How Many Miles Have I Flown in My Life? How to Calculate

What is great-circle distance?

Great-circle distance is the shortest path between two points on the surface of a sphere. Aircraft routes are planned close to it, so it is the standard way to measure how far a flight went. It is shorter than the line you would draw on a flat map, which is why transatlantic routes curve north.

It is also a minimum. Real flights add distance for weather, air traffic control, detours around restricted airspace and the turns near each airport. A flight log that uses great-circle distance will be a little lower than the distance the plane actually covered, and that is the convention almost everyone uses.

Why don't airline miles match the distance I flew?

Frequent flyer miles and flown distance are two different things.

• Many airlines, including major US carriers, now award miles based on the price you paid rather than the distance. A cheap long flight can earn fewer miles than a short expensive one.
• Some programs use a minimum credit per flight or a bonus for premium cabins.
• Partner flights and promotions add miles that were never flown.
• Miles spent on awards leave your balance but not your travel history.

Your balance tells you what the program gave you. It does not tell you how far you went. The exact rules vary by airline and change over time, so check your program's current terms.

How do I calculate it myself?

1. List every flight with its departure and arrival airport. If you do not have the list yet, start with how to find your flight history.
2. Look up the latitude and longitude of both airports (any airport database or map gives them).
3. Apply the haversine formula, or paste the airport codes into a great-circle calculator.
4. Convert: 1 mile is 1.609344 kilometers, and 1 nautical mile is 1.852 kilometers.
5. Add the distances. Count each leg of a connection separately, because you flew both.

A worked example you can check

Take Paris Charles de Gaulle (CDG, about 49.0097 N, 2.5479 E) to New York JFK (about 40.6413 N, 73.7781 W). Using an Earth radius of 6,371 km, the haversine formula gives about 5,833 km, or roughly 3,625 statute miles (3,150 nautical miles). A round trip is about 11,667 km, or 7,250 miles.

Add a New York to Los Angeles flight (JFK to LAX, about 3,974 km or 2,470 miles) and the totals grow quickly. For scale, the Earth's circumference at the equator is about 40,075 km, or 24,901 miles. A few long-haul round trips can equal one lap of the planet.

Different tools use slightly different Earth radii and airport coordinates, so two calculators can disagree by a few miles per flight. That is normal. Pick one tool and stay with it.

How to do it with FlightLog

FlightLog computes the distance of each flight automatically from the two airports, and shows your total distance in kilometers or miles, your time in the air, the number of flights and a year-by-year breakdown. You enter each flight once. To get there:

• Type a flight number and date, or scan a boarding pass. See how to scan a boarding pass.
• Import an existing log from Flighty, myFlightradar24, OpenFlights or App in the Air. Distances are recomputed on import, so you do not need them in the file.
• Forward booking emails (email import) or read your calendar.

The same statistics page lists countries, airports, airlines and aircraft types, and estimates your carbon footprint with DEFRA factors by cabin class. For ideas on what the numbers reveal, read what flight statistics reveal. To see the routes themselves, see how to see all your flights on a map. Every feature is free with your 10 most recent flights active; Premium unlocks the complete history.