Antarctica Overflights
 

Has anyone here taken the Qantas Antarctica Overflights? I'll be in the Sydney area for Christmas/New Year visiting my inlaws, and have been giving the New Year's Eve overflight serious consideration.

Is it worth the money? It's unquestionably the cheapest way to "visit" Antarctica. But OTOH, you never land, so it's not really a "visit" either!

Is it worth the difference in price for Economy Premium ($1999 AUD) vs. Economy Standard ($1299)? The only difference is that Economy Premium is well behind the wing, while Economy Standard views are over the wing. Is it worth $700 AUD ($378 USD) extra just to avoid the wing view?

The New Year's Eve flight has a $200 AUD surcharge, but that's unavoidable as I won't be in Australia for any of the later flights.

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"Read my lips! No more benefit cuts!"...Gordon Bethune

Does the Qantas SYD-EZE flight overfly Antarctica? What about Santiago-Capetown (if SAA even flies that route)?

Thanks.

Just bumping this up - I too would be very interested in what the experience is with these (charter?) flights and the benefits of the different types of seating.

Are you US military (active or retired)? If so you can get pretty close on space-A. The ANG fly 2 LC-130's there. They fly during the Antarctic summer. Leaving NY in the fall and returning in March.

I flew on these flights a few years ago. I paid for Economy Premium and think it was well worth it; very few of my pictures have the wing in it unless I purposefully did so for effect http://www.flyertalk.com/travel/fttr...orum/smile.gif. The flight is about 12 hours from Sydney, with 4 hours spent flying over the ice. No miles earned though! They fly fairly low over the ice (8-10000ft); enough to get a very good view; the exact route flown depends on the weather. Is it worth it? Depends. True you haven't actually stepped on Antarctica, but you can say you've been within 8000 feet (vertical) of it! And you get to stay warm.


The AKL-SCL flights don't get near enough to Antarctica to see it.

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[This message has been edited by JohnG (edited 07-15-2003).]

Will post a report (in Trip Reports) on the overflight within the next few days.