What’s in your wallet? If you’re a private flyer, there’s a good chance it’s a jet card.
That’s because the popularity of flying by business jet increased tenfold during the pandemic, resulting in thousands of converts from commercial airlines looking for safer, more hygienic ways to travel. Once the pandemic ended and the newcomers got a taste of private flight, however, the rationales moved away from safety toward a desire for convenient, efficient point-to-point travel, which commercial airlines often cannot deliver.
Sentient launched the industry’s first jet card in 1999, with terms that were recognizable to clients. Since then, the jet card concept has become popular for its simplicity and seeming proximity to a credit card. There’s something comforting about a pre-paid card with clear terms. In reality, jet cards have morphed into multiple forms, with dozens of providers tailoring their cards around very different conditions and pricing models.
The Covid newcomers, in late 2020, were forced to navigate this unfamiliar territory, enticed by brochures of smiling clients sipping champagne on beautiful jets. But when it came time for the client to choose a program, he or she faced a dizzying array of options that would most likely have a dramatic impact on the real cost of the flight.
The literature all looks good, but the terms of private aviation programs vary from provider to provider.
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“The collateral images of the jets and lifestyle are all beautiful,” says Doug Gollan, founder of Private Jet Card Comparisons. “But when you have 80 providers that offer 1,000 options it becomes extremely confusing.”
First-time fliers had to learn the language and hidden nuances of business aviation which, as most discovered, is more complex than booking a first-class seat on a commercial airline. Understanding fixed versus dynamic pricing, guaranteed availability, empty leg charges, lead times, jet types, blackout periods, and other restrictions, as well as dozens of other variables, along with inflexible terms that can penalize clients if they don’t stick with the plan, became necessary to walk the financial tightrope.
“Jet card contracts can run dozens of pages, while fractional ownership entails three different contracts, with lots of fine print,” says Gollan. “Most companies don’t provide the contracts until after prospects have reviewed initial proposals, meaning multiple phone calls and emails.”
The pandemic created a new client that included families and other non-corporate private fliers.
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When Gollan started Private Jet Card Comparisons in 2017, he positioned it as the Consumer Reports for private jets, providing breaking news about industry providers, while offering an objective comparison of programs. Members received detailed analyses of different programs, their terms. and bottom-line pricing for flights. “We started out by using XL spreadsheets to compare the many terms of different programs,” he says. “It was a manual, very time-consuming process. Today, it’s much more automated.”
Its upgraded Decider Custom Analysis Report, launched today, is now in a PDF format, resembling a report generated by a family office or wealth fund, with a logical presentation of firms. I filled out the 20-question form for new members to figure out the best fit program that would include 50 hours in a midsize jet from my home airport of Tampa, Fla., to Columbus, Ohio, where my mother lives.
The easy-answer questions led to a detailed 25-page analysis of seven aviation firms, from small boutique providers to the largest fractional firms (where you purchase a share in a specific aircraft type), along with detailed information about each, including service areas, history, fleet types and sizes, and costs of three flight scenarios from Tampa to Columbus, which varied substantially by provider.
Jet cards may look alike, but various programs can have wide-ranging financial impacts.
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Even better, it drills down into critical minutiae like peak days, black-out days, cancellation policies, how many hours in advance one needs to make reservations, taxi times, deicing and other potential costs. I specified that I had to have Wi-Fi (a surprisingly large number of providers do not offer WiFi on their jets) and an enclosed lavatory (most jets in the midsize category do, but light jets may only have a curtain or no lavatory at all) as well as traveling with children or pets.
The initial choices one makes will often determine the providers listed in the report. Gollan recalls receiving an angry call from a subscriber who complained about not having Wi-Fi on the recent flight. He asked the subscriber whether they’d specified Wi-Fi in the initial questionnaire: “They’d said no, and that was reflected in the choices we gave them.”
The report does not recommend one provider over the other but simply lays out apples-to-apples details for the client. Private Jet Card Comparisons, which receives no commission or paybacks from providers in the report, doesn’t perform financial due diligence on the providers. But it does have a link for breaking news, which is surprisingly hard-hitting, so any red flags about providers become apparent.
Flying with pets has become a big trend, with providers offering different terms.
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The report is presented in an easy-to-digest, thorough way in both a PDF and an Excel spreadsheet. “CFOs love the Excel version because they can go into more detail about the costs of different flight scenarios,” says Gollan.
But its real value could be time savings. “Nobody likes to spend hours researching multiple providers to find out the best match for their needs,” he says. “But they also want to make a smart choice for something that could potentially cost hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars.”
Perhaps the best thing about the $500 membership fee? Clients can order multiple reports in a year. “Situations change, or they may want to switch providers,” says Gollan. “It’s important for us to cater to different needs.”