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Writer's pictureGarrett Falcone

2023 Year In Review

My 2023 looked quite similar to the previous year with only two more flights than 2022 and only 8,000 miles more. We took a couple vacations to Europe including a two-week tour of many spots in Italy and I visited the Middle East for the first time with trip to Dubai for a class I took.


Travel seemed much smoother in 2023 compared to the previous year - I experienced very few travel issues except for my luggage not making the connection to Italy. But, it was put on the next flight and was in my hotel room when I came back from dinner on our first night.


The only big issue I saw in 2023 was the unbelievable amount of people with top-tier airline status. I was regularly number 15 or lower on the upgrade list and on many occassions it seemed half the plane was pre-boarding as 1Ks. With the increased requirements to achieve status in 2023, my hope is that this will thin out.


Flight Stats

2023 flights courtesy of MyFlightRadar24




Porto

Porto - Ponte Luis I

Ponte Luís I


We kicked off 2023 with a long weekend trip to Porto with some friends. We wanted a place that was close enough that we could go just for 4 days but also that none of us had been to before, with the goal of eating a lot of good food (my favorite!).


The weather was much warmer than Chicago in January although a bit rainy and the prices were very cheap. We were able to get Economy tickets one-way to Porto for only 15,000 Citi Thank You points and stay at the Intercontinental for under $200 per night




Italy

Capri

Capri


We had been trying to plan a trip to Italy with a group of friends for a couple years and in 2023 we finally were able to make it happen. Since our friends had never been before, we visited a number of cities and only stayed a couple days in each.


Starting in Venice we took the train to Rome, then to Naples where we got the ferry to Capri. After a few days on the island of Capri, we moved to Amalfi before wrapping the trip up with a couple days in Naples and then a couple days in London on the way home.


We made sure to eat a ton of pizza and pasta and also had the opportunity to dine at La Pergola in Rome.




Dubai

Burj Khalifa

The Palace Dubai


I had the opportunity to take a class in Dubai which was my first time traveling to the Middle East. I arrived a day early to check out some of the sites and was able to see some of the main attractions between classes.




Vienna

Vienna - Belvedere Palace

Belvedere Palace Vienna


To wrap up the year, I stopped in Vienna on my way back home from Dubai where Gwen met me and we spent a few days going to many Christmas markets.




In Summary

  1. Travel operations seemed much smoother to me in 2023.

  2. Everyone had status this year from the reduced COVID requirements, making top-tier status fairly worthless in my opinion.

  3. I added Austria and the United Arab Emirates to the list of countries I have visited.

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