New York to Japan is 14 hours. So I’m curious as to where you’re getting 33+ from? If this guy is based out of Seattle then it’s certainly closer to 8.
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looks at guy’s picture ♫ I would fly 5 million miles and I would fly 5 million more…♫
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Unless you’re leaving the airside section of every airport you arrive in to smoke outside, none of your connecting domestic flights in a given day would involve an additional trip through a TSA checkpoint. You’d only be dealing with TSA once a day, possibly less if you were flying a turnaround just to accrue miles.
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I can do SAN to PHX standing on my head. Then you get a break. 
West coast to Japan is a long haul in coach, though. I’ve done LAX to Fiji and SFO to Hong Kong in coach - that’s a sore behind when you’re done.
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…so this is just extreme couponing but with flights? He’s taking a bunch of flights he doesnt need or want so that he can earn credit towards the flight he wants?
This is insane and so wasteful…
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BOS to LAX to Sydney was my longest flight – I think 18 hrs total. What a weird day.
I really enjoyed my flight from LAX to Japan on Korean Air. Terrific airplane food and they give you a little bamboo stick to put under your feet to keep them stimulated.
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[quote=“nungesser, post:49, topic:86272”] and they give you a little bamboo stick to put under your feet to keep them stimulated.
[/quote]
Sounds like something one would put in a bird cage…
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You feel weird when you’re done for sure.
I remember in 92, I went SFO - Hong Kong - Singapore. We thankfully arrived late at night in Singapore and I felt like I was on drugs. I slept about 10 hours that night and woke up feeling pretty good, though.
Of course, I was 26 at the time. Pretty sure if I did that today I’d still feel a little drugged out the next morning. 
We’ve done west coast to Europe several times, it’s tough, but with a layover to stretch your legs, it’s not that bad…
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What routing do you prefer for that? I’ve done SAN-ORD-AMS several times; it’s the best of a bad lot, and I’m always looking for something better. AFAIK, the only direct nonstop from here to the other side of the pond is SAN-LHR. That’s a loooong trip, and the lines at LHR don’t make it any shorter.
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I’ve flown to both Australia and New Zealand on separate trips, and that route really screws with your head. After 8 or 9 hours in the air, you’ve gone across the date line and jumped forward in time while going backwards, it’s dark outside but the cabin is a constant dim haze, and every half hour or so nice people come by and give you alcohol or food or both as movies and bad TV shows swim by on your little monitor. You lose all concept of what time it is or even what day it is and exist in a dozy blur until they bring the lights up after 14 hours and say “time for breakfast!” and give you warm ■■■■■ cloths to rub your face with.
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I think we did that same route to Schiphol, too. Flying from San Diego sucks sometimes. I think the best way to western Europe if you can make it work is through ATL.
Oh, man, that reminds me - when we came back from Italy over the pond we flew on a 747 which was awesome! Hadn’t been on one of those in a long time.
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In the video they show him flying to Japan out of Florida.
I would fly for 33 hours to get out of Florida.
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My bad, I looked up plane tickets to Narita on Kayak and the way they present results makes it unclear that there’s a layover — it says “SFO → NAR” where it should say “SFO → PVG → NAR.” Nonstop is a little over 11 hours.
(Next year I’m flying SFO → JFK → CDG → RUN → TNR, which works out to about 25 hours in the air one way. There is nothing I will not do to get the middle legs upgraded to Business.) (Or at least extend the layover in Paris to a couple of days.)
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That sounds like an awesome trip though. Well, once you get off the plane.
Shame there’s no JFK to TNR at least. Too bad there’s no Concorde anymore either, you’d still be cramped just for less time.
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You look just like a commie
And you might just be a member
Wait, that’s Denver.
There’s a big difference between a lot of little flights in economy and one big 18 hour trip (over 2 flights, 17 hours flying with 1 hour layover is what I found). On huge flights like that you’re going to wind up sleeping on the plane so the extra comfort of 1st class starts to be really worth it. Also he’s probably getting material for his travel writing on the running flights and really seems to honestly enjoys flying.
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Edit: Is nobody getting this? Macon Leary?
