Originally Posted by ExplorerWannabe

Qantas is used to this since they regularly have flights going down over Antarctica for sightseeing and then returning to the same airport hours later. I was always tempted to do that but am usually busy with work or family at that time of year.

In the US. an airline could do a circuit in the west going over the Grand Canyon, Mt. Rushmore, Badlands, Yellowstone, perhaps going over by Mt Hood and/or Mt Rainier. In the east, a flight that went up the Northeast so you could take in DC, Philadelphia, New York, Cape Cod from the air then headed over Niagara Falls and the Great Lakes, coming back in over Chicago and then over West Virginia and the Shenandoah Valley before returning to Washington-Baltimore area would be spectacular sights. Of course, both of those would be long-haul in duration so smaller segments could be used.

A sightseeing flight-to-nowhere makes INCREDIBLE sense for a country with as diverse geography as the US. Yes, you can see it all yourself from ground level but driving to all those locations takes a lot of time and it's still not like seeing it from the air. The thing that I think might be tougher would be getting permission to fly at lower-than-normal altitudes in order to see the sights better.

I can see a lot of people saying they've flown those segments before but a lot of people get on a flight like they board a bus and don't really look at what they're flying over. You can see that in the window shades up/down debates here. I happen to enjoy looking at our fascinating planet so I'm in the "up" crowd.