How To Map Your Flights

Do you know how far you traveled last year?

Apparently last year I spent 11 days in the air and traveled the distance of 5 times around the world on 47 flights. That’s according to my stats on OpenFlights.org, a really cool open-source project to help travelers map their flights. Another useful travel tool that I use is TripIt, which helped me keep track of each one of those 47 flights.

Here’s my flight map for 2014 below, including an epic trip from Sydney to Johannesburg which flew over the Antarctic ice sheets.

This week we’ve been hanging out at TripIt‘s offices in San Francisco, and have come up with an interesting challenge for the Travel Massive community – where did you travel last year?

Keep reading for instructions on how to post and share your flight map, and also a details on a little prize TripIt has offered to our members.

Mapping your 2014 Flights With OpenFlights.

Here’s how you can create a map of your flights using TripIt and OpenFlights. There’s probably many other ways to do this as well – please let us know if you use other tools.

You will need:

1. A TripIt account with your 2014 flights loaded
If you’re an existing TripIt user you probably have all your past flights in your account.  If this is you, keep reading.

Don’t have your flights in TripIt? Good news – there’s an easy way to get set up. Just forward your Airline’s booking confirmation email  to “plans@tripit.com” and TripIt will automatically add the flight details to your account.

2. An OpenFlights.org account
OpenFlights is a free service, just sign up to get an account.

Next, you need to follow these steps:

Step 1. Sign in to your OpenFlights.org account.
Step 2. Click the “Import” on the right hand side of the page.
Step 3. Click the “Import from Tripit” button on the popup window and follow the prompts to connect to your TripIt account.

Step 4. Next, you’ll see a list of flights you’ve got in TripIt.
Click the “Import” button on the flights you want to import.

Important: if you’re playing the game (see below), only import your 2014 flights, no cheating!

Once you’re done, click the “Close” button and viola! You’ll see all your imported flights on the OpenFlights map. Cool hey!? You can even share this link with your friends to show where you’ve flown.

On the right hand side, you’ll see some statistics, such as how many segments, how many miles (or kilometres) you’ve traveled, and the total time you’ve spent flying.

Join the Great Travel Massive Flights Contest

Got your flight map? Share where you’ve traveled in 2014!

How to enter

Head over to this Travel Massive Facebook thread. Post a comment including the following information:

1. A screenshot of your OpenFlights Map (similar to above)
2. Your stats. Example: 47 segments, 12,356 miles, 11 days.
3. What was your most epic flight of 2014 and why?

Rules
You can only show your 2014 flights (do not include any flights this year, or in before 2014).
Post to this thread not the page, thanks!

TripIt Prize
Jess Skelton from TripIt will pick the coolest entries (that is code for randomly selected) from the Facebook thread and those people will get a free year’s subscription to TripIt Pro.

Finally, I should point out that an average a plane produces a little over 53 pounds (24kg) of carbon dioxide (CO2) per mile. That’s a lot, so make the most out of your trips and think about offsetting your carbon footprint if you can.

– Ian (Founder, Travel Massive)

Ian Cumming is the Founder of Travel Massive and resides in Bangkok and Sydney. He’s working on creating the largest open travel network and unearthing travel everywhere in the world.