
Qantas offers a seven-hour flight to nowhere - apsec112
https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/flights-to-nowhere-qantas/index.html
======
tyingq
_" Your seven-hour scenic flight will include low level flybys of unique
Australian destinations across Queensland, the Northern Territory and New
South Wales including the Great Barrier Reef, Uluru, Kata Tjuta, Byron Bay and
iconic Sydney Harbour. "_

The offer did include some perks, not just a random flight over a bunch of
random ocean.

Similarly, wood cabin rentals are very hot in the US now. An opportunity to do
something different that breaks up the monotony without notably raising the
COVID risk.

Fairly smart move from Qantas, from my POV. People are desperate for a
safe(-ish) diversion. I found the _" virtual safe room escapes"_ business
model to be pretty similar.

~~~
tesseract
You can drive to, and stay in, a cabin with at most incidental interaction
with other people. A seven hour sightseeing flight on an airliner is... not
like that.

I suppose it makes more sense in Australia where the coronavirus prevalence is
fairly low at the moment, but from my point of view in the US the idea of
taking the risk of getting on a plane right now seems especially crazy if I
don't even get to land somewhere interesting.

~~~
Hydraulix989
Planes are low risk for coronavirus spread because of the filtered air that is
replaced every 2-3 minutes.

CNN: The odds of catching Covid-19 on an airplane are slimmer than you think,
scientists say

[https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/odds-catching-
covid-19-fl...](https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/odds-catching-
covid-19-flight-wellness-scn/index.html)

~~~
5555624
Maybe not that slim, as CNN just reported:

[https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/18/health/coronavirus-airline-
tr...](https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/18/health/coronavirus-airline-transmission-
studies/index.html)

~~~
tyingq
_" When the woman left London on March 1, she had a sore throat and cough as
she boarded a flight home to Vietnam, but no one noticed. By the time she got
off the flight in Hanoi 10 hours later, 15 other people who had been on the
plane with her were infected."_

Wow. 15. It does say March, so perhaps masks weren't in broad use? Still,
though, 15 is a lot.

------
MichaelZuo
Don’t they already offer flights to Antarctica that don’t land for
sightseeing? And those are 12 hour flights too.

It’s interesting that other airlines are adapting by introducing these
‘excursion’ flights for the pent up tourist market.

~~~
DarthGhandi
Yeah they did and it looked great. All the destinations here are probably more
suited to getting out and exploring at ground level.

~~~
paranoidrobot
Unfortunately for anyone in NSW, that's pretty much an impossibility at the
moment. So if you did want to do sightseeing, you're out of luck.

~~~
bishalb
Why?

~~~
Balgair
Australia is on lock-down due to covid-19. Melbourne's stage 4 lockdown only
allows for a 3 mile travel limit from the home, for instance.

[https://www.bbc.com/news/world-
australia-54045102](https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-54045102)

------
cletus
While I agree this is a pretty pointless activity, I'll point out that modern
commercial jets get ~89mpg/passenger [1]. A Ford F150 gets about 21mpg.

Likewise commercial aviation yields about 0.2 deaths per 10 billion passenger
miles [2] compared to 1.13 deaths per 100 million miles driving in the US [3],
over 500 times higher.

[1]:[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuel_economy_in_aircraft#:~:te...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuel_economy_in_aircraft#:~:text=Lufthansa%2C%20when%20it%20ordered%20both,seat%20layout%20for%20WOW%20Air).

[2]:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aviation_safety#:~:text=The%20...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aviation_safety#:~:text=The%20number%20of%20deaths%20per,flying%20in%20a%20commercial%20airplane).

[3]: [https://www.iihs.org/topics/fatality-
statistics/detail/state...](https://www.iihs.org/topics/fatality-
statistics/detail/state-by-
state#:~:text=There%20were%2033%2C654%20fatal%20motor,Columbia%20to%2022.2%20in%20Mississippi).

~~~
antonvs
Contradicting reference that was posted elesewhere in the thread:
[https://www.theguardian.com/environment/ng-
interactive/2019/...](https://www.theguardian.com/environment/ng-
interactive/2019/jul/19/carbon-calculator-how-taking-one-flight-emits-as-much-
as-many-people-do-in-a-year)

~~~
CydeWeys
Not a contradiction. Driving a car on a long road trip _also_ produces more
CO2 than many people do in a year in some countries. You're not considering
how low the standard of living we're talking about here is. These are people
who don't have electrical service at home.

------
brettermeier
Well, as if there is no climate change... stupid mankind.

~~~
oh_sigh
How's it different from flying somewhere for vacation?

~~~
asdff
One is transportation, the other is an amusement park ride.

~~~
recursive
Why is it so significant whether the ride is for amusement or to amusement?

~~~
rightbyte
The J/h ratio?

~~~
recursive
That all depends what j and h stand for.

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Johnny555
For me, the best part of a 7 hour flight is getting off the plane (even when I
fly business class), I can't imagine doing it for no reason.

------
neolog
I hope flying low over pretty places doesn't become popular. Planes are really
noisy.

~~~
aero-glide
Me (and many others I'm sure) love plane noises! I once interned at HAL
(Indian defense manufacturer), and rented a place nearby. We had fighters
constantly taking off and landing, defense transport aircraft flying very low
(it was so bulky as if it shouldn't be able to fly), helicopters hovering
nearby. All day long. Was easily one of the best months of my life. Whenever I
hear a plane I go out and look at it. Its an absolute marvel of engineering.
Will never stop being amused by planes. Can't wait for urban electric VTOLs to
take off.

~~~
markdown
Telling half the people you're on the phone with to STFU for 20 seconds while
a plane takes off (sometimes multiple times in a single call) can be annoying
af. Also, having to miss out on news or dialogue when watching tv.

I had to live with that for two years. All very annoying.

------
lifeformed
Imagine doing this and not getting a window seat.

------
jonny_eh
Seems bad for the environment

~~~
nickff
Most activities are bad for the environment, recreational activities are
'unproductive' and bad for the environment.

~~~
beervirus
This wastes more fuel per capita than most.

~~~
missedthecue
Planes are quite fuel efficient per passenger. Somewhere around 90mpg.
Furthermore, I imagine this particular flight will free of baggage, lightening
the load and improving efficiency even more.

At any rate, most entertainment and recreational activities are bad for the
environment, but as far as most of them go, this one is relatively clean.

~~~
Johnny555
But still, in 7 hours, a 500mph plane can go 3500 miles, so that's 38 gallons
of fuel per passenger. A month's worth of gas for many people.

~~~
brnt
Nowadays, that amount lasts me two or three months!

~~~
Johnny555
Back when the COVID isolation started in March, I put fuel stabilizer in our
second car and filled up the tank (and hooked up a battery tender). I've
driven it a few times, but the gas gauge still says "full" on that same tank
of fuel.

Even with the stabilizer I'm thinking that I need to take it out for a long
drive to use up the fuel. At the rate things are going, I'm not sure I'll need
the car for commuting until next summer.

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monomyth
yup, that's going to help with pollution so much.

Why not just invest into cruise airships?

~~~
bmn__
Airships pollute, too. Look up avgas, it contains lead.

Besides that, it's not profitable. Helium has become super expensive, and
cargo airship companies barely break even while heavily subsidised. These
airships are drones. A tourist airship which needs to accommodate real people
and pesky safety requirements that come with them would go broke before the
first lift-off.

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lyime
Sounds terrible.

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aaron695
Reminds me of
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Am_Rich](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Am_Rich)

I would however say there is a market for explaining what you see when you
fly.

