At the end of the day, whichever way you look at it, hiring a private jet for a flight is ultimately expensive as compared to the scheduled flights. And as such, people never tire of trying to work ways around getting to fly privately but without spending a fortune. But then, nothing is for free; of course except if a friend invited you to fly with them on their charter flight. The thing is, you would not always get the invites and occasions will come up when you need to hire that flight. There are some things you do need to know so as to hack traveling privately but affordably.
Cheap Ways to Charter a Flight
One of the cheapest ways to charter a flight is to buy a seat on a scheduled private jet or a scheduled corporate shuttle flight. This one is pretty much as if you are flying a commercial plane, but it is affordable and you still get the chance to have the VIP treatment including departing from an FBO. Although it is cheap and will cost you approximately $200 or less, you have to have no problem sharing the plane with strangers. This is a comparison with chartering your own plane and spending anything between $5,000 and $ 20,000 per hour depending on the type and size of the plane you fly.
Another cheap way to go about hiring a private jet flight is to use the famous empty leg. This one happens when a plane has dropped off its last fully paying client and has to fly to another terminal to pick up another passenger or another group of people. It also happens when a plane has dropped off its last passenger and the crews have to go back to their base at the end of their work shifts. Since at this time the plane is empty, the seats come with heavy discounted rates, in a bid for the plane to avoid flying empty or almost empty so as to raise more money. Even without bidding, these seats come with huge discounts that you can take advantage of.
It gets better, even with the private jets, with some of the deals available with some companies. For instance, Wheels Up has this working relationship with its clients that allows you to pay an annual subscription fee of $6,900, to allow you to access the empty legs at $320! Incredible would be an understatement. On top of such a huge discount, you will access the high-end events organized, you will attend the high profile confabs, and you will enjoy the key membership treats.
Another thing to consider is a great offer by the famous Delta Private Jets, which allows you to pay $8,500 upfront and then you get to fly the empty legs at no additional cost. On top of this, you get discounts on selected Delta Airline planes, but you get a $500 deduction if you cancel your flight or you do not show up for it. Unfortunately, the empty legs may not always be headed towards your destination. For instance, there could be many empty legs, but all falling within a short distance or falling in the wrong or opposite direction for a given day for most people. You might want, as such, to first ask around for both sides of the coin before going ahead with the deal.
Disadvantages of Empty Legs Offers
There are many empty legs, yes, but they may all not come through. If you are getting an empty leg on a plane where the client is paying $5,000 to $20,000 per hour, for example, and then the client cancels his or her flight, your empty leg is also canceled. Depending on the time and availability of other flights, you may find yourself stuck up longer than you wanted to.
Many empty legs are canceled abruptly before departure for a range of reasons. As such, you may want to keep in touch with your hotel and car reservations to ensure they can be pushed forward or canceled without extra charges. If you were traveling home, for example, the best option would be to shop around for more options just in case the empty leg flops and you are left stranded. As much as you will get a refund for your money, usually, it would not help much because already you are stranded and commercial flights are closed; you will be on your own.
Remember that the empty legs depend on the big client; the client who is paying. The schedules of the private planes too, will depend entirely on him and not on you. This means you have to be very flexible because a client can alter the routing and timeline anytime. If he or she moves the departure time upfront or decides to delay the flight a little, you have to go with that. If you had your own timelines to work with, you will agree that this becomes very inconveniencing.
We Show You the Cheapest Way to Charter Your Own Private Jet
Flying private is actually affordable. If you have to use the empty legs, however, consider several things. One of the things is the departure time and the assurance that your flight time and departure time will still be honored even with a change of schedule. Ensure you also have an insight into whether the primary client holds 100%cancellation fees on the flight. Do not forget to have a backup plan in case things change. Experts advise that you try to get empty legs through airports with frequent commercial airline services so as to land an option if anything went amiss. Sometimes the flight you intend to take has a late timeline to work with, and this goes without saying, that if the flight is canceled and you were not covered, you will need to hop on to the next available commercial flight so as to get home. If it is already late, what happens to you? All these are factors to consider if you have to enjoy flying private affordably.
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