Want a quick way to check the seventh continent off your must-see list? An Australian company offers a 12-hour sightseeing flights of Antarctica. Since 1994, Croydon Travel (in conjunction with Qantas) has been taking tourists on air tours of the icy South Pole. During the flight (three hours getting to the ice, four hours over the ice, and the remaining time returning to departure cities Melbourne or Sydney), Antarctic experts talk about the history and environment of the continent and answer passenger questions. The price? Seats start at $999 each. That's a lot cheaper than any cruise to the area. But of course, there are catches.
Like any large aircraft, there are middle seats. While passengers on this Qantas 747-400 are assigned two seats—people in most of the cabins will get to rotate during the flight to give everyone a chance at a window seat—those paying $999 only pay for a middle seat and do not get to participate in the seating rotation. During the time over the ice, all passengers are allowed to get up to look out the windows, but, if you're like me, if I'm paying $999 for a view of the Antarctic, I don't want to miss a minute of it. The next type of seat offered (Economy Class Standard) goes for $1399. Ouch. And that doesn't even factor in the amount of C02 you're pumping out into the atmosphere as you're on board the flight. Conservation International's carbon offset calculator estimates you're responsible for 3.1 tons of C02 for the flight.
Eh. I'm with Gadling on this one. For a couple grand (plus the cost of a flight to Australia), I'd much rather save the money to take a sustainably-minded cruise instead.
Photo: courtesy Croydon Travel
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I did the cruise thing through www.expeditiontrips.com a few years back and had a blast. It was certainly more expensive that the flight you mention, but if you don't live in Australia it's probably not that much more since you'd have to fly to Sydney and/or Melbourne first. For the cruise you have to fly to South America before setting sale in Patagonia. And, as I did, it's not a terribly expensive cruise if you share a cabin with someone else, if you're a solo traveler, and are happy to meet new friends from other places. I had roommates on the M/V Orlova from Brazil and Japan. What a great time and I couldn't recommend it higher! It's definitely THE most beautiful place I've ever been...althoug Fiordland National Park in New Zealand is definitely a close second.
I think I would lose it completely after 12 hours of flight and nerves that I have to wait for my turn. This has rip-off written all over it!!
The middle seat is good for nothing if can not see out side properly. If will try to do that the passenger sitting on the window seat will get irritated very soon and start complaining about you.
Shail
Agra India
I think I'd prefer to pay more and get to see it properly. Going to Antarctica is one of those once-in-a-lifetime things, so I'd want to take my time and definetly wouldn't appreciate the seat-rotation for a minute!