Jet cards have evolved from the original card in 1997 which simply made charter pricing more consistent by guaranteeing fixed hourly rates to membership programs which offer free or discounted empty leg/re-positioning leg flights and individual seats on private jet shuttles. Here are some examples of the varying types of jet cards offered today: • The standard charter-based jet card—the most common type of jet card offered by charter brokers and operators. Customers pre-purchase hours or place money on account which is deducted at fixed hourly rates. Flights are sourced through the existing charter market. • Mileage-based pricing jet card—pricing based on distance as opposed to time. Mileage-based pricing is transparent and quantifiable. • Dynamic priced jet cards—customers place a deposit on account and receive options based on market availability. Customers may select specific aircraft and are not committed to a fleet or required to use their deposit within any specific time frame. • Capped rate—a development from always paying a fixed hourly rate, customers are still protected with a maximum hourly rate but retain the ability to get lower rates dependent on market availability and notice given. • The
fractional ownership jet card—fractional jet cards, such as those offered by
NetJets or
FlexJet, offer prepaid hours of occupied flight time, sold in the form of a sublease of a fractional jet share. Operators such as FlexJet give fractional jet owners the ability to sell unused flight hours in the form of fractional jet cards, with prepaid hours ranging from five to 50 hours. • Owned fleet jet cards—jets are configured similarly to increase quality and consistency. The fleet is backed up using the existing charter fleet during peak travel periods. • Jets by the seat—offers individual seats on private jets for certain routes after paying an annual membership. The seats can come from empty leg/re-positioning legs and/or shuttle flights which are scheduled private jet shuttles. Additional fees often apply for these seats. Some jet card sellers offer additional options to sell or purchase open seats on prepaid flights. This type of flight-sharing can be more cost-effective when not all seats are occupied on a private jet. • Custom jet cards—launched in 2018 by several providers, custom jet cards create programs tailored to individual customers, including standards for sourcing aircraft, lead-time for making reservations, service area and hourly or fixed segment pricing. ==See also==