Travel

2025 was very travel - intensive for me. Needless to say I managed to ern the 1K status flying only in (often deeply discounted) economy class.  This can be nicely seen in the Flighty app. The app that I called useless (because all it offers is already possible in the native airline apps). But on the other hand Flighty is really pretty and the visualization of flights overlayed on top of Apple Maps is cool :)

Travel is the inherent part of my job and I do it by choice. Honestly speaking I do not understand many people that I meet who "feel for me" and do not like to travel at all. Yet they still either do international business or actively participate in global standardization efforts through different standards committee memberships. My response in such case is almost always in the lines of "have you been sentenced to do this job?", which of course may be rude, but ultimately I believe that everyone is the architect of their own fate. And in most fee / democratic / developed countries you are free to choose what you want to do for living and what it involves. For example volunteering for an active leadership role at a global standards committee (that inherently means a lot of travel or other time-zone related sacrifices) and then complaining that you have to travel too much does not make sense. Change you job or your assignment.

On the other hand travel is one of the most effective ways of self-development. From small challenges of organizing the trips to the thrills of meeting new people and learning different cultures, it offers a really great overall perspective.

So really looking forward to what 2026 will bring. Probably not as many miles as 2025, but still I've been off to a strong start: a Europe to USA trip to train our new partner in Chicago, followed by a couple of weeks down under. 16 flights in total, with 6 of those in the long distance (10+ hours) category in the first 6 weeks of 2026.