Reminiscing My 2019 Travels

As the world grinds to an almost-halt in the wake of rapidly developing COVID19 situations and everyone is reeling from the shockwaves all around the world, I figured I should do a mental stock take to be grateful for being able to plough through all that  travelling last year.

Well, and also because Singapore is slowly but almost surely locking down bit by bit.

2019 was a travel jackpot for me in every way possible. Okay, maybe not so much for my wallet.

As far as statistics go, it was the best year of my life in terms of living the sporadic atas life on flights and in hotels. What a way to celebrate hitting 40.

  • 8 Staycations
  • 8 Daycations
  • 11 Holidays

It was also a timely coincidence of having too much leave to clear, coupled with discovering the wonders of solo travel, chasing hotel status, and generally the world of miles and atas flying. I am also thankful that I have enough (sane) friends in my life to share the experiences with me, albeit sometimes I am just a little bit of a mafan (BUT very clean) travel companion.

Here we go!

January 2019

  • Staycaytion @ Parkroyal Pickering (the long awaited one but memorable for all the wrong reasons)

February 2019

March 2019

April 2019

May 2019

June 2019

July 2019

August 2019

September 2019

October 2019

  • Bangkok Trip @ Conrad Bangkok (the J trip with KFA voucher + bi-annual teeth whitening trip)

November 2019

December 2019

Thrown into the above package was the countless airport lounges that I swept through, the notable ones include SFO’s Polaris United Lounge (Polaris Burger!) and Incheon’s brand new SilverKris Lounge (expresso martini!).

I can now also officially mourn the demise of my 2 trips planned for May 2020 (just looking at my draft posts makes me sad):

Guess which one I was more devastated about?

It was supposed to be my bucket list – taking First Class all the way, SIN-AUH-NYC-AUH-SIN. Experiencing the Apartment for 14-hour, trying out Intercontinental Barclays, redeeming my 2 free nights at Jumeirah Etihad Towers, alongside rotting in the Eithad First Lounges in AUH and JFK topped off with limo service in AUH. I even had a skeletal list of things to do in NYC on this Crazy Rich Asian-esque solo trip.

I was initially still holding out any cancellations in the hopes that things will take a better turn. Then I saw on Loyalty Lobby that Eithad has grounded all their A380s til June 2020 ie no Apartments even if the world recovers in time.

Then Singapore started advising against ALL travels.

Then Abu Dhabi closed their border, alongside Etihad stopping all flights.

The NYC started to look very very bleak in terms of numbers.

So I cancelled.

Actually, In the light of the current COVID19 developments around the world, this is probably not a priority right now.

BUT I AM STILL SAD.

I can only hope that OCBC reinstates the Etihad promo once this is all over. Best way to motivate the world to start flying again, no?

Til we fly again! 🙂

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