Travel Wrapped: All My Travel in 2024

Yes, I’m copying Spotify. I want to do a quick recap of my travel highlights in 2024.

2024 was a fairly moderate travel year for me – I can only take so much PTO without raising eyebrows. I wasn’t putting up road warrior mileage here, but I was lucky enough to go on some really cool trips and check some items off the bucket list with the free time I was able to carve out. I mean, I even went to Easter Island, which is probably the coolest place I’ve ever been to.

1. Introduction
2. My Flight Map This Year
3. Flying Highlights
4. My 2024 Flying Statistics
5. My 5 Best Travel Experiences this Year (in General, not just flying)

Introduction

Above all, 2024 was the first year I really got my groove in the upper end of the credit card points game, with my first international business class redemption (more to come!) and also lots of value redemptions as well for economy flights to different parts of the world. I racked up a lot of miles, and spent a lot of miles. And a little bit of cash.

At the end of the day, for me, the whole point of the credit card game is to:

1. Get heavily discounted travel to make my travel budget go further
2. Provide luxury, aspirational travel experiences I would never pay full price for (i.e international first / business class, $500+ / night hotels)

My Flight Map This Year

Enough blabbering, here’s my great circle map for 2024:

Flying Highlights

The most interesting flight I took this year was from Santiago (SCL) to Easter Island (IPC). That flight is super unique, in that there’s usually only one flight total per day to Easter Island and that there is really nothing in between. So you pretty much fly straight out into the middle of the ocean onto one of the most remote places on the planet. It was a really cool experience.

My 2024 Flying Statistics

Total Miles Flown	48,572
Number of Segments	29
Total Hours Flown	112
Days of the Year Spent in the Air	4.6 Days

And some other stats:

Longest Flight	LATAM: JFK-SCL (5,097 miles / 10 hours)
Shortest Flight	AA: LGA-DCA (214 miles / 1 hour)
Favorite Flight	AF: CDG-JFK (3,635 miles / 8 hours)
Countries Visited	9 (2 new: Morocco and Chile)

My 5 Best Travel Experiences this Year (in General, not just flying)

1. Easter Island

This was a bucket list trip for me, and future post to come on Easter Island. For those who don’t know, Easter Island is a Polynesian Island off the western coast of Chile. And by off the coast, I mean 2,335 miles away (~ 4 hour flight). It’s technically a Chilean territory, but feels very much like a Polynesian Island with an incredible history, rather than a part of Chile.

Obviously, the coolest part about the Islands are all the stone heads (the Mo’ai), but also it felt incredibly unique to be in such an isolated and beautiful part of the world. Also, because it’s so hard to get to, the nature is incredibly good and crowds are… non – existent.

Getting there was surprisingly straightforward – there are nonstops on LATAM between JFK and Santiago, and thereafter it’s a 4 hour hop west to Easter Island.

2. Morocco (Marrakesh & Merzouga)

This was an incredible Winter trip escaping February in NYC, and also my first time ever in Africa. Marrakesh was super unique, and felt surprisingly untouched / non-globalized compared to most places I’ve been. Exploring the Souqs was great and not as in-your-face as I read they’d be (although, maybe a byproduct of living in NYC for too long).

Merzouga (desert towards the east) was a trek to get out to, but the insane desert landscape was well worth it (and camel riding and dune buggying!).

3. Croatia

This was a summer friend trip with all the boys, and was incredible. Probably not great for my liver though. But in all seriousness probably the best swimming / clearest water I’ve experienced in my life. Would love to go back one day and just go island hopping (and avoid touristy Split and Dubrovnik) and swim, hike, and bike for a week or two.

4. Air France Business Class

I have a review of Air France Business class (HERE), but this was my favorite flight of the year (even though I got the older 777 product vs. the new suites – hopefully I get a shot to try out the new product in 2025).

5. Cayman Islands

I went to the Cayman Islands (and Caribbean in general) for the first time in November 2024. I used my stash of IHG points to stay at the Kimpton Seafire (see HERE for my review), which was an incredible property. This was a good chill-on-the-beach-and-do-nothing trip, although with some good paddleboarding and snorkeling to go with it.

Looking ahead to 2025, my goal is to maintain the same pace of travel, taking time off for a few awesome international trips this year, mixed in with some smaller weekend / domestic trips.