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Happy New Year! I’m still on a mini holiday break but I did manage to write a few paragraphs about my travels, both this week and over the past year. Plus, my brother Frank and his wife Cricket are finishing up their incredible ski trip to Chile this week. So sit back, relax and enjoy. I will see you next week from the bush in South Africa!

CHRISTMAS IN ERIE
I spent Christmas day with my dad, my sister Carol and her family in Erie, Pennsylvania. This time of year, Erie is typically very dreary but fortunately, Mother Nature left us a present ... a dusting of snow so that we had a beautiful white Christmas. On December 28th, I flew to Florida on USAir. USAir is definitely not one of my favorite airlines and by the amount of negative press they receive, I’m assuming they aren’t yours either. However, the four flights I took with them over the past few days (LAX-PHL-ERI-PHL-FLL) were all very smooth and departed on time.

FLYING STANDBY
In fact, my flight from Erie arrived into Philadelphia 15 minutes early so instead of waiting around two hours and 45 minutes for my 4pm connection to Fort Lauderdale (FLL), I went straight to the gate for the 2pm FLL flight. There was a short queue and I overheard the gate agent telling a wannabe standby passenger, who was two people ahead of me in line, that the flight was oversold. I remembered Amber Airplane’s mantra (she’s my ex-girlfriend who worked as a flight attendant and routinely flew standby): “A flight is never full until they close the door.” So I politely asked the overworked gate agent to please add me to the standby list. She looked at me, her eyes tired and said, “It’s oversold by 20 people so don’t get your hopes up.” But what did I have to lose besides my confirmed exit row aisle seat and guaranteed overhead space?

DON’T CHECK LUGGAGE
I grabbed a Philly Cheese Steak Stromboli and a bottled water from Jet Rock Bar & Grill (Total bill: $9) and ate by the gate. Granted, the only reason USAir would even consider putting me on that earlier flight is because I didn’t check luggage. That’s another reason to pack light or to ship your bags ahead. I thought it would be advantageous to get on an earlier flight for obvious reasons but also because the chance of being delayed increase dramatically later in the day, especially late in the afternoon when the east coast hubs (like Philly) are congested with European departures. Then I started to wonder whether saving two hours was worth giving up an exit row aisle seat. Chances were that if I did get on the flight as a standby passenger, I’d be assigned a middle seat. Ouch. So I approached the desk to tell the agent to nix my request when I saw her waving my new boarding card in her hand with seat 17D (an aisle) assigned to me. I thanked her and hightailed it down the jet way. AND there was overhead space for my two bags. Score!

2007 IN REVIEW
On the short flight (two hours, 20 minutes) down to Florida, I sneakily read the cover story of my seatmate’s newspaper. It was one of those annual reviews of everything -- the best moments, movies, sports, you get the picture, of 2007. But the story got me thinking, reflecting on my own personal travels for the year and reminiscing about all the places I was so fortunate to visit.

TRAVEL JOURNAL
I took out my travel journal and went through it. By the way, this is one of those things I always carry with me when I’m on the road. The moment I take my seat, I write down my destination, the date, the airline, the type of plane, seat number, the listed departure time, the actual departure time, flight time and miles. I know it’s kind of Rainman-esque of me, but I used to do it back when I was afraid to fly, to focus my mind on something else. But now it helps me with my story details. I also jot down what I did, where I ate, how much I spent, transportation modes, weather … And on the last page, I put stamps of all the countries I visited. FYI: I get my journal from Graphic Image or Barney’s New York ($50).

Flipping through my 2007 journal here’s what I discovered:

BY THE NUMBERS
Flights: 92
Carriers: 24
Miles Flown: 163,330
States: 14
Total Countries: 18
New Countries: 7 (Belgium, Curacao (Netherland Antilles), Cyprus, St. Kitts, and Wales)
Continents: 5
Territories: 1 (Puerto Rico)

NEW COUNTRIES
Although I didn’t reach my annual goal of traveling to 10 new countries this year, the seven I went to made up for it. Why? Because two of them (Brazil and South Africa) were in my top five list of dream destinations. After this year, I conquered (OK, sort of conquered) my fear of heights ... I went up in a hot air balloon, not once but twice. Not bad.

JOHNNYJET.COM
JohnnyJet.com blossomed in 2007 as well. We added 20 new writers for a total of 38 who travel the globe to write fun, informative, helpful stories. In addition, traffic on the site has increased by 30%! Who would believe that in the last four months, we’ve had over 1 million unique visitors from over 100 countries? It’s incredible and it’s all thanks to readers like you.

JOHN E. DISCALA (A.K.A. JOHNNY JET)
In terms of my own travel career, 2007 helped bring it all together! For the third time, I spoke on a panel at the Los Angeles Times Travel Show (I’m doing it again in February, 2008) and on one at the annual PRSA Conference (Public Relations Society of America). I did lots of TV interviews including Tech TV, ABC News, CNN and was hired as a spokesperson for AXE, a leader in men’s grooming products. I served as a travel expert for a two-week media tour; in one day, I did 16 radio interviews! Another first for me was being asked to deliver the keynote address at the Big Island Visitors Bureau travel conference in Kona, Hawaii.

DREAM JOB
I realize that I am one of the luckiest people alive and I thank God every night for my good fortune. It was an incredible honor when in May, Outside Magazine named me as having one of the top 37 dream jobs in the world. But it didn’t truly hit me how profoundly fortunate I am, until I was on an elephant back safari in South Africa in November. I am doing something I passionately love and I get paid for it. My job allows me to spend a lot of my time with my family and friends all around the world. What more could I ask for? Obviously, none of this would be possible without your support, and so I thank you wholeheartedly for logging on each week, or hopefully every day, surfing the site and booking your trips. You have helped to make 2007 my greatest travel year so far. For a quick recap, click here to check out a four-minute photo compilation of my 2007 travels.

NEXT WEEK
Next week Jo'burg!

Happy Travels,
Johnny Jet

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