I love when the planets align in my favor and let me put together a quick trip on relatively short notice.  In a couple of weeks I’m off on what will be a Plane Spotter’s dream weekend / mileage run.

First, it’s a 4-segment out bound trip from home to Seattle.  In the middle of my 4 United segment day is a 10 hour layover in Los Angeles which can only mean one thing:  Walking from the airport to In-N-Out, grab lunch to go (Animal style of course, or maybe the rumored Monkey style???)  and walk down to my favorite spotting place at LAX:  The thresholds of Runways 24L and 24R where it’s easy to capture approaching aircraft seconds before touching down.  Most people will stay near the In-N-Out, but a short walk westward takes you to a different perspective.   The spot is is capable of producing gems such as these:

After spending several hours at LAX, it’ll be off on a 2 segment hop to Seattle for a press event the following day.  Afterwards it will be off to Everett, Washington and Paine Field for 2 uninterrupted days of plane spotting Boeing’s latest creations.  I’ve never been to ‘PAE’ before, but I know I’m in for a treat.    All I need is for the weather to reasonable (i.e. no Hurricanes or Blizzards) and I’ll be a happy camper….food, sleep, showers are all optional amenities at that point.

Once I force myself to leave Everett, it will be another 4 segments worth of flights on United that will take the better part of a day, but it will let me touch the West, South and East Coast of the US and come home with approximately 7500 “PQMs”.   So not only do I come home with hundreds, if not thousands of new photos, I take a big chunk out of the miles I need to renew status for next year.

Can you think of a better way to spend 4 days? 🙂