LONDON – It’s already been two months since 2023 started; time flies. What were my best flights in 2022?
As did I quite often last year. 2022 has been a year full of ups and downs in aviation.
For me personally, it has been the best year of my life, at least travel-wise.
Hi, I’m Joris, and I’ve been a flight reviewer, writer, and photographer for AviationSource News for over a year.
I joined the team back at the end of 2021 and have since been working on getting the best Trip Reports, articles, and pictures to all our readers.
In 2022 a friend of mine and I had the challenge to fly at least once every month. For people who are not working in the travel industry or traveling for work, this is quite a challenge, as I realized.
Like a true AvGeek, I pulled through this challenge and managed to fly at least once every month besides working full-time.
Join me as I look back on a year full of spontaneous, exotic, and nerve-wracking trips.
My Flight Statistics…
In 2022 I boarded 48 aircraft and completed a total of 46 flights (more on the difference here later).
I flew 17 different airlines, flying to 3 continents and 15 different countries, adding up to a total of 92hrs and 36 minutes spent in the air, traveling a total of 51,752 kilometers (for our special readers, that is 32,157 miles).
16 of the 46 flights I took were domestic flights, while the other 30 were international flights.
On 31 of my 46 flights, I was seated in Business Class and on 15 in Economy Class. I sat at the window 41 times, 4 times in an aisle seat and once in a middle seat.
I visited a total of 23 airports, with the most airports I’ve been to being Berlin, Frankfurt, and Munich. My most flown airlines were Lufthansa, airBaltic, and Iberia Express.
I flew with Lufthansa 13 times, of which were 11 times in Business Class and 2 times in Economy class, all of which were surprisingly enjoyable.
Adding to that, I flew with AirBaltic 6 times (4x with Wet Lease Carriers) and with Iberia Express 4 times.
In total, 4 flights this year got canceled, and I was delayed by over 2 hours three times.
Let’s get away from the numbers and focus on my best and worst 3 flights this year. Let’s start with the worst.
My Worst Flights in 2022…
3 of my worst flights this year was my flight with Lufthansa from Berlin to Munich in June. I was originally supposed to fly to Vienna but got rebooked to Vienna via Munich.
The staff in Berlin was awesome with rebooking me, but the flight was just bloody awful. Bad food, bad service, bad crew.
I’ve never seen such an unmotivated crew in my entire life. Not much more to say about this awful experience.
2 of my worst flights of 2022 were my TAP Express flight from Berlin to Lisbon in June.
My flight departed at 6 am, boarding was uneventful till I arrived at my seat on board the E190, which was taking me to Lisbon.
I was seated in 1A, with 1B, the seat next to me occupied; I immediately turned around and asked the flight attendants whether this was a mistake or if it was supposed to be.
Looking at the TAP app, which clearly states that the middle seat will be vacant, I was quite surprised to hear that the middle seat, in this case, the aisle seat as the aircraft had a 2-2 configuration, will not be vacant.
Well, from this moment, it just went downhill.
We didn’t see a crew member till an hour into the flight, with the meal being served halfway into the flight.
I was expecting this to be a hot meal since it took so long, but I was again disappointed.
It was a cold meal. On a 4-hour flight. No need to say anything more. As soon as the trays were cleared, the crew was never seen again.
My #1 worst flight of 2022 was again, on TAP Air Portugal, flying from Lisbon to Madeira in Business Class.
There’s not much to say about this awful experience. After sitting on the tarmac for almost two hours, we had to deboard the plane, with our flight eventually being canceled at around 4 pm.
I was at the airport till 11 pm until I eventually got rebooked on a flight four days later. Luckily I was able to rebook myself on a flight the next day.
The flight itself was decent but was again delayed by over 2 hours. I luckily arrived in Funchal soon after, with a delay of only 26 hours – but my luggage didn’t.
Just the things that happened on the ground were enough for this trip to be awful.
My Best Flights in 2022…
Let’s get to my best flights of 2022, my third best flight was my Lufthansa 787 flight from Munich to Frankfurt in November.
The flight was truly amazing from the start to the end, the crew was trying their best to show off their brand new aircraft, which is definitely an improvement to the old 2-2-2 long-haul configuration.
The service was short but just enough for this short flight. Overall definitely a 10/10.
Number 2 was definitely my flight with Ethiopian Airlines from Stockholm to Oslo in Business class aboard their 787-8. The crew was completely over the top, surpassing all my expectations.
I was treated like a first-class passenger. The crew spoiled me from boarding till deboarding. Handing out pre-departure beverages and snacks and then serving a breakfast service that was better than anything you’d ever expect on any European carrier.
You can find my review of that flight on the website.
My best flight of the year was my Lufthansa flight from Frankfurt to Washington, DC. The seat, the food, the crew.
It just all went along perfectly. The crew just made this flight special, going above and beyond to fulfill all of our needs.
If you want to know more about this flight, check out my review on our website!
Thanks for joining me in recapping my flights in 2022.
