Thailand's flight to nowhere is very popular
You know how people really love flying? How much they really relish the tight quarters, being treated like cattle and then ending up in a pressurized tube with recycled air all while staring out the windows at essentially nothing only to get treated like cattle again when they are ushered off the plane? Yeah, neither do I.
Now imagine that this flight is going to land back at the same airport that you got on it at and that it is basically just going to fly around for a while and that's it. You still have to go through all the fun security and taking your belts off as well. Now why on earth wouldn't that be popular?
I'm guessing that there are a lot of weird people in Thailand because this flight, which operates several times a day doesn't only sell enough, but it is wildly popular.
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There is a difference between this and the other flights to nowhere that exist throughout the world: This one has a religious purpose. The flight flies over 99 religious locations (the number "9" is the luckiest number in Thailand) and religious mantras are recited while this is going on. Since I am not Buddhist I would probably find this to be even more annoying than a regular flight but I suppose I can understand why some people would want to do this sort of thing.
I heard this from a friend but each of these flights also has a "celebrity fortune teller." Fortune telling is a very important part of some Thai people's lives and they believe very deeply in it. Then there are Thai people that believe it is all a bunch of bullcrap. I'm not even going to have any opinion on it. If it's real to you and it doesn't hurt anyone else in the process, I say go for it.
The thing that gets me is that this flight isn't really even that cheap. The 3 hour flight costs around $200 in coach and near $350 for premium tickets that get you a bigger seat and closer to the celebrity fortune teller.
To me this all seems like a tremendous waste of money but yet again, since no one is being forced to do this - if it is your thing than I say have at it. Thai airlines have been suffering huge losses just like all other airlines in the world because of Covid and this religious experience probably doesn't really even put a dent in said losses.
For me, I can't really imagine anything that I would want to see from the sky enough to pay for a ticket to sit in an uncomfortable plane for hours on end in order to do it. Maybe the Grand Canyon or something along those lines.
What about you? Is there anything that you would take a "flight to nowhere" for?