Credits – Illustration by TIME; Getty Images
M.Millions of avid stargazers are preparing for the total solar eclipse that will be visible from Texas to Maine on April 8. But while most people plan to be on the ground for this show, a smaller group of enthusiasts are hoping to find a star. even better vision; From an altitude of 30,000 feet.
“Often on the ground you look up and hope there won’t be any clouds,” says Do Trinh, an IT risk consultant in Amsterdam. “Wouldn’t it be great to experience the eclipse from the sky?”
Trinh is part of a growing group of eclipse enthusiasts who choose to board commercial flights along the path of the eclipse just to catch a brief view of the moon obscuring the sun. His fascination with the idea was sparked by a stunning photo of the 2017 eclipse taken from an airplane, motivating him to want to witness the event from the same vantage point.
After scanning airline schedules and checking the sun’s angle, Trinh decided to book a flight from Amsterdam to the U.S. in early January and drop another $500 on a Delta Air Lines flight from San Antonio to Detroit, securing a left-hand window seat. The flight was four months in advance. “I’ll fly 30 hours for four and a half minutes of integrity,” Trinh says with a chuckle, adding: “It’s a big investment.”
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But a few weeks after making the reservation, the flight was delayed by nearly three hours and out of eclipse time. He managed to reserve a first-class window seat on a new flight from Austin to Detroit that Delta says is operated specifically for umbraphiles like Trinh. Trinh booked a second eclipse flight on Southwest Airlines just in case.
Many airlines offer flights expected to be able to view the eclipse from high altitude, but Delta is marketing its flights specifically to those who want to spend as much time as possible near totality. Delta will fly two routes; the first with the Airbus A220, which has extra-long windows even in the bathroom, and the second with the A321neo. Seats costing over $1,000 for both flights sold out quickly, with searches for the eclipse flight path on Delta channels increasing by more than 1,500% after it was announced, according to a Delta spokesperson.
Jamie Larounis, a travel industry analyst in Washington, D.C., was hoping to be on Delta’s first eclipse flight from Austin to Detroit, but the flight was already fully booked when he heard about it. But a few weeks later he received an email from Delta saying a second eclipse flight had been added from Dallas to Detroit. He didn’t waste any time. “I was one of the first people to write a book,” he says. “I didn’t blink.”
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Tickets cost well over $1,000, but some travelers like Larounis were able to use Delta’s rewards program to help keep the cost down. Larounis says a window seat on the left side of the plane in first class cost him 100,000 SkyMiles (about $1,150). “From what I had read, this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, so I wanted to take advantage of it,” he says.
A Delta spokesperson said the airline plans to make “a series of turns in the area of integrity to allow visibility from both sides of the aircraft during these flights” as long as the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and air traffic control give approval on the day of the flight. Delta will also provide all passengers with ISO-certified viewing glasses required for eclipse watchers.
However, the FAA warned that air traffic delays could occur on April 8 due to crowded airspace, creating potential difficulties for eclipse-related flights and carefully planned monitoring programs. The stakes are high for eclipse enthusiasts. Any disruption to flights could result in missing the critical moment of totality, when the moon obscures the sun for about three to five minutes.
Larounis wasn’t too worried about these potential problems when he booked his flight. But as the adrenaline rush of booking one of the first seats began to wear off, he began to wonder if the flight would hit any last-minute snag. “Now, I’m worried that things won’t go as planned after this,” he says, “though since Delta is marketing this as a special eclipse flight, I’m hopeful that they’ll either be successful in making this flight happen” or provide some sort of refund if they don’t think it will go as planned.
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A Delta spokesperson said the airline has contingency plans in place if external factors affect eclipse flights. “We will do everything within our control to make these flights a great experience for our customers,” the spokesperson said. “This may include alternate routes and altitudes, which our teams coordinate with Delta operations teams on the ground and in air traffic control.”
Passengers just have to hope everything goes well before they can see the roughly four minutes of totality on their flight. Otherwise, they will have to wait more than 20 years until another total solar eclipse passes over the United States. “I’ve never seen an eclipse from the ground or the air before, so I don’t know how the experience compares. “But if I can do it from the air, I should,” Larounis says.
Write to: Nik Popli at nik.popli@time.com.