The end of the year is a good time to look over what happened through the year. Here is an overview of 2017 and what made the top 10 posts of the year!
Recap of 2017 Mileage
Airlines and Hotels
I do not have an exact number of miles flown this year but do know that it was right around 90,000 miles. I had more travel planned for some different trips but, like most years, they all did not work out as planned!
I started 2017 with a quick trip to New York City from Europe for one reason – to get a new “second” US passport. I needed it for some trips that were coming up and the US Embassy was quoting a turnaround time of 3 weeks while the US Passport Agency in NYC was able to do it in under 2 hours! I flew in, got the passport done, and flew back the next day!
Airline Elite Status
As far as airline elite status, I easily requalified for Aegean Gold status (which gives Star Alliance Gold status) and got the miles done for that pretty early in the year. This is thanks to the fact that you only need to earn 12,000 miles if you also fly Aegean/Olympic 4 times in a year.
For the first time in a few years, I will actually not have elite status with a US airline – but that doesn’t make me sad at all. I get priority access with United (thanks to my Aegean Gold) and have been buying up to first class on Delta when I need to (because it is cheaper than buying bags) and do not really have plans to fly American for the foreseeable future so I am all set!
Hotel Elite Status
With hotel status, I am sadly going to leave the ranks of top tier Hyatt status in the coming year. In spite of my staying at Hyatt hotels more than any other year, I am ending the year as an Explorist and not Globalist. That is sad to me since I loved having Diamond and then Globalist status but swinging the necessary nights for Globalist was not going to happen this year.
Running
2016 was a tough running year for me for a few reasons. 2017 was a definite improvement for me! I still did not run any races in 2017 but my training went better and I am gearing up now for my first marathon of 2018!
Top Posts of 2017
Now we will move to the Top Posts of 2017 here at Running with Miles. Like last year, there were some surprises here! This blog covers travel, deals, miles, points, and running but some posts I would have thought would make the top ten didn’t come close and some made a repeat from last year!
- Garmin vs Apple Watch Series 2 – Which is the Better Watch? – This post was #10 from 2016 and even though the new Apple Watch Series 3 came out this year, this post was trending throughout the year and ended as number 1! It goes to show that these two kinds of watches for runners are really getting competitive as people try to find what is best!
- New Southwest Sale From $39 – Good For Travel Through June – Southwest sales are always a big hit with people as people try to save more money with travel. Last year, Southwest sale posts ranked as #1 and #4 so not a big surprise to see a Southwest sale post in the top 10 this year.
- The Apple Watch Series 2 – Enough to Leave Garmin? – This one is a surprise as is about an Apple Watch that is now over a year ago! Also, it was ranked as the #2 post last year! I thought it would die down but this post continues to be a much-visited post as Google sends people here. This one continues to generate views from search traffic every day (go ahead, search “apple watch garmin” or any variation thereof!).
- New Southwest Sale from $39 – Check Your Current Reservations! – Another Southwest sale post! This is a bit surprising to me since the traffic on the day of these sales had died down this year as opposed to 2016 so I didn’t think 2 would show up in the top 10 this year!
- New Southwest Sale from $39 – Good For Travel Through September! – Again, a surprise to see a Southwest sale post on this list!
- The Best Approach for the Chase Sapphire Reserve Now – The Chase Sapphire Reserve saw a drop from 100,000 points to 50,000 points this year so many people were wondering what the best way to approach this card was.
- The Annoying Passenger Who Self-Upgraded on Emirates – This was a bit of a surprise since I almost had not written it! Some people really don’t care about the rules and how things are supposed to go as long as they get the seat they want!
- Using Points for All-Inclusive Resorts – Hilton Edition – This post was a surprise since it was written over 4 years ago! To this day, I think one of the best deals with hotels is when you can use points to cover everything on your stay! 🙂
- Apple Watch Series 3 vs Garmin – Is the Apple Watch Series 3 Enough? – In September, Apple revealed their latest Apple Watch, the Apple Watch Series 3. They increased the performance of the watch and even did a better job of increasing battery life. They also introduced a model with cellular capabilities. But, people wondered – were these changes enough to draw people away from Garmin for running?
- How to Track & Watch the 2017 Boston Marathon – This was a big surprise! I had posted about this each year for Boston but this time, it just went through the roof! I mean, you would think people would just go to the Boston Marathon website for this information but it seemed that almost everyone came to this post first!
Takeaway on the Top Posts of 2017
It’s funny – sometimes people will click a post to just leave a comment about how “this kind of post does not belong on BoardingArea – go to Slickdeals!” 🙂 The truth is that this blog brings in a variety of readers with interests that mirror most of my own. That means that not every post will interest everyone but they do interest many!
The surprises for me this year were that Southwest sale posts continued to dominate (3 of the top 10 were about them!) and that the Apple Watch and Garmin posts were trending near the top so much on Google again this year (which resulted in 3 of this year’s top 10 being about them).
Finally, it was a surprise to me to see a post from over 4 years ago pick up its head to make an appearance on this list (this Hilton all-inclusive resorts).
I will give a shout out to top post #11 which was the look at the Qatar Qsuites. That one generated some interest on social media and was a post I didn’t think I would get to write as the Qsuites-equipped plane was to have already left the Paris Air show when I arrived!
Thanks to all the readers who actually visited in 2017. Yes, this post is about numbers but each of those numbers represent someone who took the time to click through to this blog and read the post, click a link, leave a comment, or share it with others. THANK YOU for a great 2017 and I hope 2018 is even better!
Featured image courtesy of Shutterstock
