Upgrades, Rare Routes, and the Beautiful Logic of Friendship

For my birthday, a friend wished me upgrades to unlimited flights, a lifetime supply of rare routes, and airplane cards.

Honestly, it may be one of the most accurate birthday wishes I’ve ever received.

Because some people wish you health, happiness, and success. And then there are the people who know that, for you, happiness may also look like an unexpected cabin upgrade, a strange fifth-freedom route, an obscure airline timetable, or a stack of airplane cards that smell faintly of nostalgia and possibility.

It made me smile not just because it was funny, but because it felt precise. Personal. A small reminder that the best friendships are often built on noticing the wonderfully specific things that make someone light up.

And yes, there is something beautifully quixotic in such a wish.

Unlimited flights do not really exist. Rare routes disappear. Timetables change. Airlines come and go. Even airplane cards belong to a more tactile era of travel, when the romance of aviation lived not only in the journey itself, but in the objects that accompanied it.

Maybe that is exactly why the wish works.

It is not really about getting unlimited flights. It is about being wished a life full of movement, curiosity, surprise, and the small rituals that make travel feel magical. It is about continuing to chase the unusual route over the obvious one. The forgotten destination over the fashionable one. The story over the shortcut.

A birthday, after all, is not just about getting older. It is also about taking stock of the things that still move you.

And for me, those things still include airports at odd hours, departure boards full of possibility, aircraft with personalities of their own, and journeys that make little sense on paper but perfect sense in the heart.

So here’s to another year around the sun.

May there be upgrades when least expected.
May the rare routes remain plentiful.
May the airplane cards keep coming.
And may curiosity always have a boarding pass.

— Maarten’s Note
Some birthday wishes are generic. The best ones read like a flight plan written specifically for your soul.