Business Travel Jet Membership: What It Is and What to Buy
Business Travel Jet Membership: What It Is and What to Buy
A business travel jet membership is a paid program that gives you access to private aircraft without owning one. The models differ sharply. Jet cards prepay flight hours and guarantee availability. Fractional programs sell a share of an aircraft. An empty leg membership, which is what we sell, gives you flat-fee access to flights that are already going your way, in exchange for flexibility on timing. Which one fits depends on whether your calendar is fixed or fluid.
TL;DR
- Jet cards and fractional programs buy you guaranteed availability, at a high capital commitment. Empty leg memberships buy you access to specific published flights, at a much lower fixed cost, and ask for flexibility in return.
- Retail-style memberships often bundle a fee with flight credits. They are not unlimited flying, and credits cover only a small share of real hourly costs.
- Before paying anyone, ask for the operator’s FAA air carrier certificate, confirm the charter is legal, and ask how your money is protected.
- Our Base plan is $3,995 per year and Plus is $9,995 per year, with unlimited access to published empty legs on our Learjet 60 fleet and up to six guests per flight.
Table of Contents
- What “jet membership” means when you travel for business
- Guaranteed availability or flexibility: the decision that matters
- Why “unlimited” rarely means unlimited
- Vet any program before you pay
- How an empty leg membership works for a working schedule
- Our perspective
- What our plans cost
- Is it right for you?
- Start flying with us
- FAQ
- Sources
What “jet membership” means when you travel for business
The phrase covers several different products, and sellers use the same words for all of them. Industry coverage has noted that the jet card concept is simple, but the programs have become complex, with providers differentiating on peak and non-peak pricing, blackout dates and how flexibly you can move between aircraft types.
In practice, you will meet four models:
- Jet card. You prepay for a block of flight hours, usually at a fixed hourly rate. Corporate buyers like it because it is predictable and carries no ownership burden.
- Fractional ownership. You buy a share of a specific aircraft and pay management and hourly fees. It suits companies with steady, heavy flying.
- Retail or co-branded membership. A fee plus flight credits, lifestyle perks and account management, sold through a partner channel.
- Empty leg membership. A subscription that gives you access to repositioning flights that operators publish, usually with short notice.
The real question is not which one is best. It is which constraint you can live with: a budget ceiling or a schedule ceiling.
Guaranteed availability or flexibility: the decision that matters
One point from industry guidance is worth building your whole decision around. Prospective members should decide whether they are paying for guaranteed availability, which requires a higher capital commitment, or access to specific inventory like empty legs, which requires more personal flexibility.
If you must be in Chicago at 8 a.m. on a Tuesday for a board meeting, you need guaranteed lift. A prepaid hours program is built for that, and you pay for the certainty. If your work is more fluid, such as site visits, client dinners, a conference you could reach a day early, or a founder’s trip that can move by a day, then paying for guaranteed availability is paying for something you will not use most of the time.
Here is how the models compare on the criteria that count:
| Model | Typical commitment | Availability | Cost behavior | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jet card | Prepaid block of hours | Guaranteed, often with notice terms | Hourly rate, peak surcharges possible | Fixed schedules, corporate travel departments |
| Fractional share | Share purchase plus fees | Guaranteed within contract | Management and hourly fees | Heavy, predictable flying |
| Retail co-branded membership | Fee plus credits | Varies by program | Credits cover a small part of flight cost | People who want a perk, not a travel plan |
| Empty leg membership | Annual flat fee | Published flights only | No per-flight charge for members on our plans | Flexible, spontaneous travelers |
Why “unlimited” rarely means unlimited
Read the fine print on any program that sounds cheap. A well-known example is the warehouse club offer of a private jet membership. The Points Guy reported a price of $17,499.99 for a 12-month membership, and noted that it does not mean unlimited private flying. Travel + Leisure described it as a partnership with an aviation operator, not a retailer turned charter company, and the flight credits it included are small next to hourly costs that can reach several thousand dollars.
That is not a criticism of bundles. It is a reminder to do the math on what your fee actually buys. Ask each provider three things:
- What is the cost of the first hour I fly, after credits?
- What happens in peak periods and around holidays?
- What am I giving up if the aircraft I want is unavailable?
Vet any program before you pay
This is the part most buyers skip, and it is the part that protects you. The FAA says the most serious danger in this market is illegal charter. Its guidance on safe air charter explains that commercial charter under 14 CFR Part 135 requires higher pilot training and certification, maintenance procedures and safety rules than a private pilot flying friends or family.
A short checklist you can run in an afternoon:
- Ask for the FAA air carrier certificate. A legitimate operator provides it on request. Then check that the operator appears in the FAA’s list of licensed charter operators on its chartering guidance page.
- Be wary of control transfers. If a contract tries to hand you operational control, or relies on a dry lease while the seller still supplies the crew, you may be on an illegal and uninsured flight.
- Look for taxes. Legitimate operators collect the Federal Excise Tax on charter flights. A deal that is silent on taxes and on the operator’s certificate is a red flag.
- Ask where your money sits. The NBAA’s guidance recommends placing payments in escrow, released only when a flight is completed, to guard against loss from insolvent or unscrupulous brokers. With any prepaid program, ask what happens to unused funds if the company fails.
- Ask who owns and flies the aircraft. A program that owns its aircraft and publishes its own inventory has fewer layers between you and the flight than a reseller.
We suggest you put these same questions to us. You should expect a straight answer from every provider you consider. For more on this topic, our guide to vetting empty leg memberships for reliability goes through the process step by step.
How an empty leg membership works for a working schedule
An empty leg happens when a jet has to fly somewhere without passengers: it dropped a charter client in one city and must return to base, or it needs to reach the next pickup. The seats exist either way. If you want the mechanics, we explain why private jets have spare seats and the pricing logic that makes empty legs cheaper.
For a membership, the flow is simple:
- You browse live inventory. Routes update daily, and every published flight shows its origin, destination and date. See current flights for examples.
- You request a flight you can make work.
- Queue and priority booking features determine who gets it when more than one member wants the same leg.
- You bring up to six guests, so a small team or a client can travel together.
The trade-off is plain. You do not choose the route and time from scratch. You choose from what is flying. The members who get the most from the model are the ones who can say yes to a flight on short notice, and our article on the 24 to 72 hour booking window shows how to plan around it.
Where it fits in a business calendar
Empty leg flying suits trips that carry slack:
- Reaching a conference or trade show a day early.
- Visiting several regional offices or sites in a single week.
- Taking a client or investor on a relationship trip where the date can move.
- Combining a business stop with a few days of leisure.
It does not suit a meeting that cannot move. For those, keep a commercial ticket or a guaranteed-hours program as your backup. Many of our members use an empty leg as the first choice and a scheduled airline as the fallback, and our piece on making private jet standby reliable covers that approach.
Do not forget the ground leg
A jet saves you time only if the ground portion works too. If your route touches Los Angeles, a prebooked car with flight monitoring can remove the last bottleneck. A guide on the benefits of a private LAX transfer is a good place to see what flat-rate, chauffeur-driven options look like before you land.
Our perspective
We built Bluebird around a simple observation: most people who want private flying for work do not need to own hours. They need a way to say yes when the right flight appears.
So we own and operate our own Learjet 60 fleet, and we publish live empty leg inventory without broker markups. Members pay one annual fee, not a bill per flight. The queue is transparent, so you can see where you stand rather than guess. And you reach a person, not a ticket system, when plans change.
We are also direct about the limits. We are not the right answer for a meeting that cannot move by an hour. If that is your calendar, a guaranteed-hours program is the honest recommendation for that part of your travel, and an empty leg membership can sit beside it for everything else. If your calendar is looser, flat-fee access is difficult to beat on cost, and you can see the math in our look at whether an empty leg membership is worth it.
The habit that separates happy members from frustrated ones is flexibility. Keep a few days open, stay on the live inventory, and decide quickly.
— Nick
What our plans cost
Prices below are as published on our site.
| Plan | Price | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| Base | $3,995 per year | Annual membership with unlimited access to published empty legs on our Learjet 60 fleet |
| Plus | $9,995 per year | Higher priority than Base for booking |
| Skip-The-Line | $2,000 one-off | Optional per-flight upgrade for moving ahead in the queue |
Custom charter requests are available as a separate paid option, quoted individually. Compare the annual fee with a single charter hour on a comparable jet and you will see why frequent flexible travelers find the model attractive, though the right test is how many flights you can actually take. For a closer comparison of the two formats, read empty leg versus charter.
Is it right for you?
A business travel jet membership of the empty leg type fits you if most of these are true:
- You can move a trip by a day, or leave on a day’s notice.
- You often travel with colleagues, clients or family, and four to six seats are useful.
- You value a predictable annual cost over a per-flight bill.
- You already have a commercial fallback for the trips that cannot move.
It is the wrong tool if every trip is pinned to a fixed hour, or if you want to choose the departure airport and time yourself. Then you want a guaranteed program, and the vetting checklist above applies in full.
If you are weighing the memberships on the market, you can also read how we think about alternatives to other memberships. And if you want to see what real trips look like, our empty leg travel experience examples walk through typical scenarios, while our guide to why empty legs suit flexible schedules covers the planning side.
Start flying with us
If your schedule bends and you want a flat annual cost, look at our Base and Plus memberships. Base is $3,995 per year and Plus is $9,995 per year. Browse the live routes first, so you know the kind of flights you would be choosing from, then decide.
FAQ
Are there shared private jets?
Yes. Fractional programs sell shares of a specific aircraft, and some operators sell individual seats on flights. Empty leg flights are another route: the aircraft is already making the trip, and members fill seats that would otherwise go unused. In our case, members can bring up to six guests on a flight.
How do jet cards work?
You prepay for a block of flight hours at a stated rate and then draw it down as you fly. Terms vary on peak pricing, blackout dates and aircraft upgrades or downgrades, so read these before buying. Ask where your prepaid funds are held, since the NBAA recommends escrow arrangements.
Does Costco have a private jet?
No. The retailer’s offer was a membership sold in partnership with an aviation company, bundling a fee with flight credits and perks. Reporting at the time noted that the credits covered only a small part of real flight costs, so it was not unlimited flying.
How do I know a jet membership provider is legitimate?
Ask for the FAA air carrier certificate and check that the operator appears on the FAA’s list of licensed charter operators. Be cautious of contracts that shift operational control to you, and of pricing that ignores federal excise tax. If anything feels evasive, walk away before you pay.
Sources
- Safe Air Charter, Federal Aviation Administration
- Thinking of Chartering an Aircraft? Federal Aviation Administration
- NBAA Rules of Thumb for Business Aircraft Ownership and Operating Options
- Playing the jet card, Business Jet Traveler
- Costco really does sell everything, including private jet travel, The Points Guy
- You Can Now Buy a Private Jet Membership at Costco, Travel + Leisure