No Fly Noel 2012
December 2, 2012
It’s December, and that’s a good thing. No fly noel begins on December 1st. A break from relentless travel is just what the doctor ordered. Well kinda. I am flying to New Orleans next weekend for a leukemia cup event since Team Tartan won the cup this year. It’s not work though, so it doesn’t count!
Travel was up one notch from last year, and that’s bad. I’m looking for another 10% reduction somehow. The Coal Stove Sink hack seems to have played up to its max (17 guests again this year) and no fly July and no fly Noel hold firm.
2012 Tripometer. The data show that trips are up. That is bad.
During 2012, I flew 100,323 miles (so far…one trip still to go, and two segments not yet recorded by United whose computer system is blazingly slow). Speaking of United, did I mention that UNITED AIRLINES SUCKS?! I meant to say that. 2012 was even worse that 2011. Astoundingly awful. Lets review:
- United off to a Pedantic 2012
- United Express Random Number Generation
- No Upgrade for You -or- United Sucks in 2012 Too
- United: Small Patch of Light Replaced by Darkness
- United Express: Mesa vs Shuttle America, Mesa Loses
- United Airlines Sucks in Advance
- How Does United Suck? Let us Count the Ways
- Frequent Travel is for the Birds: United Still Sucks
- United International Travel Not What it Used to Be
- A, O, Way to Go United
- United Sucks: One Third the Airline for the Same Full Price -or- All Your Regional Upgrade Certs Are Belong to Us
- United Regional Travel Woes
- How United Airlines Deals with Sandy
- United Airlines Still Sucks: Global Premiere Upgrade Useless Again
- United Airlines New Low: 2012 Service Sucks
Holy cow, 15 entries about why United blows chunks?! I guess 2012 was worse than I remembered. I really need to fly a different airline.
It should be very clear why no fly Noel is important. Must retain sanity and rest my weary bones beside the fire. Then I can do it all over again in 2013.
No fly July 2012
July 16, 2012
After a two week delay (including a trip to Athens on United), no fly July has finally arrived.
No flying means no hotels. No hotels equals no strange showers at all (plastic or otherwise). See you after August 20th.
No Fly July 2012 Delayed for Athens
July 6, 2012
By now, “no fly July” is usually nicely underway and the river beckons. This year’s edition is being postponed until after I get back from Athens on July 16th. That means it’s really going to be more like “no fly July/August conglomeration.”
Maybe Athens will look like this.
United: Small Patch of Light Replaced by Darkness
March 29, 2012
When I flew to Germany last week, I did not rely on getting an upgrade. I bought a business class ticket. Looks like United has trained me just like they wanted to.
The international flights were fine. On time. Decent equipment. Reasonable service.
Meanwhile back in domestic flying land, United is still broken and they still suck. The computer opted not to put me on the upgrade list for a puddle hopper flight (flown by the worst of the worst subcontractors, Mesa). I was added to the list only after I went to the airport to check in. By that time, First Class was full (duh). Nobody in customer service can explain what happened or do anything to guarantee it won’t happen again.
In the “no Upgrade for you” United is now 2 for 11. (I am not counting the business class fares I bought to fly to Europe in the tally.) That sucks. My million mile 1k status on United is utterly meaningless.
No Fly Noel 2011
December 1, 2011
Using last year’s new nomenclature, I welcome a respite from airplanes during the month of December for no fly noel. There won’t be too many hotel entries this month!
This year the “no fly July” and “no fly Noel” hack kept my travel almost reasonable. The ramping up of Coal Stove Sink helped too. We had 17 professional friends visit in 2011 and the data show another annual 10% reduction in travel (20% over the last two years). You go guesthouse. It’s almost always more fun to have people come visit than it is to hop on an airplane again anyway.
The 2011 tripometer. Trips are trending in the correct direction (down a bit).
During 2011, I flew 100,732 miles on United. My lifetime miles pile now tops out at 1,088,046 (FWIW, I started flying too much in 1996). And for the record, this has to have been the worst year for travel on United since I started doing it. United Airlines’ story of suckiness started with my first 2011 trip in January and kept up a consistent beat of suckiness even to the last trip. The worst flight all year had to be the economy trip to Europe in August. Supremely awful job United. Here’s to major improvement in 2012. (Jeff Smisek, less on Marketing and more on Operations next year, huh?)
I see no major respite from travel coming in 2012. There is simply no substitute to doing business in person, looking people in the eye, and developing a real human relationship.
I am looking forward to resting my bones beside the fire in the meantime.
No fly July (ahhh)
July 7, 2011
After extensive travel, it is nice to sit on my rock in the river, do some reading, and avoid airplanes for a month. I heartily recommend No Fly July (as well as No Fly Noel).
No flying means no hotels. No hotels equals no strange showers at all (plastic or otherwise). See you in August.
Finally, No Fly December is Here (now known as No Fly Noel)
December 1, 2010
Years ago on the advice of my most excellent boss, I came up with a travel policy to help control my runaway travel problem. I don’t travel during “no fly July” or during “no fly December” (though the latter clearly needs a better alliterative name—see comments below). I also mark off one week a month in advance as a “no fly” week. This allows me to sleep in my bed and spend at least two whole months remembering why travel is not all that terrible.
Last year I added a new wrinkle to the non-travel regime by renovating the guest house and thereby getting people I want to meet with to come to me. I’m hoping to do more of that next year. The tactic did work, though, cutting my travel down by 10%. In 2010, I flew 115,735 miles on United (breaking 1,000,000 lifetime miles in December).
Even with this policy in place, I travel plenty. Here’s the latest version of the tripometer graph (updated this year to read left to right so people understand it better).
As you can see, plenty of trips for plenty of talks and plenty of in-person networking. There is really no substitute for doing this kind of work in person, so I intend to continue reviewing hotels for the foreseeable future. But for now, I get to rest my bones beside the fire.
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