Private jet versus business class

Willem de Kooning, the Dutch American artist once said, The trouble with being pooris ittakesup all your time. Whilst flying business class hardly constitutes being poor,hiring aprivatejetcan save you a great deal of time. Of course its never going to becheaper,but where time is money and convenience is king, flying by private jet charterhasmuch to recommend it.

Lets imagine youve booked a luxury ski trip to Verbier in Switzerland. You would probably flyfrom LondonHeathrow to Geneva. You would turn up a couple of hours before your flight,go through theusual check in rituals and wait patiently to board; OK, you get priority boardingbut you stillhave to sit on the plane and wait; its not going to take off any earlier just becauseyou goton first. The flight itself takes one hour forty minutes. Youre in Geneva waitingfor yourbags and the transfer is parked outside waiting to take you to Verbier, a two hour drive.Sofrom arriving at Heathrow you could safely say that the journey/waiting time was at leastseven hours, maybe even eight.

There are other considerations with flying business class too. Mark Twain once saidI havefound out that there ain’t no surer way to find out whether you like people or hate themthan to travel with them. You cant avoid people in an airport or on a plane. Sometimes ittakes a generosity of spirit to overlook the shortcomings of some of your fellow passengersand their loud children. Then theres the security check to contend with too, the indignityofremoving your belt and your trousers falling down while the officious-looking jobsworthpats you down and sneers at the hole in your sock. Then theres the risk of missingbaggage; did you ever notice that the first piece of luggage on thecarousel never belongsto anyone? Well, it did once… until it boarded a different plane.

Then theres the potential of missing the flight in the first place. There must have beenmany instances of people sitting in traffic jams on the M25, biting their fingernails downto the elbows as the car in front reaches the giddy speed of one inch per hour, departuretime approaching and stress levels rising, then finally the dam burst of tears when therealisation dawns on the whole family that they arent going anywhere, which they arent,but they arent going skiing either.

Now let’s enter a different world, the world of private charter; for many, an enchanting worldinhabited only by the extremely wealthy and privileged. This is a misconception, as hiringyour own six seater can berelatively inexpensive. You can turn up 15 minutes before youredue to fly. Youre runninga little late? No worries, the jet will wait. The security check is cursoryand then its straight onboard and youre away. There is a host of airports in England forprivate charter flightsand odds on one will be pretty near where you live. In most cases youcan park at theairport free of charge. When you arrive at your destination, with your bags,the transfertakes considerably less time as you will have in all probability landed closer toyour resort.Taking all into consideration flying private charter is a massive time saver,considerablyless hassle and let’s face it, a luxury, but not an unaffordable luxury. Its an optiondefinitelyworth consideration.

Let’s crunch the numbers. There are six of us heading to Verbier for a luxury ski holiday.A business class flight from Heathrow to Geneva, plus long stay parking fees and a two hourtransfer from Geneva up to Verbier would be around 560 per person.For the same trip Icould hire a six seater King Air 200 privateaircraftfromStaplefordAerodromedirect to Sion.The transfer time from Sion to Verbieris dramatically reduced and the combined cost of flightand transfer would be around 1,150 per person. So, for just590 extra you could feel likea movie star, slash at least 4 hours off your journey time and travelin utter comfort andstyle.Is it worth it? I think so.