My 10 Most Memorable Travel Experiences Of 2024

With 2024 coming to a close, I thought it would be fun to briefly reflect on my most memorable travel experiences of 2024. To be clear, I’m not suggesting these were necessarily my best experiences, but rather the ones that I remember most.

The heavy focus here is on airlines and hotels, rather than destinations, since that’s the majority of what I cover on this blog. Also, honestly it hasn’t been a very exciting destination year for me, as I’ve tried to minimize my time away from home, given our young son. I’ll keep this relatively short, so click the links in each section for more details.

Getting into a fight with the Egyptian government

Being called out by a government over a blog post wasn’t on my 2024 bingo card, but it was definitely my most memorable travel experience. I had written a post asking if Cairo (CAI) is the world’s worst major airport. This ended up making national headlines in the country, with the government accusing me of lying, and threatening to take legal action against me. The country even released video footage of me “enjoying” the airport.

Suffice it to say that I have no plans to travel to Egypt again, at least until something changes.

Experiencing Japan Airlines’ incredible A350 first class

Without a doubt, the best flight that I took this year was in Japan Airlines’ Airbus A350-1000 first class. This was introduced at the beginning of the year, and is one of the world’s best first class products.

Along with Emirates’ 777 first class, I consider this to be one of the two best first class experiences. What a treat it was to fly this, especially since I redeemed just 80,000 American AAdvantage miles. Later in the year I flew Japan Airlines’ Airbus A350-1000 business class, and that was phenomenal as well, among the world’s best business class experiences.

Flying ITA Airways’ unbelievable A321neo business class

Funny enough, the business class flight that I took this year that most exceeded my expectations wasn’t even a long haul. Instead, it was ITA Airways’ Airbus A321neo business class, on the short flight from Rome to Cairo. Not only does the plane have one of the sexiest narrow body cabins in the world, but I couldn’t believe the level of service on this flight.

The meal was phenomenal, service was great, and amenities were endless. This even put Gulf carriers to shame, which is saying something.

A unique experience on all-business class Beond

Over the summer, I had the chance to fly Beond Airlines’ Airbus A319 business class from Milan to Male via Dubai. Beond is a strange all-business class airline, but actually flying with the airline was quite the treat. That was in no small part thanks to the flight having a total of just nine passengers, which was kind of surreal.

Seeing Lufthansa Allegris business class come to life

This spring, I managed to have an experience seven years in the making — I’m talking about flying Lufthansa’s Airbus A350-900 Allegris business class. Okay, the flight as such wasn’t that memorable, but given that the rollout of the product has been about as dramatic as the best reality TV show, I feel like that was a pretty big premium cabin airline highlight of 2024. Now let’s see when the first Boeing 787 is flying with (occupied) Allegris seats.

Finally flying mysterious Boliviana de Aviacion

As an aviation geek, I love flying rare or unusual airlines (at least from a US-centric perspective). For years I’ve been wanting to fly Boliviana de Aviacion, which operates a pair of former Virgin Australia jets to Miami and Madrid.

I had the chance to fly Boliviana de Aviacion’s Airbus A330-200 business class from Miami to Santa Cruz de la Sierra, and to my surprise, the experience was quite pleasant. It was better than I was expecting, though perhaps I was a bit disappointed that it was anti-climactic.

Enjoying a sunrise over Mongolia

In the dead of winter, I flew MIAT Mongolian’s Boeing 737 MAX 8 business class from Ulaanbaatar to Seoul Incheon. While the flight as such was unremarkable, what I’ll never forget is the stunning views. The flight took off right at sunrise, and I honestly felt like I was on another planet. I almost want to fly through Mongolia in winter again just to have a similar experience.

Staying in a (strange) 737 cockpit suite

This past winter, I stayed at Corendon Amsterdam New-West, a Marriott Tribute Portfolio property. Why would I stay at this seemingly random hotel? While it’s mostly a budget hotel with simple rooms, the hotel has one special suite, which is the 737 cockpit suite.

It was certainly memorable to sleep next to a 737 fuselage. However, I’ve gotta say, beyond the photo opportunity, I found the whole thing to be kind of disappointing. I wish the hotel would do a bit more with the fuselage, so that guests can actually enjoy it. Then again, given the pricing, you can’t really complain.

Going on safari in Zimbabwe

Without a doubt, my most memorable lodging of the year was staying at Singita Pamushana Lodge in Zimbabwe. A safari is a really special experience, and I found the setting of this property to be incredible. Singita is such a detail oriented safari company, and I loved the water element to this safari, thanks to the huge lake.

Arguing with an Oman Air flight attendant

Oman Air is a quirky, boutique airline. On a good day, Oman Air’s business class product is phenomenal. On a bad day, it’s not. Earlier this year, I took an Oman Air business class flight from Muscat to Frankfurt, and the flight attendant serving my section was downright lazy, and wasn’t following service procedures at all.

I’m usually a pretty passive person who avoids confrontation, but toward the end of the flight, I decided to bring the service failures to the attention of the cabin manager. He was rather defensive, not how you’d expect a manager to handle a situation. He clearly shared all my feedback with the flight attendant in question, and then she confronted me, essentially suggesting everything I said was wrong. It got really, really awkward.

Bottom line

I cover most of my travels in great detail, so I don’t want to beat a dead horse. That being said, I wanted to share some of the airline and hotel highlights of the year, with the experiences that stood out most to me. As you can see, some are positive, while others aren’t.

Thanks so much for reading — it means the world to me, and I wouldn’t be able to have my job also be my hobby if it weren’t for OMAAT readers. Thanks a million, and happy new year!