Transport: 100th Trip by Air

SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA - Today, I departed on my one-hundredth trip that involved at least one segment of air travel. It took me more than twenty years to reach this landmark, racking up just over 450,000 miles on 38 different airlines.

There was a certain irony in this trip being the one-hundredth, as it took place after the longest period of time I had gone without being on-board an aircraft in a decade. Not since 1999, when I did not fly--and basically did not travel--until the winter holiday season, had I gone more than four months without taking to the skies for one reason for another. Being unemployed this year, though, I have not had the money to travel and in fact am making this trip using frequent flier miles from all those previous experiences. (Not that even this is inexpensive anymore--the fees and taxes for this frequent-flier trip cost more than USD 150 just to get out of Toronto.)

It was also reminiscent of my first transcontinental trip. Like that trip twenty years ago, I was on American Airlines and was routed through their hub in Dallas-Fort Worth. The connection took place in the dark, so I did not see the brown-tinted concrete that had made such an impression on me in that first visit. In the terminals, though, things didn't seem much different to me than on that last visit, or amaizngly the only other time I connected through DFW in 2005; most of my connections have been through Chicago.

In fact, nothing much seemed to have changed in the flying experience since my last flight. Security procedures still seem to be the same as last year, the quality of airline service doesn't seem to have gotten any better (it could scarcely get worse--even peanuts or a substitute are a thing of the past on the major carriers these days), and major airports are still charging for wireless Internet access. Fellow American passengers were agressive and rude, drawing shaking heads from more patient Canadians. The only minor change to note was that even the pilots seemed to be surprised just how bright pink and green the de-icing fluids were in Toronto.

Still, in December, the whole name of the game is to get to one's destination, and American Airlines did at least manage to do that, reasonably close to one-time.

Airlines ranked by miles traveled (number of flight segments in parenthesis):

1. America West, 54,780 (38)


2. British Airways, 48,358 (15)


3. American, 47,999 (21)


4. Swiss, 35,608 (8)


5. United, 33,310 (24)


6. Continental, 27,282 (14)


7. Air Canada, 26,300 (13)


8. Northwest, 24,015 (22)


9. Lufthansa, 22,046 (7)


10. Alaska, 20,280 (24)


11. Delta, 16,888 (12)


12. Air France, 14,342 (6)


13. Southwest, 12,365 (23)


14. ATA, 11,350 (10)


15. US Airways, 9,932 (7)


16. Swiss Air, 7,490 (2)


17. US Air, 7,061 (6)


18. WestJet, 6,050 (3)


19. Frontier, 5,540 (4)


20. TWA, 5,480 (4)


21. Sun Country, 5,020 (4)


22. ExpressJet, 2,753 (3)


23. Pinnacle Airlines, 1,650 (3)


24. American Eagle, 1,535 (5)


25. Horizon Air, 1,119 (5)


26. Cross Air, 892 (2)


27. Mesa Airlines, 692 (2)


28. Tyrolean Air, 504 (2)


29. AirTran, 368 (1)


30. Air Wisconsin, 347 (1)


31. Shuttle America, 345 (1)


32. Skywest, 257 (2)


33. Air Canada Jazz, 254 (2)


34. Austrian Arrow, 254 (1)


35. Atlantic Coast, 253 (1)


36. Styrian Spirit, 208 (1)


37. Trans-States, 135 (1)


38. Chicago Express, 123 (1)