What you need to know before you buy.
What is a jet card? ***
A jet card refers to debit card-style private jet travel programs that enable you to prepay for flights. You can then book at a contracted hourly rate with guaranteed availability.
Booking deadlines to secure your contracted rate range from as little as six hours to several days. This means you don’t have to shop for each trip, saving time and giving you the ability to budget and book trips on short notice.
Some programs include turboprops in addition to jets. The term “jet card” can also refer to charter programs with fixed rates but where you pay-as-you-go. In these cases, you pay a joining or membership fee but then only pay when you fly.
More recent are jet card programs that off dynamic pricing where each flight is priced at market rates when you call to book. This is similar to when you charter on a flight-by-flight basis, referred to as on-demand or ad hoc charter.
An advantage of fixed-rate programs is you can book, cancel, rebook or change flight times if needed, and you keep your contracted rate so long as you are doing so in advance of your contracted booking and cancelation deadlines. With dynamic pricing programs, your trip will be requoted each time you make a change.
Jet cards are typically sold in increments of dollars or hours, for example, 25 hours or $150,000, although deposit amounts range from $15,000 to $1,000,000.
How much does a jet card cost?
The cost depends on how much you want to fly. While you can find jets cards starting at $25,000, most jet card buyers spend between $50,000 and $500,000 on flights annually. Some providers such as Jet Aviation and Magellan Jets have 100-hours jet cards where the deposit can get into seven figures. Others negotiate if you want to buy more than 50 hours. There are also pay-as-you-go jet cards. With these types of cards, often referred to as memberships, you pay a joining fee and pay on a flight-by-flight basis.
Hourly one-way rates (meaning you don’t pay for repositioning flights) range from $5,000 for a very light jet to $20,000 for ultra-long-haul private jets.
Who buys jets cards?
The market of jet card users is quite diverse. Jet card buyers typically fly privately between 10 and 500 hours per year, although 15 to 50 hours is typical. Some jet card users also own their own jets. Having access to a private jet is like having a car – sometimes you need more than one. While it might not make sense to own two jets, a jet card can provide private jet access to family or company associates while somebody else is using the owned jet. This is called supplemental lift in industry lingo. Others buy jet cards instead of fractional ownership because they want the similar benefits of fixed-rate jet cards but don’t want to make the three-to-five-year commitment of fractional ownership. In other cases, companies and individuals buy jet cards because they prefer it over owning an entire plane, knowing they don’t have to worry about flight crews, maintenance, and having a backup if there is a mechanical delay. You’re not married to your jet card. Some users will charter ad hoc for certain trips if there is a benefit, while others use their jet cards exclusively.
What are the advantages of a jet card compared chartering trip-by-trip?
When you buy a jet card or prepaid private jet charter program, you can lock in a fixed hourly rate and guaranteed availability. You also know upfront extra fees and the source of aircraft you will be flying. Some programs include deicing, catering, and WiFi as part of your contracted hourly rate. Most programs don’t charge repositioning fees within the primary service area. You are also more likely to get upgraded to a larger aircraft. NetJets reports 30% of jet card member flights are upgraded for operational reasons. In other words, it was more efficient for them to put you on a bigger aircraft.
You also know the standards for sourcing aircraft and pilots, so you don’t have safety criteria each time as you would have to with an on-demand charter. Since you have prepaid, you don’t have to worry about transferring funds on short notice. There is also service recovery in case the operator cancels. With most on-demand charter, you have to pay the difference if the replacement aircraft costs more.
Where can I fly with a jet card?
Most providers will fly you anywhere. However, a jet card’s key benefit is the fixed-rate service area, sometimes referred to as the primary service area. Different companies have different fixed-rate service areas. For U.S. programs, it’s mainly within the Continental U.S. Some include Hawaii, Canada, Mexico, or the Caribbean. Other companies include transatlantic flights, and some are worldwide. European programs often have service areas that include Morocco, Israel, Turkey, and eastern Russian cities such as Moscow and St. Petersburg.
Within this fixed-rate service area, providers with fixed-rate pricing offer one-way rates. This means you don’t have to pay repositioning fees. If you are traveling to airports with low levels of private flights or the Caribbean and Hawaii, this can provide big savings over on-demand charter or jet card programs that use dynamic pricing. Some fixed-rate programs offer roundtrip discounts which can range as much as 40% for qualifying roundtrips.
What type of aircraft are available with a jet card?
Most programs use four cabin categories: light, midsize, super-midsize, and large cabin. However, you can find some that offer turboprops, very light jets, and ultra-long-range jets. Some fixed-rate programs allow you to choose specific aircraft types.
Who owns the planes I am flying with a private jet card?
Who owns the planes that are used for jet card programs come from three sources:
Fractional Fleets: Netjets, Flexjet, and Airshare, for example, tap into fractional fleets they manage and operate on behalf of fractional shareowners.
Owned/Leased Fleets: Nicholas Air, VistaJet, and FlyExclusive are examples of jet card companies that own or lease their own fleets.
Managed Fleets: Solairus, Jet Aviation, and Jet Linx manage and operate jets on behalf of individual owners who allow them to use those aircraft to fulfill jet card flights when they aren’t flying on them.
Jet card brokers like Sentient Jet, Magellan Jets, and Private Jet Services (PJS) Group don’t operate aircraft. They go out into the market to source jets for your flights. Brokers each have their own standards of sourcing. Some have what they call open fleets – a set of operators who meet their standards, and they use exclusively.
Each business model has its advantages, depending on your needs. However, all operators carrying passengers on private jet charter flights for jet cards have to meet minimum government standards in the U.S., referred to as Part 135. Even if you buy a jet card with an operator, there is a chance a third-party operator will fly your trip if your provider doesn’t have your contracted type of aircraft available.
Are there safety standards for private jet card flights?
Yes. In the U.S., only planes on a Part 135 certificate issued by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) can be used for private flights sold as part of jet card programs. Globally, this is referred to as an AOC or Air Operators Certificate. Individual countries issue these.
Jet card sellers also use third-party safety auditors such as ARG/US, IS-BAO, and Wyvern to evaluate the operators of private jets they source. Some brokers have their own in-house standards, safety evaluations, and safety directors to evaluate providers. Companies that have been vetted or approved are often referred to as open fleets.
Providers also have varying minimum standards for the pilots that fly flights for their programs.
Other things to consider:
- Are there taxes on my jet card flights?
- Do my jet card hours or deposit expire?
- How much does it cost to charter a private jet?
- Are there peak periods or destination surcharges and blackouts when I buy a jet card?
- What’s the lead time for making flight reservations with a jet card?
- Can I upgrade or downgrade the size of the aircraft with my jet card?
- What are the policies if I need to cancel a trip with my jet card?
- Can I choose the FBO (Fixed-Base Operator) I want with my jet card?
- What type of catering is included with my jet card?
- Do all private jets have WiFi?
- Can I take pets on a private jet?
There are a multitude of things to consider before buying a Jet Card. You could spend many hours (days?) researching all the companies and the jet card plans they offer and still not find the card that is right for you. Fortunately there is a source that has compiled all this data for you in one spreadsheet that is always up to date.
Comparing Jet Cards
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The following providers compared in the Private Jet Card Comparisons’ database for subscribers: Able American Jets; Air Charter Service; Air Partner; Airshare (formerly Executive Airshare); Airstream Jets Inc.; Ajax Jets; Alliance Aviation; Amalfi Jets; Clay Lacy Aviation; Concord Private Jet; Delta Private Jets, Inc (now Wheels Up).; Dominion Charter, Ltd.; Dreamline Aviation, Dumont Aviation; Elite Jets Charters; Executive Jet Management; Exec 1 Aviation (formerly DashJet); ExpertJet; Flexjet; Fly Aeolus; FlyExclusive; FXAIR; GlobeAir; GrandView Aviation; Hopscotch Air; International Jet; Jet Algo; Jet Aviation Flight Services, Inc.; Jet Linx Aviation; Jetlogic Ltd.; Jet the World; JetSet Group; Jets.com; Jettly; LunaJets SA; Luxury Aircraft Solutions; Magellan Jets; Netjets (including Marquis Jet); Nicholas Air; Northern Jet Management; ONEFlight International; Outlier Jets; Paramount Business Jets; Priester Aviation; Private Jet Services Group (PJS Group); PrivateFly; Prive Jets; Qatar Executive; Quantum Jets; Sentient Jet; Silverhawk Aviation; Solairus Aviation; Starflight Aviation; Star Jets International LLC; StraightLine Private Air; Stratos Jet Charters; Tradewind Aviation; Unity Jets; Vault Jet; Velocity Jets; VeriJet; VistaJet; Wheels Up, and XO (formerly XOJET and JetSmarter). Many of these companies also sell on-demand charter, charters on a flight-by-flight basis.
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*** Article was sourced from Private Jet Card Comparisons frequently-asked-questions
