Card Membership

Card membership has become one of the most popular ways to fly private. With some programs, it allows you to get the benefit of accessing a fractional ownership fleet without having to buy into it. With others it can fix your pricing so that in many cases you get great value, especially on one-way trips.

The key factor with most membership programs is that you pre-pay for the hours that you expect to use. Effectively you're putting money on account that as you fly gets decremented from your balance. Normally this is done by a fixed hourly rate, but it can also be done by total trip cost.

While the cachet of carrying a jet card around has some appeal for certain flyers, the convenience of not paying each time they fly has value as well. Some card programs encourage members to choose a specific type of airplane, others simply have tiered pricing based on size. Light, Medium and Heavy jets for example.

Here are some specific advantages of card programs:

• Short-term commitment
• Wide choice of aircraft types
• Consistent service standards
• Good upgrade and downgrade options