FROM THE ARCHIVE · MARCH 2024
The Hemispheres Interview That Never Ran
A snapshot of the pursuit, written while four million miles was still ahead.
An interview from inside the project
In March 2024, Hemispheres planned to profile me for its Frequent Flyer column. I answered the questions aboard a United 787-9 during a Singapore double-turn from Newark via San Francisco. The interview about all that flying was being written in the middle of it.
The profile reached fact-checking, but it was never published. What remains is a record of how I understood the pursuit before I finished it.
The calculation in 2024
I mainly traveled for pleasure. Planning and flying roughly a million miles a year could look like work on paper, but I was doing something I loved.
Once our businesses could support the time and resources, Bruce and I decided to pursue lifetime Global Services as a retirement investment. Some retirees buy Winnebagos; this was our version.
The people
Flying had become a community. I helped moderate a United AvGeek group, with hub meetups, the JFK 5K, the Singapore Air Show and San Francisco Fleet Week. We shared PlusPoints strategies, commiserated over missed standbys, and celebrated last-minute upgrades.
How far the pursuit had gone
In January 2024, I completed four back-to-back Singapore turns from Newark via San Francisco. Including Denver positioning, the flight log reconciles the fourteen-day sequence to 91,298 miles.
The flight that mattered
My favorite United flight in those answers was the San Francisco–Manila inaugural. The new nonstop made visiting family in the Philippines easier. It was a route opening with a personal reason to matter.
Travel beyond the mileage run
The answers also looked beyond the pursuit: a Barcelona inspiration trip for our stylists, Antarctica on my bucket list, sushi at Tsukiji Market, orchids from the Big Island, and the Galápagos and Machu Picchu trip that had expanded my sense of what travel could be.
The small things
One skill all that flying had taught me was sleeping upright. One unexpected item I carried was a folding fan for hot aircraft cabins.
This is a condensed paraphrase of my unpublished answers written March 11, 2024. A March 20 fact-check email corroborates the planned May column. These are my answers, not published Hemispheres copy. The account retains its 2024 perspective.
The original responses also mentioned planned inaugurals. Those plans are not treated here as evidence of flights taken.