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There is a lot of insecurity in the world today. People are worried about their jobs, their retirement accounts, and the value of their homes. So we are seeing a new trend: ordinary people traveling by private jet. Good news is, there are many affordable models of jets that one can easily by. One example of these models is Dassault Falcon 7x.
Many people think that only the rich or famous can afford to travel this way. But this is not true. It is possible for anyone to travel with a private jet.
How do I Travel with a Private Jet
Traveling with a private jet is a very exciting thing because you are going to travel in luxury. You can get all the benefits that are offered when you are traveling with a private jet.
There are several ways how you can travel with a private jet:
- Buy your own private jet
The obvious way to travel with your own private jet is to buy one. This is not as crazy as it sounds. For example, some models of jets like Dassault Falcon 7x are priced very low, making them affordable for those who want to buy and fly their own private jets. But owning a jet costs more than just the purchase price. There are monthly maintenance and hangar fees, and unless you plan on flying yourself, there will be pilot salaries. And if you are buying a jet to save time on business trips, your company may be able to write it off as a business expense.
- Rent one
You can also rent one from an owner who doesn’t mind lending their plane to you for a fee. This is much cheaper than buying your own but still expensive – around $10,000 per hour for a small jet like the Eclipse 500 and up to $20,000 for something like Gulfstream G550. Also keep in mind that there will be additional costs associated with maintenance and fuel usage (which can be significant). You may even need someone else to fly the plane for you because not everyone has their pilot’s license yet… so make sure whoever does it has been properly trained before taking off.”
- Buy a share in a private jet
If you don’t have tens of millions of dollars lying around then buying your own jet is probably out of the question but there’s another option that costs less than one percent of that: buying a share in a private plane. This works similarly to buying stock in a company: you buy part ownership of the aircraft and pay an hourly fee for every hour it’s in use (plus other fees). The nice thing about this option is that if there’s someone else who also owns part of the plane and wants to use it at the same time as you do they’ll be responsible for paying their proportional share of costs while they’re using it too so it won’t affect your bill at all.
- Get a job as a pilot for a private jet company
If you become an airline pilot for a major airline like American or Delta then you can use the free employee flight benefits to fly for free on a standby basis on any route that the airline flies. So for example, if you work for American Airlines and there’s a flight from Los Angeles to New York with empty seats, then as an employee you can take that flight for free. You’ll probably have to pay taxes though which is around $5 per leg. This is not a bad way to travel but it has some downsides:
Not all airlines offer great employee flight benefits. Some airlines have extremely limited benefits so that employees can only fly on their days off and they have to pay full price plus fees and taxes which makes it not worthwhile at all. Other airlines offer many benefits to pilots.
It is not different from becoming a pilot for the airlines. So, you could do the same thing for private jets? The bad news is that even though there are more and more private jets around these days, it’s still hard to get a job with them. The good news is that if you’re already flying for an airline then it’s much easier to pick up a second job with a charter company than it is to get your first job with an airline. That’s because you already have an ATPL(A) license, which is required to fly passengers commercially, and you already have the experience they’re looking for (in the form of hours). You might even be able to use your existing employer’s check airmen (flight examiners) on their planes for the simulator training and flight test (theoretically).
- Join a private jet membership program
Private jet cards are very similar to credit cards or frequent flier programs. You pay a certain amount upfront and then you can purchase a certain number of flight hours or miles at a steep discount. There are many companies who offer these cards like NetJets, Flexjet and Sentient Jet. These programs start at $100,000 and go up to millions of dollars depending on the contract type and number of hours flown per year. These programs require long-term commitments and are not refundable so think twice before signing up for one.
