Private Jet Charter Guide Part 1
Private Jet Charter is a term given to the full rental of a private aircraft for a limited duration (usually the duration of the trip in question) but there are a lot of questions that arise when talking about private jet charter. How are prices calculated? How does private jet charter even work? Along with many other questions. Private jet charter is an alternative to private jet timeshare or fractional ownership. Both fractional ownership and private jet timeshare are a way to fly on private aircraft of your choice by essentially buying partial ownership of said aircraft. Now while fractional ownership and private jet timeshare have their own pros and cons (Both have been discussed and debunked as terrible methods here: Fractional Ownership, Private Jet Timeshare) private jet charter is a whole other idea. Private jet charter means that you pay for exactly what you use, nothing less and nothing more. In this part of our 4 part charter guide, we start by following an example trip, from the very beginning to the very end, and discuss all of the steps of your private jet charter.
*Of course, for the sake of simplicity, we will assume this example trip is booked by a customer of ours and will run through our system. Of course other entities have their own booking engines and procedures, but we believe it will be more comprehensive to stick to what we know for this guide.
A customer enters our website searching for a good deal on private jet charter, and uses our booking engine through the book a trip tab. This customer, who will hereon be referred to as John, enters his details: 9 passengers, flying from JFK airport in New York to LAX in Los Angeles on the 31st of October 2015, and returning the very next day. He receives many options of aircraft categories and types, but for a trip of this nature, considering John does not want to stop for a fuel stop along the way, John chooses a large jet: a Challenger 601, capable of seating 12 passengers comfortably and making the trip in 5 hours and 48 minutes for each leg. John receives a web price for $39,900 and requests a hard quote. Now the estimated price from our system is a very accurate representation of pricing, and John is certain that the hard quote will be very close to the web price. This is because the web price uses real time aircraft pricing data straight for the aircraft owner, and calculates the total charges including but not limited to: airport fees, federal excise taxes and segment taxes, hourly rate for the aircraft, fuel fees, de-icing fees, and even takes wind speed into the calculation to deliver as close a price to the real world figure as possible. The only realistic difference that may happen is that the specific aircraft the system suggested is unavailable, in which case, our team of charter specialists would find the next best fit for John.
Now, it is company policy to always have a backup aircraft and a secondary backup aircraft. While these aircraft may be slightly more pricey, it allows our customers the security of knowing that their flight will not be delayed for mechanical or other reasons. This is why the majority of customers looking for private jet charter will come to Aircharter.com. Booking directly from the aircraft owner or operator will essentially cost the same as booking through Aircharter.com, as Aircharter has developed relationships with aircraft owners and operators over the past 30 years, and therefore can offer rates just as competitive as the aircraft owners or operators themselves, but with a guarantee of a plan B and C in case last minute conditions prohibit your original aircraft from taking off. Now if this was a fractional ownership or a private jet timeshare, and your aircraft had gone mechanical (term implying the aircraft is not airworthy and cannot fulfill the trip) then you would essentially be stuck at the airport with a flightless jet, and would have to likely consider private jet charter instead. Why not simply use private jet charter from the start and save the effort and money involved.
Going back to our example trip, John receives a hard quote for the Challenger 601 he wanted for a total of $39,700. John is content with the offer and promptly signs the included contracts and sends in his payment. Now the way that private jet charter works is very simple, all of the aircraft available are available to all of our customers and other interested parties, and are essentially a first-come first served system. In the very rare circumstance of an incredibly high density time of the year, private jet charter will be more costly than usual, this is normal and realistically, with a private jet timeshare or fractional ownership, a great deal of the private owners will want to use the same aircraft simultaneously, leading to the same issue as private jet charter. In this respect, it is always advised to secure your aircraft as soon as possible, with a suggestion of at least 5-7 days before for a private aircraft, and at least 60 days for an airliner or widebody aircraft for a large group. Not only does this secure your aircraft, but allows us to concentrate on customizing every detail of your trip to make it as comfortable as possible, 60 days for airliner sized aircraft allows Aircharter to get specific catering details for each passenger and make sure every single passenger is taken care of. For private aircraft, 5-7 days allows us to do the same, as well as make sure the aircraft is repositioned early, so you find your aircraft on the tarmac waiting for you the day of you trip.
*We will continue the details of our example trip in part 2 of our 4 part private jet charter guide