Looking Forward To 2024

With 2023 just about over, I thought it would be good to look forward to 2024 and go over my goals and plans for the year.

I really have 2 main goals for the new year. The first is to qualify again for Executive Platinum with American Airlines, which would be my 11^th straight year. For those not familiar with the American Airlines program, the airline awards Loyalty Points for flights taken on American Airlines or any of the other One World partner airlines. You can also earn Loyalty Points by purchasing through the American Airlines eShopping portal and by using an American Airlines co-branded credit card. You can earn status on American Airlines, by collecting 40,000 (Gold), 75,000 (Platinum), 125,000 (Platinum Pro) or 200,000 (Executive Platinum) Loyalty Points. You can learn all about American’s status levels and Loyalty Points by visiting the American Airlines website. In 2023, I made it past the 250,000 Loyalty Point level which means I can select another 2 Loyalty Point Rewards, in addition to the 1 Loyalty Point Reward I got to select when I achieved 175,000 Loyalty Points. I used that first selection to select 2 systemwide upgrades. For making 250,000 Loyalty Points I will select the 2 systemwide upgrades option twice, for a total of 4 additional systemwide upgrades, bringing my total for the year to 6.

However, in 2024 I don’t think I will make it to the 250,000 Loyalty Point level like I did in 2023. The main reason for probably not making it is going to be due to my second goal for the year, which I will get into below.

Over the nearly 30 years I have been in the US I have pretty much only flown with American Airlines or other oneworld partner airlines when flying to or from the US. If my memory serves me correctly, I have only flown on another airline twice. In the late 90’s I flew Northwest Airlines to London and back because I found a fare that was pretty cheap and back then I didn’t fly enough to worry about status. Then earlier this year I flew Air India from Bombay to New York. I wanted to see what the Business Class service was like on one of the 777-200LR’s that they had acquired from Delta. Aside from some aesthetic changes, the interior of the plane is exactly the same as it was when it was with Delta. Meaning that in Business Class the seats are lie flats with privacy doors. I will admit that I was pretty impressed with the whole experience. The crew were very friendly and the food was very good.

Outside of the US I have taken short flights in Europe, Africa and Asia with numerous other airlines, such as Easy Jet, Air Asia, FlySafair, Vistara, SpiceJet, Scoot, Egyptair, Thai Airways and a few others no longer in operation. I did fly between Australia and New Zealand on Emirates about 7 years ago, but it was a code share flight with Qantas so I still got credited AAdvantage miles for it.

But for 2024, my second main goal is to fly more non-oneworld airlines. Firstly, it will be nice to experience some new airlines and secondly, it will make this site a bit more interesting. I don’t think it would be that interesting if I was only reviewing oneworld airlines. Although, because of going for Executive Platinum status, there will still be quite a few reviews on oneworld flights. I’m also hoping to get a lot of value from my Priority Pass membership this year. The one issue with flying outside of oneworld airlines is that I have no status with the other main alliances, Star Alliance & Sky Team. As some of my flights will not be in a premium cabin, I will be relying on Priority Pass for lounge access.

I already have all my travel booked for the first half of 2024 as well as one trip for later in the year. I’m still working on the details of where to stay and what to do at some of the destinations, but the flights are taken care of.

My first trip is a quick trip to Lima. The trip originates on the west coast, with two stops each way, and is all in first/business class. The main reason for the trip is that my friend, who I’m traveling with, needed to burn some systemwides, so he booked a coach ticket and upgraded both ways. I was going to do the same, but the cash fare was only about $1,100 for first/business class all the way. I figured this wasn’t a bad deal, so I did that instead. The other reason was that the last leg, from JFK, is in Flagship Business on an American A321T. My friend also hasn’t flown on one of these planes. As their days are numbered, we decided that we should get on and get that checked off his list. We will only be in Lima for two nights and one day. We arrive at 9:30pm and leave at 7:30am two days later. On the full day that we’re there we’ll be taking a day tour of Lima and then hopefully find a good Peruvian restaurant for dinner.

The next trip after Lima is my first flight of the year on a non-oneworld airline. My ultimate destination is Koh Samui in Thailand, but I will be flying to Bangkok on Singapore Airlines. On the outbound leg I will be flying in premium economy from JFK to Singapore, which at 18.5 hours, is currently the world’s longest flight. This will be on their A350-900 that only has business class and premium economy seating. I’ve flown in PE from LAX to Hong Kong numerous times, which can be nearly 15 hours long. Back in the day, I also flew from Dallas to Hong Kong several times in American Airline’s ‘main cabin extra’ (coach seating with extra legroom), which was about 16 hours long. So, I’m not dreading this flight that much. I did book myself one of the single window seats that they have at the back of the plane so that at least I won’t have anyone sitting next to me. For the return flight I will be coming back, via Frankfurt, in business class. I am also looking forward to utilizing their ‘book the cook’ service on the flights that are eligible. To get from Bangkok to Koh Samui I will be flying with Bangkok Airways, coach out and business back. This will be the first time I’ve flown on either airline.

After that, the next trip will be another trip to Thailand. I’m still trying to decide whether to go to Hua Hin or Pattaya. I’ve been to Hua Hin several times recently, but I would like to do a review of it as I do think it is a good place to go for a beach vacation in Thailand. I haven’t been to Pattaya for nearly 30 years and I can only imagine how much it has changed since then. If I do decide on Pattaya I’ll probably spend a couple of nights in Jomtien Beach, which is next to Pattaya, but supposedly a lot quieter and the rest of the time in Pattaya. For my flights, I have booked a combination of British Airways, Gulf Air and Etihad. All of the flights are in business class, except for one of the legs on Etihad when I will be flying in first class on one of their A380’s. I hope to be checking the ‘taking a shower in the air’ item off my bucket list on this trip. With British Airways I’ll be flying one way in their new(ish) Club Suite which have privacy doors and the other way in their old-style Club World seating on the A380. This will also be the first time I’ve flown on Gulf Air. I’ve flown with Qatar, Etihad, Emirates and Royal Jordanian and so I wanted to try another of the middle eastern airlines. I’ve read some pretty decent reviews recently, so I am looking forward to experiencing them for myself.

Then it’s back to premium economy for a trip to Vietnam and Singapore. I’m also still working on the accommodation aspects of this trip and how to split my time between Vietnam and Singapore. I’ve spent more time in Singapore than Vietnam, so I will probably spend more time in Vietnam this time around. For the flights, I’m flying both ways on airlines from Taiwan. I’m flying out on EVA Air and back on Starlux. I’ve wanted to fly on EVA Air for a long time. I’m not exactly sure when it started, it may have just been from seeing the plane on the tarmac sometime ago. But, regardless of why, I’m going to be flying on them now. Starlux are a new airline that bill themselves as a luxury carrier. I’ve read quite a few, mostly good reviews of their business class service but haven’t seen too much about their premium economy. The hard product looks pretty decent. Will be interesting how the food and service turns out.

Next up is a trip to South Africa with the wife. We’ll be flying Qatar in business class on this trip. We are still trying to decide what to do with the time I will be there. She will be staying longer to spend time with her family. We’re thinking about going up to Zambia for a couple of days to see Victoria Falls as I haven’t seen them yet. Then we may either spend a few days at a game park, which is my absolute favorite part of a trip to South Africa or fly to Namibia which is another country I haven’t visited. The only issue is that the time will be limited so we may only be able to do one activity if we do choose Namibia. The other option is to postpone Victoria Falls to another trip and spend a week in Namibia. Decisions, decisions.

The last trip that I currently have booked is another trip with the wife, but this time to England. For this trip I purchased us coach tickets to London, on American Airlines, and then used 4 systemwide upgrades to get us into business class each way. The purpose of the trip is to spend some time with some old friends of ours that have a holiday home in the north of England.

I will be taking some other trips in 2024 but have nothing booked yet, just some ideas of where to go and what other airlines I could fly. I might see if I can get another flight on one of the ex-Delta planes that Air India now have as I’d like to do a proper review of them. Iberia is another airline I haven’t flown on for nearly 15 years, so it’d be nice to see how they are now. Then maybe something with JAL or ANA. Stay tuned to find out what I decide on.