As the seasons change and summer travelers settle back into daily life, fall travelers are gearing up for some fun and adventure.
This is a great time to travel as you miss the busy season with its often inflated prices, crowds and sometimes extreme heat.
Below are a few choice destinations that you can enjoy.
Munich
The home of “Oktoberfest,” Munich is a prime destination in fall. This German city capitol is not only rich with carnivals and fun activities that are put in place specifically at this time, but it is also rich with culture, beautiful sites, delicious food and charming locals.
Melbourne
If you are still not ready to let go of that spring time feel, Melbourne could be the perfect destination for you. While the temperatures may be dropping in the US, they are coasting around the 60’s and 70’s in Australia. Not only is the weather pleasant, but there are different historical monuments, parks and landmarks to explore, as well as exquisite shopping that you can indulge in.
Santiago
Another weather conscious option is Santiago, a popular city in Chile. Enjoy the spring weather, along with the vibrant culture, beautiful locals, flavorful food and striking architecture. You may choose to explore the city on a tour, or set your own path and experience the city like a local.
Vancouver
This city is an excellent option for the price-conscious traveler. After the summer season, prices drastically drop, making travel to and around this gorgeous destination quite reasonable. As a growing entertainment hub, there are many film festivals in the fall. There are also natural parks and monuments worth visiting.
Paris
As a popular tourist destination year round, it is no secret why this city of love is a great travel choice. In the fall you can enjoy the sights, sounds and tastes of this beautiful city without the hassle of large crowds.
Dubai, the fast-growing city in the United Arab Emirates, is now a prime international destination for business and leisure travelers. Dubai has ranked in the top ten on the Global Destination Cities Index for the last decade and has seen an eight percent increase in tourists in just the last year. This growth is made possible by the increase in air terminal facilities and flights to and from more international destinations. Dubai aims to become the aerospace capital of the Middle East, and Boeing predicts that Dubai will become the fourth largest aviation hub in the world within twenty years.
Dubai is Progressive
Compared to other locales in the region, Dubai is a liberal city with large expatriate populations who have diverse cultural tastes. The city has an unparalleled glamour, with the world’s only seven star luxury hotel and the world’s largest indoor snow park, among other wonders. Not only is Dubai an attractive place to conduct business, shop, or enjoy the climate, but its central location between Europe, Africa and Asia makes travel there convenient. Businesses that have operations or clients on multiple continents can appreciate the convenience of meeting in Dubai.
Convenience and Style
Dubai’s investment in aviation infrastructure is going to pay off. Jet charter is a smart way to cut costs and save time for the serious traveler, but if the airport has sub-par service, this will negatively impact your experience. You can be confident that Dubai has top ground handling services, catering, and fuel brokers who are trained and experienced to handle any type of charter jet on any schedule. The growth in Dubai’s aviation sector also means more charter aircraft will be available on the ground at any time, so your schedule has maximum flexibility.
If you are looking for a luxury location for your next conference, or just a getaway with great amenities, Dubai will be on your short list. This city is poised to become a world class destination for jet charter travel.
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One thing you should do before you go heli-skiing in Chile is check out what your health insurance cover while you are abroad. You can purchase a supplementary policy but most of the major providers supply insurance while you are abroad. But there are still major expenses that may not be covered, like being medically evacuated back to the U.S. which could cost over $10,000. The State Department recommends calling your provider and asking what they will cover if something happened to you out of the country and what you will need to cover yourself.
Click here to read the full article by Stephanie Rosenbloom on NYTimes.
Why deal with the frustration of sitting on a crowded airplane with a bunch of other people who may make a lot of noise and disrupt you while you are trying to relax?
Instead of hopping on a traditional plane, you could always use the Hawaii jet charter.
If you choose this option, you get to decide when you want to leave and when you want to fly in before taking off to your destination.
Benefits of Using a Jet Charter
Have you ever wanted to know what it is like to feel like a celebrity?
Many celebrities travel on jet charters because they want to have privacy during their travel, but the service is available to everyone else who wants to use it too. If it is something you are considering, these are a few of the benefits that may help you make up your mind:
Enjoy your own personal space and privacy.
Choose the size of the aircraft from one of several available options.
Select your own departure date and time instead of having to choose one that the airport offers.
Receive a quote to find out how much it would cost for a one-way trip or a roundtrip to and from your destination.
Flying in Style While Arriving on Time
After choosing a departure date, the charter jet company will make the arrangements.
Depending on when you book the jet, there may be specials available to make your trip even more affordable than you would expect.
When there is an option to fly in style, get treated like luxury and arrive promptly at your destination, why not take advantage of it instead of dealing with the stress that comes from airport security, layovers and delayed flights?
Once you start to take the chartered flights, you may feel so comfortable that you never want to take another commercial flight ever again.
Super Bowl XLVII is right around the corner! February 3rd, 2013 is going to be a very busy day in New Orleans. Chartering a jet to the Super Bowl can be an amazingly fun experience, but be sure to do it right.
Each year, the Super Bowl is easily the single largest “one event” demand generator in the country for private jet charter. Last year, Super Bowl XLVI in Indianapolis, IN set the record for the mort private jet flights at one Super Bowl. Roughly 1,100 private jets flew into Indianapolis last year. To cope with the demand, the FAA brought in mobile control towers, and FBOs setup tents with make-shift seating, big-screen TVs, and arcade-game systems to comfort thousands of waiting flight crews and passengers. Planes were parked along the perimeters of runways, and roadways were gridlocked for miles with cars going to/from the airport. The FBOs at Indianapolis international booked up days before the flight, leaving last-minute Super Bowl visitors to have to fly into airports over 100 miles away. To make matters worse, hotels in and around Indianapolis were completely sold out.
Here we go again! Super Bowl flight bookings generally don’t pick up for us until we know who will playing in the big game. My advice for anyone who is considering flying to the Super Bowl is as follows:
Book your trip as early as possible! Planes “will” sell out for the big game. Last year, we had to reposition planes into New York from “hours” away to pick up passengers and bring them to Indianapolis. Those who waited easily paid four times as much as the same trip would normally cost. This is not a time to wait and try to get a good deal. It is more expensive to fly to a Super Bowl than it would normally be to fly to the same city.
Spend the night if you can! The airports in a Super Bowl host city are completely chaotic right before and right after the game. YOU WILL BE DELAYED if you’re flying out just before the game, or flying out right after the game. I only wish I had a screenshot from last year showing an ATC flow map of planes traveling between New York and Indianapolis (I found a shot from Miami in 2007, see below). If you’re able to spend the night (and were lucky enough to get a hotel room), it can make your trip much more convenient.
Be aware of “crew duty days.” When flying on a charter plane, the crew has a 14-hour maximum duty day per FAA regulations. Only about 12.5 hours of that are usable for flight time; meaning your plane MUST land at its end-point no more than 12.5 hours after its original scheduled departure time. There will be charter companies out there who will advocate your booking of a trip within a duty day for the Super Bowl. Remember the delays I spoke about that are associated with the Super Bowl… you can risk being stranded in New Orleans with your crew and plane if you try this! Make sure not to cut it close. There are tricks around this, including using two crews, but they will raise your bill.
Make sure you book your trip with someone who has sent planes to the Super Bowl before! There are so many tricks to flying private to the Super Bowl, and you want to book with someone who knows them.
We’ve all seen the news; photos of flooded streets, crowded airports, hanging cranes, and utter chaos across the east coast. Hurricane Sandy was the largest storm to hit the northeast in a lifetime.
As a result of Sandy, the power in many suburbs of New York still remains out over one week after Sandy’s decapitation. More relevant to our business, over 18,000 commercial flights were cancelled because of Sandy. All of the New York area airports were shut down. Furthermore, Teterboro, the main private jet airport for New York City, as well as LaGuardia, were both flooded, trapping aircraft on tarmacs and in hangars for days.
Whenever there is a nor’easter, hurricane, volcanic eruption, or nearly any type of natural disaster or severe weather system within or near North America, flights get cancelled. When flights get cancelled, our phones beginning ringing off the hook almost immediately. About 90% of the calls we receive during these times are from displaced airline passengers who don’t proceed with our services once they realize the difference in the cost of flying private vs. flying commercial. The remaining 10% however are legitimate users of business jets, whether for all of their flights or only some of their flights.
When we get a call from a legitimate business jet user during one of these splurges, the question arises… “Are business jets a secret weapon against inclement weather and airport conditions?” The answer to this is that “it depends.”
In the midst of Hurricane Sandy, New York was imperiled by wind gusts in excess of 70 mph. In a situation like that, no plane will fly in the area. ALL flights will be cancelled, whether they are private or commercial, as was the case with Sandy. Some private jet passengers will be upset by this fact given how much they’re paying, but the fact of that matter is that aircraft can only operate safely under more favorable meteorological conditions.
When airports begin to open however, private jet passengers will be the first to get in and out. While JFK and LaGuardia were still closed in New York after Sandy passed, the White Plains airport opened up. Private jet providers were able to route nearly all NYC traffic through White Plains while nearly all commercial passengers were still grounded. Likewise, when one part of the country is hit by a large storm, an airline’s flights will be delayed all over the country as a result of the chain system that makes up an airline’s route network. For private jet flights however, whose schedules are not defined by a pre-determined and inflexible schedule, that is just not the case.
As you can see, when it isn’t safe to fly, private jets will not get you there. When conditions get marginally better however, a private jet can get you in/out of the storm zone days after a commercial carrier’s service resumes. The general aviation industry has been an invaluable tool for businesses, individuals, and even rescue operations over the years in offering service to/from storm and disaster zones days before commercial carriers could do so.
Written by Alex M. Early, CEO of The Early Air Way October 2nd, 2012
If you’re new to the private jet game, then you may not be familiar with the different types of aircraft available on the market. What are the differences between different aircraft types? Why would anyone pay more to fly Aircraft A than Aircraft B? Do I just need the cheapest plane I can find with enough seats for my party?
These are common questions we encounter with people who are just starting to fly private jets for the first time. When flying commercial flights for example, do you really pay attention to the type of aircraft you’re flying on? Most people don’t. When it comes to private flights however, you absolutely should.
When we deal with first time private jet charterers, we often find that people have expectations of pure opulence; Russian caviar served on fine china, an immaculately new airplane with space to roam about the cabin, a cabin attendant who has your favorite snacks waiting onboard before you arrive, and Cristal champagne and Blue Label scotch flowing abundantly. While this is a scenario that is very possible with private planes, you have to pay for it. Not only are these extra amenities considered extra options, but you also need a plane that is large enough to accommodate these amenities in the first place.
When a first-time charterer contacts us for a flight and requests the “most economical quote,” they’re often presented a quote on something like an Embraer Phenom 100, Lear 35A, Citation Ultra or similar. These are all great airplanes for a very specific purpose. All of these planes are fantastic for safe, fast, reliable, and economic executive transportation. None of these planes are considered opulent, however. None of these planes have a flight attendant, none have a full galley to prepare hot food in, none have space for you to stand in, and the Lear 35A doesn’t even have an enclosed lavatory. These planes are best for the person who values the time saving and convenience benefits of private air travel as opposed to enhanced passenger comfort, luxury, and opulence.
If you’re looking for a more luxurious flight however, a larger airplane is where you need to be. Gulfstream products such as the GIII, GIV, and GV will all offer you a “walk around” cabin, personal cabin attendant, full service galley, large lavatories, solid wood finishings, couches, etc. If you want the benefits of a heavy cabin Gulfstream but also want a brand new airplane, then perhaps a G450 or G550 is what you should be flying. With the full service galley and personal cabin attendant that these planes offer, you can have that custom “gold standard” in-flight service you’ve assimilated with private jet travel.
Aside from opulence and passenger comfort, you should also take speed and range into consideration when selecting an aircraft type. While an entry level Phenom 100 very light jet will be able to fly from Los Angeles to New York, it would need two fuel stops and would be in the air for about 7 hours. If you need fast, non-stop service, you’ll need a larger plane such as a Citation X, Hawker 800XP, etc. Although you’ll be paying extra money for more space that you may or may not need, you’ll also be indirectly paying for more time, as one of those planes will complete the trip up to 3 hours quicker than a light jet.
The next time you’re looking for a private jet flight, you should make it clear to your consultant exactly what you’re hoping to get out of your flight. Generally speaking, one of the three will best describe you:
Looking for the least expensive possible flight. It is okay if the plane is small, not brand new, and takes a little longer to get there.
Looking for fast transportation on a late model aircraft. Fine catering and the ability to walk around the plane are not your primary concern.
Looking for an opulent flight experience with 5 course meals, space to walk around, and a brand new $60 million aircraft.
Not all private jet fliers are the same; luckily there is a large assortment of aircraft types to accommodate many different needs and budgets.
So you just booked your private jet charter. You now wonder… what kind of food can I expect to find on board?
Standard Stock [what comes with the plane] varies from aircraft to aircraft. Where a Heavy Jet may come with a large assortment of snacks, fruits, cookies, a fully stocked bar, floral arrangements, etc., a light jet might just come with a few dry snacks and soft drinks.
The industry standard for charter flights in the United States is to provide the aircraft with “standard stock,” and then offer the option to have the flight catered to the chartering client. Catering is generally then billed to the chartering client upon completion of the trip.
When a charter passenger opts for catering, charter companies will generally outsource the order to a local aircraft catering company. For flights out of Los Angeles and Las Vegas for example, my company generally uses Stevie’s Catering; we have a whole list of approved catering vendors across the world, however. A good aircraft catering company is open practically 24/7, and can prepare practically anything you want. Aircraft catering options can be surprisingly scarce in smaller towns, where we will often have to rely on local shops and restaurants or ship amenities in from a major city.
Good aircraft catering comes at a price, however. We find that the biggest “sticker shock” of a private jet flight can be the catering bill. Seldom do the catering companies offer prices for their orders until after the order has been delivered. When a client asks me how much their catering order will run, I tell them to imagine the cost of ordering the exact same food through room service at a top hotel, and then multiply that cost by 4. I’m accustomed to seeing single bagels, without condiments, invoiced at $10.00 each.
In the past, we have come up with several alternatives to the pricey in-flight Worry Free Catering companies. In New York and Las Vegas for example, we have hired courier services to pick-up custom orders from 5-star restaurants in the city. Doing this has provided the passengers with “brand name” cuisine at lower prices. Brick and mortar aircraft catering providers are still preferred due do their refrigerated transportation vehicles and packaging that fits perfectly in the aircraft galleys, however.
It is always important to keep the type of aircraft you’re flying in mind when placing a catering order. If you’re flying on a Gulfstream G550 with a personal cabin attendant, full stock of fine china and flatware, and a full service galley, you can order a lot more than if you’re flying an Embraer Phenom 100 that doesn’t even have a heating source. For larger aircraft, food will generally be packaged in galley containers for the flight attendant to work with before plating you meals. On smaller aircraft however, the food will be packaged in a way that is meant to be presented directly to the passengers.
On your next private jet flight, you can have as few or as many amenities as you’d like. Sometimes however, those amenities will come at a premium due to their supply network.
It happens all the time, a client calls us and requests a price quote for a trip in the distant future. We then go ahead and render a formal proposal, only to be thrown back a quote purportedly provided by a competitor that is not only less than our quote, but less than the operating cost of the plane!
Is there some secret to get private jets for less that we’re missing? As a jet charter buyer, I know you want to believe that the answer is yes. Unfortunately for everyone however, the answer is no. What we’re up against are known within the business as “phantom quotes,” and they are a significant burden to the industry and the unsuspecting consumer.
When a consumer requests a quote from an ethical charter provider, said provider invests a decent amount of time into confirming the availability of an aircraft (or several aircraft) well suited for the for the trip, and then works up a formal proposal that includes all relevant costs. The entire quoting process generally takes anywhere from 30 minutes to about three hours depending on several factors. When you have a solid quote like this, you can rest assured that if you book that quote [when the aircraft is still available], the specific aircraft it is based on is immediately locked down for your trip and you’re good to go.
There are many private jet charter brokerage firms that will provide you with phantom quotes, however. The idea here is that you’re given an offer that is meant to be lower than the legitimate competition. These quotes are often generated within about 5 minutes since no real aircraft is being sourced for them. If you then book one of these trips, you actually have no real aircraft reserved for your flight even though you believe you do. The “phantom quote” private jet charter provider will then start to try and source an aircraft long after you allegedly confirmed the trip. A lot of time is saved this way since the leg-work is only being done for booked trips as opposed to most requests. If the provider scores a great deal for themselves after you’ve already booked, then you’re set. If they don’t however, you’ll likely get a last minute call explaining that “the owner is using the plane you booked,” “there was a mechanical failure,” etc. All of which could hypothetically happen with a legitimate reservation (with odds below 1%), but in this instance are falsified to lead to the statement that you either need to fork over more cash, or release the reservation for a refund. In the end, you’ll likely spend significantly more than you would have spent with a reputable provider to begin with, and will waste a lot more time doing it.
If you think this is a rare practice, think again, it unfortunately is quite common. A few red flags that you have a phantom quote are the following:
Your quote seems oddly inexpensive.
Your aircraft is offered to you as “XXX aircraft type, OR SIMILAR” (beware of “or similar”)
Your quote was given to you almost instantly.
You ask for a tail number and are told to wait.
You are only provided with stock aircraft photos.
There are a few legitimate reasons a private jet charter company wouldn’t have your tail number immediately or can’t give you photos of the “exact” plane you’re flying, most of which involve the use of “floating fleets” of aircraft which is a legitimate and cost-saving practice. These are still signs that you could be being swindled however.
Many times have I sat across the desk from the CEOs of other reputable private jet charter providers trying to confront this issue. As a consumer, it is important for you to know exactly how your flights are being sourced and to ensure that when you book a flight, a specific aircraft really is booked for you. The real lesson is to work with a company who you trust. I can tell you that you sincerely do have a good selection of trustworthy private jet charter providers who are worthy of your business; there are many out there who are not, however.
If you spend a few minutes shopping for anything related to private jets, whether it be a charter flight or an entire aircraft, you’ll probably come across some sort of “jet card” program. If you’re even slightly considering purchasing a jet card, make sure to continue reading this article.
Simply put, a jet card is an account where a buyer locks him/herself into a pre-set number of flight hours to be flown during a pre-set period of time, on a pre-set type of aircraft, such as a Cessna Citation X, for a pre-set price; that much is pretty standard. The aircraft and flight infrastructures behind the various cards differ vastly however, and such cards only make financial sense to very specific types of fliers.
The original jet cards were conceived on the notion that they would lower the entry barrier into fractional programs such as NetJets and FlexJet, offering travelers the opportunities to fly fractional aircraft for a mere 25 hour annual commitment as opposed to a 100+ annual commitment and asset purchase. Jet cards through fractional aircraft providers offer their cardholders the consistency and predictability often assimilated with a fractional carrier; late model planes, planes with like paint schemes and cabin configurations, and consistent customer service.
More recently, the market welcomed jet cards offered by charter brokerage companies. Unlike the cards offered by fractional providers, cards offered by charter companies offer less flight experience consistency, though can match (or exceed, based on the outfit) the customer consistency on the ground of a fractional carrier. Flights by jet cards offered by charter brokerage companies are fulfilled by the national network of part 135 charter planes, which are individually owned aircraft placed on the charter market to defray operating costs for their owners. Cards offered by charter brokers tend to be mildly less expensive than those offered by the fractional carriers primarily because charter brokers can fulfill most of the flights for significantly less than the cost of fractional carrier flights.
It is this writer’s belief that jet cards in general should be avoided by most (but not all). To support my opinion.
1. The cost of one hour on a jet card is generally about the cost of two hours of a jet charter (though ferry hours may be required in a charter).
2. The cost of a jet card flight will be consistent for a given route, however the charter cost for the same flight will be less in most scenarios despite jet card marketing propaganda, and can be significantly less in many cases thanks to one-ways, empty legs, and floating aircraft.
Furthermore, it is this writer’s belief that jet cards offered by charter brokerage companies should be avoided even moreso. Charter brokerage companies fulfill their card member flights the same way they fulfill one-off charter flights. If a jet card member were to request a flight from New York to Los Angeles on their Gulfstream GIV card for example, the pre-set rate might fall in the $60,000.00 + tax range, similar to the cost of the fractional jet card. The charter brokerage company will likely turn to the wholesale market and cover said flight for $35,000.00 + tax if availability is good, leaving them with a “winning flight.” As the owner of The Early Air Way, a charter brokerage firm, I’ve designed our system to price flights based off of current wholesale market inventory, meaning that your price would be about $35,000.00 + tax for the same flight. It is true that we wouldn’t guarantee that $35,000.00 + tax rate on every flight whereas a cardholder elsewhere would be guaranteed the $60,000.00 + tax rate, however we seldom have to charge anyone the $60,000.00 + tax rate ever, even when availability isn’t optimal.
Jet cards make sense for charter fliers sometimes, however. On short (generally under one hour in duration) one-way or overnight flights, between two small towns, or on a heavy cabin aircraft such as a GIV, charters can be loaded with extra costs whereas your jet card program will still pass along your preset hourly rate. These are the few flights that can often be less expensive with a jet card than with a straight charter and would be a “losing flight” for the card provider. It is the general belief that the significantly larger profit margin on most flights through a jet card system will far outweigh the potential losses incurred by the provider on the rare “losing flights” mentioned above, offering an overall increased operating margin to the provider. Unless you fly a Gulfstream on one-way trips between two very small towns less than 500 miles apart from one another regularly however, you will likely be overspending by a significant margin with a jet card.
If you must purchase a jet card however, be sure to select the program with the most stability; after all, the provider will be holding a significant amount of your cash. Be sure to vet out charter brokerage companies with fewer than 5 years of history. If your broker’s jet card flight ratio of “winning flights” to “losing flights” is bad for a short period of time, the company can too easily go bust, disappearing along with your deposit. I will argue that the only jet cards worthwhile are those offered by large fractional providers, even if they cost more than those offered by brokerage firms, ONLY if you are one to regularly fly the rare “losing flights” previously mentioned. You can always hedge your card, making sure you simply charter a flight instead of booking a “winning flight” through your card provider.
Jet Cards aren’t for most, but they will benefit a select few. For most, on-demand charter is the way to go.
