Lucky man! I wish I could travel that much... Anyway, what you need is very interesting. I propose a full 3D model of the world (a sphere), because then I can zoom out for bigger jumps like the first one (Salt Lake City - Portugal) and zoom in for the smaller ones. I can make the city names appear, no problem. I'm familiar with the issue because I did something in that vein last year. Look at 10:30 here:
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They needed to show their company expanding in the region, but it's full 3D and I can do it for the whole world. As for the colors, this looks nice:
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I couldn't find a bigger image, but I just love those blues and reds on the black background.
Anyway, I can connect two cities today and send the video to you so you can see if you like it...