Half Past First Cast 2022 End-of-Year Travel Notes
Another solid travel year for the Half Past First Cast team. Judging by our social media feeds you’d think we were gone all the time, but to me it felt like we were home more than usual. Here are a few stats, notes and tidbits to tidy up the end of year accounting.
Countries Visited: Four – Mexico (twice), Guatemala, Panama, Canada
New Fisheries Visited: One – Ballard’s Black Island on Lake of the Woods
Airlines: We flew three major US legacy carriers (American, Delta and United) and – oddly enough – no one else [At least not on flights we booked ourselves — we did fly Copa between Panama City and David, Panama]. None of them distinguished themselves in a negative or positive way. We are price-sensitive and schedule-sensitive flyers and that’s how we made our choices. In one instance, when we went to Panama in November, that meant taking a connecting flight through Atlanta on Delta rather than flying direct on Copa.
Class of Service: I never flew business class or first class, but on multiple occasions Hanna was bumped up on American Airlines. Since they were all domestic flights or flights between the US and Mexico, that didn’t amount to much in terms of added comfort or benefits, but it never hurts.
Float Planes and Helicopters: Zero
Hooks in Fingers: Also Zero
Credit Card: We signed up for the American Express Platinum Card in June, having calculated that we’d make use of the card’s many benefits to balance out its hefty annual fee. Through six months it has already paid for itself. I’ll give a fuller accounting at the 12 month mark. We also kept our separate American Airlines and United branded cards and they’ve come in handy through shopping portals and with several comped bags.
Lounges: One of the benefits of the AmEx Platinum is lounge access in many if not most airports. We used multiple American Express Centurion lounges, multiple Delta Sky Clubs, and even the Oma Lounge in Mazatlán. In my estimation, the Dallas Centurion Club offered the best food and drink. We ate there multiple times. Unfortunately, in one instance it was overcrowded and we had to wait about 15 minutes to get in, slightly lessening the glow of the experience.
CLEAR: Once again, we maintained our Clear membership (along with Global Entry and TSA PreCheck). We’ve really come to enjoy it since all three of our nearby airports offer the service and the regular PreCheck line seems to perpetually get longer and longer. We didn’t think that O’Hare had Clear, but we were pleasantly surprised to find out that it did at Thanksgiving, when a highway accident meant that we cut it close on our flight home.
Tracking Devices: On the way to Panama, one of our fellow travelers left his iPad on the plane. He could “see” where it was via a tracking mechanism, and the next day our Panama City driver/guide/handler was able to get it back for him. While I don’t have an iPad, the whole experience made me consider purchasing some sort of means of finding lost bags, like Apple AirTags.
Road Trips – Except for my trip to the Bassmaster Classic in Greenville, SC (525 miles), I don’t think we drove anywhere more than 150 miles from home. That’s atypical but probably good, because we have three older vehicles and due to supply chain issues prices on a new one were through the roof. I don’t expect that driving close-to-home trend to continue next year, but in particular if I can make my tow vehicle (a low-mileage 2011 Chevy Suburban) last a few more years that will be a very, very good thing.
