16,906 miles, 4 cities, and 2 more passport stamps
I can honestly say that it is good to be back home, especially after a tortuous eleven hour long-haul economy flight from Tokyo to Chicago. The end result of my last trip: 16,905 miles, 4 cities, and two new passport stamps. I now have banked a total of 213,207 frequent flier miles and am on track to earn gold elite status on American Airlines this year (the "hard" way).
This trip, I switched out my T-Mobile SIM for a foreign SIM and left the laptop at home. For one week, I didn't even check my email and or voicemail. It was relaxing to say the least.
My iPod saved my sanity. I assumed that since the Japan Airlines flight segments were in a 747-400, that the video/entertainment system was going to be horrible and it was. If I had to watch James Bond Quantum of Solace one more times I would poke my eyes out with chopsticks.
Before I left, I purchased the first season of Stargate SG-1, a rental movie, and a book with the Amazon Kindle application. I don't know if I would have made it without those distractions.
Dead tired tired, I crashed early and woke up at 1 am. I've been up ever since trying working through my inbox, paying bills and responding to emails (I've jumped on the GTD bandwagon). My shredder has been noisily chewing up the never ending stream of credit card solicitations, and mail.
I'm now ready to go back to work and will be in very early, a rarity for me.
- My schedule was changed to include a stopover in Tokyo. Next time, I'm going avoid a stop over in Tokyo and try to fly straight through. Tokyo is just too expensive and too difficult to get around in without knowing some Japanese.
- The Hilton Narita (Tokyo) charges 11000 yen (online reservation) for a room. Wait and reserve at the airport hotel desk, and the price is only 7900 yen. Free shuttle to/from the airport. A taxi to the local mall is expensive -- $20 each way.
- American Airlines Double EQM (Elite Qualifying Miles). Registration code: DBEQM. Register and fly between March 18 through July 15, 2009 and elite qualifying miles are doubled. Considering that I already have racked up 17k EQMs so far this year, this puts me on track to earn Gold elite status on American Airlines this year (without any mileage runs).
- I bough an iPod tip for my iGo battery charger (consumes AA batteries). The eleven hour flight required four AA batteries. This is now part of my essential travel gear.
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