The Bible for Private Jet Charter: The Process of Chartering a Private Jet
Private Jet Company's CEO Provides Insight on the Best Way to Book a Private Jet
Steve Orfali,
CEO, Wholesale Jet Club
Imagine handing your next trip over to your assistant and asking her to find you a private jet for the weekend trip to Vegas. The first thing she probably does is go to her folder marked private jets and go through her top 3 or 4 contacts. We already know she most likely has 9 or 10 given she gets many calls per week offering her private jets, private jet service, charters, jet cards, etc.. She makes a call or sends an email with all the details of your trip. An hour or two later she has quotes in her inbox, Lear 60 for 11,000, another Lear 60 for 11,600 a Hawker 800 for 13k and miraculously an hour later yet another Lear 60 pops up for 9,900. Did the last broker know something the others didn't? Perhaps..but most likely not!
Let's dive into the world of private jet charter to find the answer. This is much like the ocean, there are a few whales, a few sharks and many piranha. Sure you have your overpriced Net Jet and Flexjet whales out there who want you to own a fraction of an aircraft for astronomical pricing and share in ownership and maintenance of a depreciating asset. Pay a large up front fee to be part of the club, then monthly maintenance fees..and oh yeah pay again each time you fly. Super expensive...but hey Warren Buffets doing it...and who doesn't want to be Warren Buffet?
Let's now examine some of your sharks, they offer jet cards and membership programs, they often offer you guaranteed availability, access to a specific aircraft or type at a predetermined price. What you may not realize is they've "predetermined" this price to be pretty high, while not as high as your whale, still pretty costly in most cases, such as your marquis jet. You often pay a pretty penny for your guaranteed availability and guess what you often pay more when it's holiday time or a blackout date; doesn't sound like a great guarantee to me?
Now let's get down to our piranha, they are the crafty brokers out there, they know the market inside and out and know how to find the deals and shop for their clients. They can and will get better pricing than the whales and sharks offer, but will often price it closer to the sharks and make a profit. They don't own the aircraft or have the overhead of the others, but they can do the job just the same and save you money. How to pick the right piranha? That's the million dollar question. With every executive assistant getting a call from company A, B, C and D, all offering her better service, better aircraft and better pricing, how does she know which one to choose?
Let's get back to the Lear 60 example from the beginning, was broker D the miracle worker in finding that Lear for 9,900 or was he simply less greedy than the others? The answer is he was most likely less greedy! Chances are that all those brokers had access to the same aircraft at the same or very similar pricing. The likelihood is that the Lear 60 cost them 9,000, but they all had to make some money for their time and efforts and D just wanted to earn your business that much more that day.
So what's the guarantee that Broker D will continue to be the lowest time and time again...nothing really. So that got me thinking this process seems a little antiquated and many companies now offer apps to quote a charter in a matter of seconds. Looking into those, the problem is that you still have to be contacted by a piranha and at the end of the day what's an app? It's just a piranha with a predetermined markup to lure you in and take a bite.
After working with the whales, sharks and piranhas for years and years, I decided to try to come up with the perfect solution of who to work with and how to work with them. The answer came to me and the idea for Wholesale Jet Club was born.
Why not create a piranha with transparency?
As we've said Brokers A,B, C and D are all getting the same pricing but are all marking it up differently and giving it to you. Instead of having to go to 4 brokers each time and see who has the lowest price of the day, wouldn't it be easier to just go to one and always get the lowest pricing? Wholesale Jet Club will go out in the market and get that Lear 60 for 9,000 and bring the bill straight to you! When you send your assistant to buy you a shirt, don't you want to see the bill from Bloomingdales? Same applies here..don't take our word for it, see the vendors quote and have the wholesale price brought straight to you! No guessing who's the lowest, no wasting time and resources, calling, emailing and googling around for charters. The proof is in the pudding we consistently save our members 20% or more. Save thousands of dollars on your first flight alone. Becoming a member is as easy as a few clicks on our website. www.wholesalejetclub.com