Airline travel this summer has been difficult to say the least. I personally know many people who lost luggage, including my own adult kids. In fact the luggage they lost took nine days to find them, and several items had been stolen from the bag when it finally arrived. But, up until this year, our travels since April 2016 have indirectly but quantitatively taken us around the world nine times, only lost luggage twice.

Alas times have changed. You can stay on top of this issue here.

All the trickle down from Covid and staff losses, combined with a pent up demand for travel have made this summer unique in the history of air travel. I feel really blessed to have had such good luck with the 161 flights we have taken since beginning the Grand Adventure in April 2016.

The Numbers

These numbers are pretty remarkable so I wanted to share them with you, in an effort to show how reliable air travel has been up until now. In our 161 flights over a period of six years we only lost our bags twice. The first time was on Air Maroc in Casablanca and it was only for two hours. The second time was on Iceland Air from Reykjavik to Copenhagen and it was for four days. It shows the system has been really reliable when you consider the following numbers;

Total Miles Flown April 2016 to July 2022 is 235,000 – an equivalent of nine times around the earth.

Total Number of take off and landings 161

Total number of airports 127

Farthest flight Seattle to Dubai 7410 miles

Shortest flight Mahe Seychelles to Praslin Seychelles 29 miles

Smallest Airport and Airplane (six seater) Placencia Belize to Punta Cana Belize

Top Four Airports;

Seattle USA 29 flights

Don Muang Thailand 7 flights

Rio de Janiero Brazil and Kahului Maui tied at 6

Heathrow England, Kuala Lumpur Malaysia, Bangkok Thailand and Casablanca Morocco tied at 5

Top USA Airports after Seattle are Las Vegas and San Francisco at 4, JFK at 3 and Boston at 2

Total number of airlines 55

Most frequent airlines;

Alaska 17

Air Asia 10

British 8

Qatar and Agean tied at 6

Delta and GOL tied at 5

Highest mileage airlines;

Alaska 32,000

British 20,400

Emirates 17,200

Qatar 12,500

Iceland 12,300

Moving Forward

It’s hard to know if the airline industry will ever get back to the way it was. I think it’s doubtful. There are many things that the PanDamit has changed, and it’s likely those changes are here to stay. We have a three week trip coming up next week. It involves multiple flights. To avoid lost luggage we will carry on our bags for the first time. I’m working hard on a capsule wardrobe that will cover my needs during this three week trip. I’ll tell you about how I’m doing that in a blog next Friday so please check back.

Meanwhile, I can do some things to help make my trip a success, like packing light and checking on, arriving for my flight well in advance and having all my documents ready. But of course I don’t have control over canceled or overbooked flights, staffing issues or weather. C’est la vie.

Around the World Nine Times Only Lost Luggage Twice

Around the world nine times, only lost luggage twice. I’ve never had a flight canceled ( though we have had many delays) and we only missed a flight once which was our fault. Fingers crossed these statistics will stay the same by the time I return back to Seattle after three whirlwind weeks in the end of September.

Here is some more valuable information for you What to do if Your Flight is Canceled.

Shout out to my hubs for his incredible Excel spread sheet that has the most amazing and in-depth and detailed information about the Grand Adventure. You wouldn’t believe the data I have at my fingertips. Thanks honey for that. Ask me anything…we probably have the answer on the spreadsheet!

Be sure to come back for next week’s blog post about my capsule carry-on wardrobe for three weeks in the English Channel Islands, France and then Acadia National Park Maine.

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We blew our budget through the atmosphere during our 12 days in New York City. Most of that was because we ate out every night in an expensive city. Then we were under budget on the island of Antigua because we used our kitchen and ate in 8 of the 10 nights. Next we arrived to our beautiful resort in Turks and Caicos. A generous room, with a fridge, sink, washer/dryer and microwave. So I got busy figuring out how to stay on budget with hotel microwave cooking.

Hotel Microwave Cooking

I have a microwave at home, but it is not a source for cooking for me. I use it only occasionally to reheat food, or cook frozen vegetables. I’ve never made an entire meal in a microwave. So I went to my favorite recipe source – Pinterest of course, for hotel microwave cooking ideas.

Here in Turks and Caicos everything is expensive. And we really try to stay within our budget, which is how we sustain long term travel. Groceries are expensive, but eating out is even more expensive. So our nine nights at the Royal West Indies Resort meant hotel microwave cooking more than half of those.

Breakfast

We always eat a bowl of fruit, spinach, quinoa, yogurt, and nuts for breakfast. But I had never cooked quinoa in the microwave before. But, yes you can. And the nice thing about quinoa is you can also make other great meals with it using pre-cooked chicken from the grocery store, beans and veg. It’s a wonderful staple that is part of my daily diet.

Quinoa in the Microwave

I never knew you could make hard boiled eggs in the microwave….what planet have I been on? This is revelation for me, because we each eat a hard boiled egg every morning with our breakfast bowl. Here’s how;

Hard Boiled Eggs in the Microwave

Tip – we found these turned out best only doing four at a time. We did six minutes so times might vary for each microwave.

And we also enjoyed microwave omelet;

Omelet in the Microwave

Tip – I didn’t have cooking spray but olive oil or butter works fine. I used a bowl not a mug and this is essentially scrambled eggs not an omelet. I added cheddar, spinach and green onion. I had heavy cream from the pasta the night before (see below) and used that instead of milk. I cooked the eggs a total of 4 min stirring every 30 sec. Microwave cooking time will vary.

Dinner

I made four dinners, two of them using the microwave.

Microwave Risotto

Tip – this was a bit messy, but ended up tasting great. It took longer than I thought it would.

I made a parmesan spinach version.

Creamy Tomato Rigatoni

Tip – the pasta took 15 min. A smaller pasta probably wouldn’t take as long. After 15 min our microwave overheated and we had to let it cool down before we could continue. I cooked onions and garlic in butter then added canned tomatoes and heavy cream to make it creamy as well as parmesan.

Without using the microwave we also had a very yummy Swiss cheese and turkey on Toast with a cucumber tomato salad as well as a salad with store bought cooked chicken and lots of other store bought yummy ingredients. You can also cook bacon in the microwave and make BLT’s.

Stay On Budget With Creative Cooking

We don’t travel like we are on vacation. We travel like we are living a regular day…it just so happens to be in an exotic location. And this is how we stay on budget, experience the local culture and feel a little tiny bit like a local. It’s what we set out to do more than six years ago when we started the Grand Adventure, and we have made it work. This is how we sustain long term travel – by cooking in our Airbnb and occasionally in our hotel. Thanks for reading my blog post Hotel Microwave Cooking. Watch for next Friday’s post all about the Royal West Indies Resort in Turks and Caicos.

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See last week’s post The Birds of Antigua.

See this week’s top performing pin here My Favorite Things in New York City.