As a result I needed a nap midday— and was able to get that sleep only by snoozing in my rental car in a parking lot! I will be cautious on future trips to book red-eyes only when I have a safe place to crash out for a few hours the day I arrive.

2. Traveling Light is Right. We travel with only carry-on suitcases whenever it's feasible, as it saves us time not checking/claiming luggage at the airport and zeroes out the risk of lost/delayed bags. Plus, it's easier checking into/out of hotels when we can carry all our bags in one trip without the aid of a luggage trolley. Part of what makes flying carry-on-only feasible on a trip like this is planning to wash laundry halfway through. On this trip that plan was easy; we did laundry at my inlaws' house. Other trips we do laundry at a hotel, which generally doesn't suck at mid-range hotels where they have coin-op machines that are usually in good condition and rarely busy. This trip we also packed lighter than usual figuring we might need extra space in our bags to bring new things home. It's a good thing we did that because Hawk bought a bunch of rocks. 🤣

3. Unclear if we'll do this again. 😦 We had several missed connections on this trip. No, not the airline kind of missed connections; missed connections with people. Half my sister's family was out of town, three of my nieces ghosted us/nope'd out of meeting, and one of my cousins canceled at the last minute. In addition, Thanksgiving dinner felt repetitive this year. It's the same people, doing the same thing, over the same food, as the past few years. And most of us are older and less dynamic than years ago. It's lost its spark of novelty. Don't get me wrong; I did enjoy the visits we managed to have. But it seems like trying to rush a bunch of stuff together into this holiday week produces as many disappointments as enjoyments. Maybe next year Hawk and I should vacation on our own over Thanksgiving and pick another time, perhaps one in the good-weather parts of the year (i.e, not snowing as we leave) to see people.

Canada travelog #32
Retrospective

"Wait, did you just go to Canada?" you might be wondering from the title of this trip. No, we didn't just go. This is the trip we got back from literally a month ago! Yeah, it's taken that long to get around to writing a trip retrospective. Why? Well, first of all, I was backlogged a week pushing out blogs from the trip. Then I got busy with other trips. Now I've caught up with all my September trips, so it's time to clear the August backlog! (Who knows how long it will take to clear the March/April backlog, though. 😰) So, here are Five Things:

1) First, on the whole, I'm glad we went. I fretted ahead of the trip about whether there'd be enough things to do to fill 9-10 days. Ultimately there were not enough things— though that was a case of unexpected conditions, not poor planning— and we cut the trip short, coming home a few days early.

2) Two days could've been enough time to visit family. Visiting long-lost relatives was the original reason for the trip. We spun it into a larger trip, adding in hiking a bunch of waterfalls, because we figured if we're going all the way to Toronto, we need to stretch the trip longer than 2 days to make the travel time worth it. (Not to mention, we really like hiking waterfalls. 🤣) Well, the trip would've worked at 2 days. I remember thinking Sunday afternoon, "If we had to head back to the airport now, I'd be satisfied with this trip." A key part of what made a weekend trip as distant as Toronto— similar in travel time to flying to the East Coast— palatable was flying first class nonstop on the red-eye out there. Getting even 4 hours of sleep on the overnight flight made it possible to have a mostly normal day Saturday. On trips where I've had to spend half of Saturday recovering from a sleepless night flying coach, leaving on Sunday seems too soon.

3) The ability to call an audible was important. We decided Tuesday, in the middle of our trip, to change plans and fly home two days early. Why? Because our plans to hike a bunch of waterfalls fell apart when we discovered that many were dry. I've remarked before maintaining flexibility in plans is important. In this case the flexibility allowed us to recover from unexpected adverse conditions. And we made satisfying use of the days we reclaimed. We spent all of Labor Day weekend at home, lounging by (and in) the pool.

4) I'm glad we kept hotel changes to a minimum. We stayed in once place for the family-visit part of the trip and another for the waterfalls-hiking part. Two hotels for 6 nights (originally 8 nights was the plan) seems kind of stay-put for me. So many times in the past I've quipped about staying at 7 hotels in 8 nights. This time I was glad we kept changes of venue to a minimum. Though I did fret at first when I saw how much driving, in traffic, we had to do to get to/from some of the waterfalls each day, I quickly realized it was easier to add a bit of freeway driving on each end of the day's journey than to have to deal with packing up our suitcases, checking out, locating the next hotel, checking in, and unpacking. It enjoyed the comfort of making a temporary "home away from home"— that wasn't just a spinner suitcase.

5) An easy pace was a good pace. Across the whole trip, both the family part and the hiking part, we under-scheduled our days. I fretted a bit about this a few times early in the trip, worrying that failure to plan aggressively enough would leave too much idle time and I'd regret missing opportunities. It turned out that only happened one day and it was because of crummy weather, not poor planning. The rest of the days we filled up to a comfortable level. The key was while we under-scheduled our days we also kept a list of things we could add in as time permitted. That flexibility let us find the right balance between taking it easy and taking advantage of things to do.

Phoenix Getaway travelog #14
Retrospective

Our relaxing weekend in Phoenix last week Saturday through Tuesday was enjoyable. We didn't get out for the hiking we'd originally intended. Hawk's broken less than a week earlier put the kibosh on that. But just taking it easy at the resorts with the splashy pools for 3-4 days was more fun that I thought. Here's the sad thing, though. For one of those splashy resorts, an old favorite, our visit there last week may have been our last hurrah with them, forever.

The Hilton Resort at the Peak has been going downhill for several years. We've noticed the compounding effects of deferred maintenance on return visits year after year. The facilities have all been getting older and parts of them haven't been kept up. For example, I haven't seen the swim-up pool bars open in several years. And the rot on their window frames shows management has simply let them go. This trip the hot tubs were broken, too. One's heater was busted, the other's jets were busted.

One of the hotel's two wings was closed on this visit. I knew that when I booked our stay several weeks ago as the rooms in that wing were all marked unavailable. Hooray for renovations, right? The place would certainly benefit from an update. And once that wing is open— which might be within a few weeks— they're closing down the other wing, the one we stayed in, for renovations. I allowed a certain about of forbearance on things like the busted hot tubs and the long-closed pool bar, figuring they'll fix those in the imminent renovation.

The renovation had drawbacks, though. Perhaps because they only have half the rooms to rent, or perhaps because the reno— or the property's declining state— is scaring guests away, they had shorter hours on various things in the water park. "We can't afford the staff right now," one manager told me. I repeated that phrase to another manager when we checked out on Tuesday. "If you can't afford to staff the facilities, I don't like that I was asked to pay full price for them."

To his credit, the manager I spoke to at checkout acknowledged the problem and gave us a discount on the bill. I was ready for them to put up a fight about that and had prepared my arguments, but the manager offered the discount immediately. His quick agreement told me he gets such complaints a lot.

With the good service recovery I would be willing to try the hotel again once renovations are complete. As I was discussing the plan of those renovations with the manager, though, it became unclear whether we'll want to stay at the renovated hotel.

It sounds like the owners are trying to push the property more upscale, with fewer splashy pool and more posh event spaces, like for weddings and company sales meetings. The property moving a bit upscale per se wouldn't bother us; especially as it's become rough around the edges in so many places through deferred maintenance. But we like the splashy pools! Nicer rooms with fewer pools is not a tradeoff we'd appreciate. And it looks like the rates will being going up, too. Fewer pools and substantially higher prices is definitely not a combo we'd return for.

So it seems like the Hilton Phoenix Resort might have to drop off our list of places to return to every year or two. That's sad because we've been going for over 12 years now! At least there's another splashy-pools resort in Phoenix we've found. It's actually got a slightly better water park... though it's always more expensive. This trip, for example, it would've cost us $150/night more to stay there than the Hilton. I'm not sure if that's worth it.

Sunday/Monday this week I flew to Phoenix for an overnight business trip— and Hawk joined me. It was the first time either of us has accompanied the other on a basically pure business trip. How did it go? Here are Five Things:

1) The first time ever. Many times in the past we've taken trips that were a combination of work and leisure. For example, when a previous job had me traveling overseas on US holidays like Thanksgiving, I'd fly out there to do the work during Thanksgiving week— then have Hawk fly out to join me for a few days after for a belated few days off. This trip was a first in that it was essentially all work for me. I didn't extend a business trip by adding a leisure component to make it a bleisure (business + leisure) trip.

2) The first opportunity in 12 years. While this trip was the first time ever it's a particular opportunity I've been looking for for 12 years. 12 years is about how long I've had the Companion Pass from Southwest Airlines.

Hawk joins me flying on a business trip (Aug 2025)

Hawk joins me flying on a business trip (Aug 2025)

The Companion Pass allows my designated companion (Hawk) to join me on any flight for a nominal fee. It doesn't matter who pays for the flight, or even if it's purchased with award points. My companion can join me cheaply.

When I first earned the Companion Pass 12 years ago one of my thoughts was, "Great! Hawk could join me on business trips!" In fact I even added her to a trip I was booking a few weeks out. That trip wound up fizzling... and it would be the last opportunity for almost 12 years.

3) Why so few opportunities? Having Hawk accompany me on a business trip hasn't worked out for the past 12 years because the timing's never been right. Most of that time she's been working— at jobs that do not support remote work— so she hasn't been able to join me without using her limited vacation time. And if she were to take vacation time... well, I'd still be working. We might as well both take time off and enjoy the trip together.

4) To be clear, my company did not pay for Hawk. There's no boondoggle here. We paid for her flight ourselves, the little that it cost thanks to the Companion Pass. (And Southwest was the logical choice of airline for this trip due to their schedules, prices, and change/cancel policies.) The hotel cost was the same whether one or two of us were in the room. And we paid for Hawk's meals on our own dime.

5) And Hawk enjoyed it! This is perhaps the most important point to consider: how well did it work— for both of us. For me, it was enjoyable having Hawk with me on Sunday evening, even if our plans for swimming in the pool in the desert evening heat fell through. Despite that missed opportunity I was successful with all my meetings on Monday— the actual point of the trip. But how did she like it? I was skeptical because, for her, the trip amounted to kind of a nothingburger. Not only was Sunday evening kind of a let's-stay-inside fizzle but her plan to go rock shopping on Monday fizzled because the shops are closed on Mondays. Still, she told me she enjoyed it. She enjoyed the extra time together. And maybe next time— if there is a next time— we'll a) arrive earlier to use the pool and b) try not to have my meetings on a day when the rock shops are all closed. 🤣

I haven't even caught up with my backlog of blogs from our trip to Italy last week (they're held up on my time to deal with touching up photos) but already I'm ready with a retrospective. Here are Five Things:

Despite a few frustrations around the edges of the trip and a few things that went wrong with the parts my company planned, I very much appreciate being named to Club and getting to go on this trip. There were times I grumbled (privately), Maybe I should skip this trip and plan my own. Well, that would've been expensive. Just the flights alone would've cost us $5,000. The three hotel nights that were included plus the food and misc. expenses were worth another $2,500.

The highlight of the trip was our 2½ days in Rome. This was a side-trip we planned— and mostly paid for— on our own. (The Company let us book a stopover on the flights they paid for.) We hired private tours for the Colosseum, ruins of Caesar's palace, the Roman Forum, and Vatican City (the part that's still in my backlog), and augmented that with trekking to the Spanish Steps, the Trevi Fountain, and the Pantheon (also in backlog) on our own.

Hiring private tour guides was expensive, eye-wateringly expensive in the case of the Vatican tour, which cost us over $1,200, but there's real value in it. With guides we saved the time of having to do lots of research and planning ourselves, we avoided waiting in lines and wandering around trying to figure out where to go, and we had someone who helped us ensure we saw the best things we could. Yeah, we could have cut the costs maybe in half by booking group tours instead, but we've had mixed experiences with even smaller, 12 person sized group tours. When time's limited, when it might be years, if ever, before you go back to that place again, go big.

Our "beach" resort stay, the part paid for by the company, reminded me that when you're at the beach there's an enormous different in really being at the beach. If you can't just walk out the door of the building, across a pool area, and be on the sand, you might as well stay a few miles away and drive to the beach. At the resort in Chia, Sardinia, it literally was a drive; the beach was 4km away from the resort hotel! As a consequence we went to the beach just once. We could have had more fun going back to our favorite splashy pool resort in Phoenix instead.

As much fun as visiting Italy/Rome was, and as little a fraction of the whole as we saw, we're kind of done with it. We're definitely not feeling, "Ooh, let's plan another trip to Rome!" Partly that's because we saw the highlights we cared about; partly it's because there's so much else in the world we want to see, too! I could see returning to Italy specifically for Pompeii, to see the ruins; Venice, for its unique canals; and maybe Florence, for its Renaissance architecture. But I don't think I'd want to spend more than a few days in each.

It's been a few weeks now since we got back from our trip to Georgia so it's time to write a retrospective. ...Actually the ideal time to do this would've been 10 days ago, but it was only Sunday that I finished clearing my backlog of trip blogs from the trip. Anyway, here are Five Things:

First, overall, it was a very enjoyable trip— and I attribute this to our "Not too little, not too much, but just right" approach to planning. We like to plan knowing what we can do without over-scheduling what we will do— or when. For example, in Savannah we knew there were a variety of things we could do across the span of a few days, but we purposefully didn't overplan them in advance, like, "On Sunday we do A and B; on Monday, C, D, and E; on Tuesday, etc." This left us with plenty of ideas to keep busy for several days coupled with the flexibility to choose activities day by day based on things that can't be determined far in advance, like what the weather or how much energy we have is any given day.

Five days was the right amount of time to spend with relatives. (Really it was more like 4⅓ since we met them for dinner Saturday.) I love my sister— and I enjoy spending time with my brother-in-law and niece, too— but saying our farewells late Wednesday evening was the right timing. We were together long enough to do everything we wanted to do together, and just short enough that we left on a high note.

Torpedoing the rental car in Savannah turned out to be a great move. We saved $300 forgoing a rental that ultimately would've provided little value. I reserved the car because I hesitated to rely on my sister and BIL driving us around, but with their two cars and us in a hotel literally 2 miles from their house it was no bother.

Logistics-wise, I counted on doing a load of laundry at my sister's house. That enabled me to feel comfortable with fresh clothes every day without overstuffing the suitcases we carried.

Doing two things during the week— first visiting my sister and her family for several days, then Hawk and I going waterfall-hunting for a few days in the mountains— worked well. The equation of a one-week trip (usually 8-9 days in reality) = 2 shorter trips in the same region has worked well many times. It lets us get 2 trips in vacation without feeling like either one has been too rushed.

Oh, and +1 bonus item:

Forgetting my camera was a mistake. Mostly. Being forced to rely on my smartphone for pics this whole trip was enlightening. I found that for sightseeing photography in town, at the beach, at historical sites nearby, etc., I was fine using my smartphone. Would my dedicated camera have captured better pics? Yes, but in few enough situations and/or with little enough incremental value that I was fine with my recent-gen smartphone's camera. While out hiking, however, and especially while hiking to waterfalls, I missed the capabilities of my dedicated camera— and not just once or twice, but on nearly Every. Single. Hike.

Where did the month of March go? That's a question I've asked myself several times the past few days as I've gotten accustomed to writing April as part of the date. "Where did [Month] go?" is a question I've asked myself many times over the past several years. Sometimes months go by in a blur. March seems like one of them.

Time passing in a blur can be good or bad. When a month seems like a blur because I've been so busy doing enjoyable things, the blur is good. It's a sign that I've drunk deeply from the well of opportunities. For example, when April-May 2023 went by in a blur.

On the other hand, when I'm looking back wondering where all the time went because I didn't do much enjoyable, the blur is disappointing. It's disappointing because I let the opportunities slip away like water through my fingers. For example, my lament Where Did Summer Go? in September 2023.

Arguing for March being a bad blur rather than an enjoyable one is that the month felt like a lot of day-to-day trudgery. Every week at work was a busy week. Trudging through the days can make it feel like time drags slowly. And some things I did in March certainly feel like they were already two months ago— like that weekend trade show in Pasadena I worked for my company.

On the whole March's blur feels like... well, not exactly a good blur; but let's call it a balanced blur. There was the daily trudge but I also squeezed in some good times. That trade show was exhilarating even though it was also tiring. Chatting with customers and prospects, and spending time with colleagues in long, unscripted periods are two of the things I like about sales. And I managed to take off two days in March: one where I relaxed productively at home, and one where I got a head start on hiking in the Sierras.

Over the past several years I've made a habit of using New Year's as a time to reflect on, and take stock of, the year just finished. It's time for the 2025 edition, looking back on 2024.

It's always a question how to title these annual reflections. Last year I struggled for weeks over how to frame the malaise that dominated 2023, the sense of doom about to arrive that never did yet made it hard to appreciate the good things that happened. What I came up with then was 2023: The Year That Was. Alas, 2024 felt like more of the same. There were some good things in there, some moments of near greatness even, but most of them were coupled with setbacks and worry about the future. Thus I'll title it 2024: Another Year That Was.

Travel & Experiences: Positive

As I break it down to understand what was good or bad about 2024, one aspect of 2024— like in 2023— that I feel warm about is travel and experiences. 2024 was another strong year for going places and having fun. In 2024:

We visited New Zealand on a two week trip, spending time on both main islands. It was our first trip to NZ. Heck, it was our first two week trip anywhere. I hope this is a sign of more things to come, soon.

We visited Panama for 8-9 days. There were many frustrations on that trip, but I try to think of it as overall a positive experience overall. Certainly I'm happier having gone, however far from perfect it turned out to be, than staying home or traveling anywhere domestically.

We had a mostly expenses paid trip to Mexico for Club. We stayed in two nice hotels— so nice that we didn't even want to leave our rooms.

I completed my goal of visiting all 50 states (and DC) , one of my bucket list items, with our trip to Alaska in June.

We dropped our pace on weekend trips during the summer. That's on us. Though we did pick up toward the end of the summer again with Friday Night Halfway trips.

Friends & Family: Slightly Negative

2024 was another year of seeing my count of family and friends dwindle. It's not as severe as 2023 when I had to fire a few people from the position of being friends. I did lose one elderly relative, my Aunt Carol, to the infirmities of old age. She was 87.

One of the side effects of getting older is that most of your relatives and friends get older, too. Those who were the elders when I was young, my grandparents' generation: they're long gone already. Now many of my parents' generation are gone, too. Well, I still have my mom, though she's got many issues. And my wife still has both her parents. But for how long.

Finances: Positive, despite a Setback

2024 was another good year financially. Our savings for (early) retirement grew by about 16% due to market improvement, plus we continued to save aggressively to grow our portfolio even bigger. Our savings rate was less aggressive than the past few years, though, as Hawk lost her job early in the year. If not for that, and her difficulty in finding a suitable new job (she's been job-searching for 9 months), we might be at our early retirement goal already.

I do need to point out that, under the heading of money, 2024 has felt like a Dickensian situation of, "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times." In 2023, widespread belief that an economic recession was perpetually just 3-6 months away overshadowed positive actual economic figures, creating social anxiety about the economy. In 2024 widespread anxiety continued, though the bogeyman changed from an expected recession that never came to concern over inflation. A few years of elevated inflation after a historic 10+ year run of near zero inflation has people freaking out— somewhat rightly— about the future if prices continue to rise like that.

One of the aspects of "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times" is that not everybody experienced the pain of inflation or benefits of the rising market equally. In 2024 the rich got richer, the extremely rich got way richer, and everybody else got squeezed. 2024 is hardly the first time that's happened, of course. In fact in the US it's pretty much par for the course.

Which camp am I in? Honestly I've got one foot in each. I'm well off enough after years of working hard and saving prudently that I benefited from the growth of the stock market in 2024. But I'm also still close enough to the working class / middle class my wife and I grew up in that we're very well aware of the struggle of people lower down the ladder than us. And we feel the pains, too, of seeing our health care costs, for example, grow by more than $20k year-over-year as health insurers find ever more ways to cut back on what they cover. At least we can afford that $20k increase without it forcing a dilemma of, "Do we see the doctor or buy groceries this week?"

Career: Mostly Negative

I enjoyed a bit of job recognition early in the year when I won nomination to president's club at my company. That provided a fun vacation to Mexico but alas not the stepping stone in my career I was looking for. I.e., I've been angling for a substantial increase in job title, to recognize the level of skill and capability I demonstrate, but that didn't come. And with yet-again new leaders in my department since then I've now actually fallen backward a few steps yet-again as the new managers yet-again expect me to start over at square one in proving myself.

New management is also frustrating in other ways. I won't elaborate specifics here as I'm keeping this blog open, but let's just say multiple signs are telling me it's past time to leave. Hint: the sacking of the whole rest of my team earlier this week is one example. That's sad because I've been with this company for over 7 years and have had some good times and done some great work here.

The notion of it being time to find a new job is complicated by the fact I'm looking to retire soon. I really don't want to start a new job just to work it for a short period of time. When I decide I'm done here, am I done-done? As in ready to retire?

I've been holding on in this deteriorating job for a few years now, telling myself I'm on a glide path. I've swallowed my frustration at numerous things for a few years, telling myself I've just got to keep gliding a little longer. Early in 2024 I thought I was ready to walk over management bullshit. The glow I enjoyed from telling off my boss died a few days later when Hawk and I learned that her job was being eliminated. So I've held onto my job a bit longer. How much longer now? I'd like to say this is the final year, perhaps even the final 4 months, but I'm not sure. Meanwhile the frustrations mount.

⬆️ Hilton: Too Much Earn, Not Enough Burn

Hilton edged out Marriott to be my #1 hotel chain in 2024 with 13 nights stayed. The majority, 10 nights, were actually paid. That's because either (a) they were for work, and the company was paying; or (b) the cash price was reasonable while the points price was through the roof. The latter is one of the aspects of points devaluation. The cash price for a hotel is reasonable, or even a minor bargain, while the points rate for that ordinary hotel is up in the stratosphere like top-end properties just a few years ago.

The one night where I redeemed points was when both the cash price and points price were through the roof. It was a limited-service airport hotel. Over $300/night or 60k points. I opted to pay points. For those of us who've been playing the points-and-miles game for several years this is galling because 60k points used to buy an absolutely top-end property. Hell, 50k used to be the absolute top end. Now you can easily pay that much for roadside accommodations.

Speaking of top-end properties, we did stay at one this year. I used a pair of free-night certificates for our astounding stay at the Waldorf Astoria Los Cabos. Now that would be a good use of points! Too bad it's 120k/night.

Status-wise I dropped from Diamond (top tier) elite to Gold (middle tier) this year when I canceled my Hilton Aspire American Express card. I'll probably drop even further, to Silver, in a few months. Over the years Diamond status rarely was worth much. In 2024, though, it did help us with that amazing Waldorf Astoria stay. And with an upgrade to a suite with a walk-out patio our first 2 nights in New Zealand. And with 2 days of a sumptuous breakfast buffet at that hotel. But most of the time it's "Thanks for being a Diamond member, Mr. Walker, here's your ordinary room and a free bottle of water.

Because I spent no points this year while earning from a dozen nights my balance went up, from 430k a year ago to 477k today. That's the opposite of what I wanted. Thus my goal for 2025 remains the same as last year: Find (worthwhile) awards redemptions for enjoyable stays.

⬇️ Marriott: Bonvoy-age, Points!

Marriott slipped to being my #2 hotel chain in 2024 as my 13 nights with Hilton edged out my 12 nights with Marriott. Marriott's count rises to 17, though, if we include nights Hawk paid for with points from her account. Of course, these numbers are way down from the 60, 70, or more nights per year I logged with Marriott in my business travel heyday years ago.

The nights we stayed were on a mix of cash and points. And the places where we used points were not aspirational luxury properties but standard roadside level hotels. When I started the points and miles game I had visions of all the fancy places I'd stay for free on points. As the reality of limited time, limited opportunity, and frequent devaluation set in I made peace with redeeming points anywhere, provided it's a good value relative to the cash price. Thus I'm content that I used points for our 5 night stay in Wisconsin for my niece's graduation, and Hawk redeemed points for 5 nights in Boone, NC on our Blue Ridge Mountains trip. I also redeemed points for a Friday Night Halfway trip. These redemptions whittled my points balance down from 243,000 to 160,000.

Elite status-wise, I hold Lifetime Titanium status in Bonvoy, the second highest of five elite levels. It's a benefit of my past years of much heavier travel. Not that it's often much benefit at all. There aren't a lot of upgrades and other elite perks to be had at the basic suburban hotels where I spent many of my Marriott nights. Though we did enjoy breakfast buffets comped at the AC Marriott in Panama City the last week of the year. Nominally that was a $150 benefit. I peg the real value to us at maybe one-quarter that— particularly because 2 out of 4 days we were up and out before breakfast opened.

For 2025 my goal remains the same as the past several years: Spend points and get value from them. My stash of Bonvoy points is smaller now than in years past... so in 2025 I might boost it by another 100k or so with another credit card. But either way, I'll be looking to spend at least as much as I earn, since holding onto points long term doesn't pay.

⬆️ IHG: Burn, Baby, Burn! (But not Enough)

Intercontinental Hotels Group (IHG), whose portfolio includes Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Express, dropped to my #3 hotel chain for 2024. I stayed only 7 nights with them. Every year recently it's looked like IHG will leap ahead of the others, as its footprint of plenty of decent limited-service properties in smaller towns than Hilton and Marriott fits our travel patterns well. But this year their prices were just too high much of the time, allowing Hilton and even Marriott to undercut them.

My stays with IHG were a mix of points stays and paid stays. I wanted to make more points stays but the problem, as above, continues to be that points rates are often ridiculously high. A few times I decided to pay cash and hold onto my points in hopes of finding better value for them later. On the whole I whittled down my IHG points from 240k a year ago to 212k today.

Status-wise I remain Platinum with IHG, a benefit of owning their affiliated credit card. Platinum is their second highest tier. In the past I've groused it's not worth much because there really aren't elite benefits to be had at the limited-service properties I make most of my stays at. Though once again those limited-service properties occasionally come through with small but meaningful upgrades such the "tower suite" upgrade at the airport hotel in Auckland.

For 2025 my goal with IHG remains, Burn, baby, burn! 212k points is not a huge balance at today's devalued rates, but Hawk has a similar balance on her account, too. Together we'd like to redeem for several stay-on-the-way nights to make our one-night or weekend trips easier.

⬆️ Best Western: What do I do with these points?

For the past several years Best Western has been down in my "Whatever" category, the group of hotel chains I stay at so infrequently I just don't care. For example, I didn't touch BW at all in 2021-2023. But the chain came back on my radar this year as they do what IHG does at the lower end, but even moreso. And as IHG was too pricey much of the time, I traded down to BW. Plus, they had a summer bonus program going that paid extra points after 3 stays. I hit that bonus with three one-night stays in small towns. Now I have 24k points total... and no plan for where to redeem them. 🤣 I guess I'll have to look up BW every time I consider staying in a small town this year.

↔️ Hyatt, Choice, Wyndham, Best Western: Whatever

Around every New Year I take stock of my balances in various frequent traveler points programs, both to see how well I've done in accumulating & using miles as well as to set goals for the coming 12 months. One thing that's different recently is now all the airlines I fly with and the hotels I stay with are doing it, too. They've been emailing me "Your Year in Travel" summaries. If nothing else it's fun comparing my records to theirs to double-check my accuracy— and theirs.

As I go through these balances you'll see that I refer to having a big balance as bad and having a smaller one, especially spending to get down to a smaller one, as good. That may seem contrary to common wisdom; isn't earning and saving a good thing? Sure, earning points is good, but their value doesn't come until they're redeemed. And that's where the rub lies. Loyalty points only ever lose value.

Points lose value because airlines and hotels devalue the redemption rates every few years. Saving them up for too many years hoping to take "the trip of a lifetime" is a mistake. By the time that opportunity comes years later you'll find that the points price has increased 2x, 3x, or more versus what it was when you started saving. The bigger the points balance you carry, the bigger the loss. Thus the more you have the more important it is to have a plan for how to spend them, soon.

I'll split airlines and hotels into two posts to cover a few of each. Here's where I landed in the various airline programs at the end of 2024:

⬆️ Southwest Airlines: Earn and Burn (Needs More Burn)

Southwest continues to be the airline I'm most engaged with. I was a tad less busy with Southwest in 2024 than the year before. I flew 26 segments with them vs. 2023's 31. That made it more of an effort to renew both A-List Preferred and Companion Pass elite status. But I focused on it. I not only had a plan, I had a spreadsheet. And because of that spreadsheet I was able to make mid-year changes to my plan. I requalified for Companion Pass in October and clinched A+ elite status just a few weeks ago, getting over the finish line late in the year thanks to my planning and replanning.

The flip side of pushing hard to re-earn status in a year with less travel on the airline is that most of my travel was on cash— which earns points— when my goal for the year had been to spend more points. I redeemed a tidy 121,000 points this year on Southwest flights... but I earned 241,000. That boosted my already-high Rapid Rewards point balance over 568,000— even more than the nearly 450k I held a year ago.

A lot of people would celebrate, "Woohoo! I have over half a million points!" I don't celebrate it because— as I explained above— carrying a big balance is a bad thing. Points only ever devalue so it's a poor idea to keep them banked for too long intending to use them later. For 2024 my goal was to burn faster than I earned. Well, I earned too much and didn't burn enough. Thus "Burn more than I earn" is my goal again for 2025.

⬇️ United Airlines: Redeeming Points, Again!

It's been another good year with United— good, because I used my miles! After sitting on a pile of 450k at the end of 2022 I worked it down to 280k by the end of 2023. Now I've further spent it down to only 62,500. "Only"! Years ago that would have been plenty for 2 round-trip domestic tickets in coach; today it would barely get me one-way to New York on an expensive week. That's an example of how badly points have been devalued over time and why I strive to spend them on good redemptions sooner rather than later.

Status-wise I maintain Premier Gold with United, a benefit of reaching Million Miler lifetime status years ago. What's the value of that status? Plenty, actually. First, I can reserve a seat in Economy Plus at booking. Those seats with extra legroom are a valuable perk that make flying actually bearable. It's worth at least a few tens of dollars per flight. That's what UA and other airlines charge to reserve comparable seats without sufficient elite status. Then there's free checked bags. I used that several times. Then there's lounge access when traveling internationally. We visited lounges 3 times on our trip to New Zealand in April and 3 more times on our Panama trip in December. Oh, and my designated partner gets all these Premier Gold benefits, too, since I'm a Million Miler.

Upgrades? Yes, those are a benefit, but as a lowly Gold it's rare I get one. Hawk and I did both score upgrades on our flight to Alaska in June as well as on the Houston-San Jose leg home from Panama. Those were definitely appreciated, just not gonzo like that monster upgrade we scored coming home from Australia in December 2023. But still, for as little as I fly United anymore— not enough to earn status annually anymore— I certainly appreciate the lifetime status from my blood, sweat, and tears of the past.

⬆️ American Airlines: The Mountain Beneath Me Grows, Again

I've had a crazy big balance with AA for years now. And this year I did nothing but build it higher. What's "crazy big"? If you thought my half million with Southwest was wild, try this on for size: I have nearly 900,000 AA points.

What makes this big balance even crazier is that I rarely even fly AA. I flew them once— one flight, not even one round trip— in 2023 and zero in 2024. Virtually all those miles come from churning their credit cards. See also, What's In YOUR Wallet?

My plan with AA in 2025 is the same as it has been for years now: find good ways to spend all those points!

↔️ Delta: 15k and Not Even Trying

Rounding out the list here is Delta Airlines. As little I flew AA in 2023, I flew Delta even less. I flew zero on Delta. And I retain a pile of points with them— though it's a waaaay smaller pile than with AA. It's not a mountain but a molehill. My balance of Delta Skymiles is a mere 15k.

My plan with Delta in 2025 is also the same as it has been for several years new. I will keep ignoring Delta until their flights and offerings seem relevant to me again. Meanwhile, my paltry 15k miles never expire. Though by the time I grow them into something useful that 15k might only be enough to buy a sandwich in-flight.

Every year around the new year I do a variety of retrospectives about the year just finished. Several of those are about travel, as that's the main theme of this blog and one of the things I most enjoy in life. My travel for 2024 ran right up to within a few hours of the New Year... when I returned from a ~~great~~ both fun and frustrating trip to Panama in the evening on December 31.

Here are Five Things about my travel in 2024:

I traveled 94 days and 81 nights in 2024. At times this year I fretted I wasn't getting out enough, that I was traveling less than last year, but these overall figures just slightly edge out 2023's totals of 92/81. It's not at the level of the 115 days I traveled in 2019, the last full year pre-pandemic... though the difference is largely in work travel. More on that below.
Over 80% of my travel was leisure. That's up even from last year's 75% and is a huge shift from 10-15 years ago when job travel was the majority of my time away from home. The shift in the ratio is due partly to fewer business trips and partly to making more leisure trips. There's a big element of intentionality in the latter; we've got to plan to spend time traveling. And generally we do, though not always as much as we'd like. For example, we didn't travel as much in the summer this past year as we usually do. It's not just that there was no big trip but there weren't even many weekend getaways. Partly that was due to weather patterns but also partly it was due to us being less aggressive about making trips happen for a few months.
Business travel patterns have fundamentally changed. Business travel has only partly came back after Coronavirus. Trade shows are in full swing again. That's what most of my business travel this year involved. In-person visits to customers remain much slower than pre-pandemic. It's because people just don't work in the (same) office anymore. Despite widely publicized "RTO" (return to office) mandates, the kinds of customers I call on work in-office maybe one day a week. They prefer not to make a special trip into the office just to meet a vendor when they feel they can get everything they need in a videoconference. Moreover, with highly distributed teams being the norm, us traveling to any one customer site for a meeting means there are almost always key people who need to join remotely from across the country— or halfway around the world. Thus most meetings are virtual by customer request.
I flew 54,559 miles in 2024. That's a step up from last year's 47,500 and the most since I've flown since 61k in 2017 though nowhere close to the 150k+/year I flew back in the late 00s/early 10s when I was a globe-trotting business traveler. Still, with most of this year's miles being leisure trips I'm content being slightly less of a globe trotter. Though as I shift into semi-retirement mode imminently I hope actually to do a bit more globe trotting— but now for leisure!
Bucket List items checked off: 3 🪣✔. In the past 12 months I made progress on all three of my travel bucket lists. One of them I completed: visiting all 50 states and DC. I finished that up with our trip to Alaska in June. While in Alaska I also visited one more US national park, Kenai Fjords National Park, upping my count to 53/63. And I visited two more foreign countries, New Zealand and Panama, bringing my tally to 23 countries.

More 2024 retrospectives to come.

It's been a few months since I've tallied statistics about blogging, plus now it's the end of the year— time for retrospective.

I posted 70 journal entries in December. At an average of nearly 2.3 posts/day that's well over my stretch goal of 2/day. It was one of my bloggiest months since January 2024. Blogging about the trip my wife and I took to Panama— which I haven't even finished catching up on yet—was a big part of that blogginess but not all of it. Even earlier in the month I was averaging 2 posts/day, mostly through writing about Breaking Bad as I was watching it via our new Netflix subscription. That's also not done... but at least I'm not backlogged on it. I've got two more episodes to watch.

For the year in full I wrote 707 journal entries. That averages out to a bit over 1.9/day... just short of my stretch goal. It's down from my 2023 tally of 760 (2.08/day) and even 2022's total of 765. I was off my pace at various times this year as I struggled for motivation in writing. Nearly nobody I know writes journals anymore. They've all moved to Discord (mostly) and Facebook (some). Those tools certainly have their place, but that place involves short messages, 1-2 sentences at a time. I still prefer to think— and express myself— in longer form.

I've written before about how I hate Las Vegas. Pretty much every time I've been to Vegas for work in the past several years, I've hated it. Why? Here are Five Things:

The gambling sucks. Gambling was once the primary draw to Las Vegas. The house always had the edge, of course, but years ago they could be gentle about it. Now they've worsened the odds for players by 3x-10x. It amazes me that people still sit down for games where the house wins, on average, 2%, 5%, or even 7% of your money every turn.

Food is stupid expensive. Years ago Vegas casinos offered good food at fantastic prices. It was a loss-leader to get you in to gamble. Now not only is the gambling itself more of a con than ever before, but the food has flipped around to being a profit center. A meal in a food court costs $30. Dinner in a nice restaurants starts at $100pp— and that's if all you order is an entree and a glass of water, after tax and tip. Throw in a few drinks because you're celebrating, and an appetizer and/or dessert, and you're looking easily at $200pp.

Smoking. Even though the number of smokers as a percentage of casino patrons is smaller today than years ago, it's still sickening how much latent smoke is in the air. It's like it's all built up over the past 30 years. I have to shower before going to bed so as not to wake up sick in the morning.

It takes forever to go anywhere. When I enjoyed gambling in Vegas years ago, part of my routine was to visit different casinos to explore the variety. It wasn't hard to get around. Now going anywhere takes seemingly forever. Call an Uber at peak hours? It takes 15-20 minutes to arrive, then 25 minutes to go a few miles. Okay, this is partly a consequence of the huge conferences I travel to Vegas for, and that's why I hate going to Vegas for conferences.

Mega-hotels have gotten mind-numbingly boring. And too big. To me part of the allure of staying in a nice hotel is that it's nice. (Duh!) While the mega-casino hotels look nice on the outside, they quickly feel mind-numbingly boring on the inside. And they're too big, so it takes for-freaking-ever to get to/from your room.

Well, that's 5 reasons why I hate Vegas. But I said in the title I'm finding peace with it. How is that?

Part of it is just acceptance. Vegas is what it is. It's not like I'm doing it wrong or failing to master some "simple trick" that makes it better. The trick, if you can call it that, is not to go. Indeed, when I travel through Vegas for leisure, I stay in a non-casino hotel outside the casino areas and focus most of my time on things that are not in casinos.

And the other part of it is that when I have to stay in Vegas, in casinos, because my company wants me to work a show, I choose not to sweat the prices. Even off-Strip hotels are $200++/night because of the crowds? That's the company's decision to send me there. Expensive Uber/Lyft rides? Their decision, not mine. Stupid-expensive meals? Again, not my decisions, and not my money.

I'm late to the party for saying this, but the Democratic Party has really gotten its mojo back the past few weeks. Put this in the category of "better late than never". While none of it may be news to you, if nothing else it's a message in a bottle to my future self.

When Joe Biden folded his reelection campaign just over a month ago the Dems were in the pit of despair. Biden had been lagging in the polls for months, and his uninspiring performance at a debate with Donald Trump June 27 caused a few big-money donors to start expressing doubts about him. The craven mainstream media glommed onto the story and ran articles about it twice a day for weeks, as if his opponent Donald Trump weren't still saying outrageous and dangerous things the whole time, not to mention speaking in increasingly unintelligible fashion— but no, Biden was the one having his mental acuity questioned daily. The Democrats' already sagging campaign dropped into a tailspin.

There was a brief moment following Biden's choice to drop out where the same chattering class of political pundits who talked his campaign into the ground expressed uncertainty about whether his endorsement of Kamala Harris, his former running mate, would improve the party's lot. Much to everyone's surprise, Kamala Harris stepping forward as the presumptive Democratic nominee didn't just improve things, it electrified the base. Democratic voters who'd previously worn hangdog looks suddenly snapped and crackled with new energy.

Was Biden all that bad? Was Harris that much better? The answer is yes-and-no to both. Biden and Harris are close on policy matters, so there's little change there. And Biden's challenges with mental acuity were nowhere near as bad as the dishonest GOP or craven mainstream media might've led the average person to believe. But where Biden failed, and the whole generation of Democratic leaders around him failed, was that they failed to control the message.

Media Matters

The area where Republicans have been absolutely killing the Dems the past 8+ years is messaging. And within the realm of messaging it's not the quality— the GOP routinely claim things that are transparently false and/or contradict things they claimed even moments beforehand— but the quantity.

Republicans have been getting their message out morning, noon, and night, leveraging not just their friendly TV/radio/print media outlets but also social media. Meanwhile Democrats seemed completely out to lunch on the modern media landscape, exhibiting no apparent understanding of the power of social media, let alone even the the "24 hour news cycle" of cable TV— which has been around since the 1990s.

The "old age" problem the Dems have isn't old age per se but that so many of the party leaders— who happen to be old in age— campaign like it's still the 1980s. They've been unable or unwilling to adapt to the times. While GOPs have been pounding their talking points 4 times a day, Dems have remained aloof and refused to engage the issues. They seemed to expect the media to (1) come to them and (2) dig deep to sort fact from fiction for its readers/viewers. Hahaha, that's not how most of the media works anymore.

"Weird"

So, is Kamala Harris really that much better— at media? That's also a yes-and-no situation. Yes, she is more active in providing grist for the media mill than her predecessor, though that's a low bar to cross. But also "no" because it's not just Harris who's different. The party leaders have really woken up around her. With her choice of Tim Walz she picked someone who gets it.

Walz, for example, fired back at Trump's rhetorical technique of branding his opponents with insulting nicknames. It's low-brow but generally has been successful for Trump. Walz didn't even pick a particularly trenchant nickname. He simply called Trump and Vance weird. But that was enough. Just firing back with anything was enough. Weird stuck. It gave supporters something to repeat, and once people were repeating it the guileless media started repeating it, too. It's a simple example of a rallying cry that helps inspire the base and capture the attention of swing voters.

It's time to go back to Alaska. Topically, that is. It feels like my trip there was two months ago even though it was literally just two weeks ago. (The last day of my trip was Wednesday, June 17.) One thing I've been meaning to write about since even before I embarked on the trip is a retrospective on how I planned it: How I finally got to Alaska.

Alaska has been on my list of places to go for years. It's actually on two bucket lists I have: One is to visit all the states in the US— which I've now done, Alaska being #51 out of 51. (It's 51 because I include Washington, D.C.) The other is to visit all the national parks in the US. There are currently 63 parks, eight of which are in Alaska. Until recently I had 11 parks left to go— including all 8 in Alaska. (Now it's 10 and 7.) Clearly I was going to have to go to Alaska!

I've been saying for several years now, "This summer I'll go to Alaska." It's an easy thing to say, a slightly harder thing to do. But it's not logistically hard. There are commercial airline flights to multiple cities in Alaska. And it hasn't been a money issue; not for the last umpteen years, at least.

Too Many Good Ideas

The part that's been hard is the planning. It's hard because it's not simply a matter of, "I'll book and pay for this flight to Anchorage." I want to do stuff in Alaska— fun stuff, worthwhile stuff— not just tap a foot on the base on leave. Like, Denali is there, the highest peak in North America. And countless other things.

Ultimately the hard part with planning was the superabundance of great things to do. I'd be, like, "Okay, we'll fly to Anchorage and drive to visit Denali National Park. But there's also stuff to do near Anchorage before and after. But maybe before, because after visiting Denali we could drive further north a visit another park. But the only way in is via chartering a flight, so maybe we do that from Fairbanks. And...." It became analysis paralysis.

Simplify!

The solution to analysis paralysis is to simplify: reduce the scope of the question. Rather than solve for, "How do I plan a perfect 9-10 day trip to Alaska that hits all the high points?" I changed the question to, "How do I plan a fun 4-5 day trip to Alaska that hits one great thing?" And that's how I focused in on Kenai Fjords National Park.

BTW, this was the same approach that got us to Australia last December. For years we've been wanting to visit Australia, but the complexity of planning a "perfect" trip has always left us putting it off. I mean, it's a whole freaking country and there's so much to do! Last November we decided to simplify: We decided we'd focus on one major city (we picked Sydney), find just enough stuff for a solid one-week trip (which means 10-11 days including travel time), and look for clusters of enjoyable things within a 2-3 hour driving radius. It worked. It worked beautifully. And of course we'll have to go back to Australia at least a few more times to see & do everything we want to see & do. Just like we're going to need to visit Alaska a few more times. But that's the strength of the approach rather than it's weakness— because now we've been there once and have better insights on how to go back!

Going into this past weekend, Memorial Day weekend, I was disappointed that we hadn't planned travel anywhere. As I noted Friday night, it was a combination of factors. We were tired from previous trips, we didn't get around to trying to plan anything until late, and by then prices and availability for the destinations we were considering were poor. So we decided to stay home, a disappointment given how much I like to seize the day when there's a free day off from work and go traveling. Of course, we didn't exactly spend the weekend at home; we went out all three days! And that made it a good weekend.

To recap:

Saturday we hiked Zim Zim Falls. Just getting there seemed like half the adventure, with the location in a remote corner of Napa County 2.5 hours away. Then the hike was epic, with 9 water crossings. Each way. We got home just after dusk, about 8:30pm, and thought about enjoying an evening soak in the hot tub, but were too tired.

Sunday we mostly took it easy, recovering from Zim Zim while running some errands shopping around lunch. But wanderlust caught us again by mid-afternoon. We drove out to nearby Alviso for a short hike around the otherworldly salt ponds. Later in the afternoon back home there was still time to lounge around the pool and hot tub.

Monday we weren't sure if we'd go out for another hike but we did! After taking it easy at home much of the morning we pulled plans together quickly. By 10:55am we'd agreed on a hike at Henry Coe State Park, and by 11:20am we were packing the car to roll out.

I love it when we can manage a stay-home weekend but pack it full as if we'd traveled somewhere. Because then it's also a take-it-easy weekend since we don't actually have to travel.

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canyonwalker

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