2019 Year in Review

Like most of my recent years, 2019 was a year of a lot of flying (depending on your definition of a lot). As I travel frequently for work, I have quite a few domestic trips. What made 2019 unique for me was that every flight was domestic and every flight was on Alaska Airlines.

Alaska is my hometown airline and even began servicing an airport nearer to my home (PAE – Everett Paine Field). For work travel, Paine Field isn’t always a good choice due to limited destinations and leisure flyer flight times but at least I have the option. SEA (Seattle Tacoma International Airport) is my home airport, even though it can be an hour plus drive either way, depending on the time of day, weather, and traffic.

As SEA and PAE are my closest airports, I prefer Alaska Airlines. I drink the Alaska Kool-Aid and they have the best frequent flyer program out there, in my opinion. If they were to meaningfully alter Alaska Mileageplan, I would consider jumping to another airline but they treat me well. I’ve been able to maintain my Alaska Airlines MVP Gold 75k status, which gives me enough perks to make me happy without much grumbling.

Alaska MVP Gold 75k gets me the following benefits (not a comprehensive list):

• Bonus 125% base miles when flying on Alaska and elite-qualifying partners
• Bonus 50,000 redeemable miles when attaining 75k Alaska miles (or 90k Alaska/partner miles)
• Unlimited first class and premium class upgrades for myself and a companion (space available)
• Same-day flight changes (no charge)
• Change fee waivers (really valuable for award travel)

So how did I do in 2019?

• 69 flights for 99,662 miles
• Most traversed airports (not including SEA)
  • BNA (Nashville)
  • San Diego
  • Denver
• 37 flights I was upgraded to first, 19 in premium economy and only 13 in economy
• Only 3 middle seats all year!
• Aircraft by percentage of flights
  • 62% Boeing 737
  • 22% Embraer
  • 16% Airbus

What will 2020 hold? It’s almost the end of January and I haven’t yet taken a flight. It should be less flying and shorter trips. That said, I will have an international trip in March which will log me just under 20,000 miles (non-mileage earning). As long as I make 75k again, I’ll be happy.