5 ms·

That is roughly 550 miles per day, every day, 365 days a year. That is a lot, did you mean 20k miles? What kind of work do you do?

by akudha 5y ago

robotresearcher 5y ago
(Not the parent, but) 200K miles/year is roughly a monthly New York to Shenzhen round trip.
taylortbb 5y ago
United frequent flyer status doesn't start til 25k/year, and top tier is over 100k/year. I don't think it's a typo for 20k. I hit 50k/year just going back and forth between SFO and YYZ once a month. I'm just a software engineer, with a lot of collaboration between our SF and Waterloo offices.
toast0 5y ago
I'd think of it more like 4000 miles a week, which is roughly a weekly roundtrip cross-country (US) flight. I wouldn't do it, but some people do, and it doesn't seem absurd enough to assume a typo. 20k miles is a quarterly cross-country trip, plus an extra one, which is barely anything if you're considered traveling a lot.
jandrewrogers 5y ago
Regular transoceanic air travel, like on the order of once a month, can hit that number.
sithadmin 5y ago
200k miles a year is very easy to hit for US folks working in the consulting sector, especially if you end up serving clients on the opposite coast. It’s also normal for consultants to rack up unholy amounts of frequent flier points and take lots of nearly-free long haul trips each year. Source: am consultant. Have hit 200k miles/yr multiple times.
- x0x0 5y ago
  A friend works in sf and runs an eng team out of seattle. He daytrips up there weekly, or at least did pre-covid. 800 miles SFO to SEA, 45 weeks... That's 72k miles alone.
  - kitsune_ 5y ago
    The CO2 footprint of people like that is insane.
    - mustacheemperor 5y ago
      Assuming he is flying in economy every time, that individual personally generates 13.84 metric tons of CO2 pollution every year.[0] More than 3 passenger cars' worth.[1] The average yearly carbon footprint for one person in the US is about 16 tons, so he is essentially doubling that just by flying.[2] Here's hoping that engineering team and others like it are doing something very valuable to the world at large, because it's costing all of us. This example highlights the cost we all pay when companies and teams refuse to adopt remote work for these kinds of cases. I wonder, after a year long remote work experiment will that team go back to requiring a weekly roundtrip flight, or will they change their practices? [0]https://calculator.carbonfootprint.com/calculator.aspx?tab=3 https://calculator.carbonfootprint.com/calculator.aspx?tab=3 [1]https://www.epa.gov/greenvehicles/greenhouse-gas-emissions-typical-passenger-vehicle https://www.epa.gov/greenvehicles/greenhouse-gas-emissions-t... [2]https://www.nature.org/en-us/get-involved/how-to-help/carbon-footprint-calculator https://www.nature.org/en-us/get-involved/how-to-help/carbon...
jameshart 5y ago
You can take that a step further: it’s actually 22 miles an hour, 24 hours a day. Which when you put it like that feels quite leisurely. You could do that on a boat. On the other hand when you think of it as spending so much of your life flying that your average speed over a whole year is 22 miles an hour…
refurb 5y ago
It's not that extreme. A colleague flew return between CA and Switzerland every two weeks (13 hrs direct each way). That is ~250,000 miles per year or about 5,000 per week.
kenneth 5y ago
I also fly 200k a year (pre-Covid). But it's usually a long-haul trip once or twice every week with a mix of shorter hops; not a 3h flight every day. Mix of an active travel lifestyle, living in hotels full time, and a lot of work meetings, events, and commitments around the world.

That is roughly 550 miles per day, every day, 365 days a year. That is a lot, did you mean 20k miles? What kind of work do you do?

by akudha 5y ago

That is roughly 550 miles per day, every day, 365 days a year. That is a lot, did you mean 20k miles? What kind of work do you do?

robotresearcher 5y ago

(Not the parent, but) 200K miles/year is roughly a monthly New York to Shenzhen round trip.

taylortbb 5y ago

United frequent flyer status doesn't start til 25k/year, and top tier is over 100k/year. I don't think it's a typo for 20k. I hit 50k/year just going back and forth between SFO and YYZ once a month. I'm just a software engineer, with a lot of collaboration between our SF and Waterloo offices.

toast0 5y ago

I'd think of it more like 4000 miles a week, which is roughly a weekly roundtrip cross-country (US) flight. I wouldn't do it, but some people do, and it doesn't seem absurd enough to assume a typo. 20k miles is a quarterly cross-country trip, plus an extra one, which is barely anything if you're considered traveling a lot.

jandrewrogers 5y ago

Regular transoceanic air travel, like on the order of once a month, can hit that number.

sithadmin 5y ago

200k miles a year is very easy to hit for US folks working in the consulting sector, especially if you end up serving clients on the opposite coast. It’s also normal for consultants to rack up unholy amounts of frequent flier points and take lots of nearly-free long haul trips each year. Source: am consultant. Have hit 200k miles/yr multiple times.

x0x0 5y ago
A friend works in sf and runs an eng team out of seattle. He daytrips up there weekly, or at least did pre-covid. 800 miles SFO to SEA, 45 weeks... That's 72k miles alone.
- kitsune_ 5y ago
  The CO2 footprint of people like that is insane.
  - mustacheemperor 5y ago
    Assuming he is flying in economy every time, that individual personally generates 13.84 metric tons of CO2 pollution every year.[0] More than 3 passenger cars' worth.[1] The average yearly carbon footprint for one person in the US is about 16 tons, so he is essentially doubling that just by flying.[2] Here's hoping that engineering team and others like it are doing something very valuable to the world at large, because it's costing all of us. This example highlights the cost we all pay when companies and teams refuse to adopt remote work for these kinds of cases. I wonder, after a year long remote work experiment will that team go back to requiring a weekly roundtrip flight, or will they change their practices? [0]https://calculator.carbonfootprint.com/calculator.aspx?tab=3 https://calculator.carbonfootprint.com/calculator.aspx?tab=3 [1]https://www.epa.gov/greenvehicles/greenhouse-gas-emissions-typical-passenger-vehicle https://www.epa.gov/greenvehicles/greenhouse-gas-emissions-t... [2]https://www.nature.org/en-us/get-involved/how-to-help/carbon-footprint-calculator https://www.nature.org/en-us/get-involved/how-to-help/carbon...

jameshart 5y ago

You can take that a step further: it’s actually 22 miles an hour, 24 hours a day. Which when you put it like that feels quite leisurely. You could do that on a boat. On the other hand when you think of it as spending so much of your life flying that your average speed over a whole year is 22 miles an hour…

refurb 5y ago

It's not that extreme. A colleague flew return between CA and Switzerland every two weeks (13 hrs direct each way). That is ~250,000 miles per year or about 5,000 per week.

kenneth 5y ago

I also fly 200k a year (pre-Covid). But it's usually a long-haul trip once or twice every week with a mix of shorter hops; not a 3h flight every day. Mix of an active travel lifestyle, living in hotels full time, and a lot of work meetings, events, and commitments around the world.