When to start Flying Private?

marko said:
Big surprise: a much, much steeper takeoff!
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Yeah, I do remember that. As a pilot myself, I really appreciated the "fighter jet" take offs. All we needed was after-burners!
 
I don't know what $$ I would need to hit, but I know I'm nowhere near it now.

I have a bit of experience with this type of lifestyle though. When I worked for megacorp, they had two Lears (or Gulfstreams). A couple of times I got on one because of some executive thing I was involved in (I think).

Anyhow, the huge thing for me, besides the fancier environment in the plane, was that you could show up 30 mins before the flight, park 100 ft from the plane, hand your checked baggage to someone standing next to the plane and walk on board. No 3 mile walk to the gate, no TSA, no getting there 2 hours early.

I would def pay for it if it was in the cards.
 
Golden Mean said:
Anyhow, the huge thing for me, besides the fancier environment in the plane,
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Yeah, our Corp. jet was "nice" but not what I expected in the way of luxury. It was solid utilitarian with a flourish or two. It was intended primarily to whisk the big guys to and from the Continent when ever they felt like it.
 
Koolau said:
Yeah, our Corp. jet was "nice" but not what I expected in the way of luxury. It was solid utilitarian with a flourish or two. It was intended primarily to whisk the big guys to and from the Continent when ever they felt like it.
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For corporate business, I presume...
 
gauss said:
...In both of these cases, the assets were primarily used in conjunction with the business but with ancillary personal use available.

I would be curious to know if there are any examples of these types of assets being acquired for purely personal (ie non-business related) reasons for individuals with NW less than 99M.
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One supposes that at the 9-digit wealth level and above, there is no demarcation between "purely personal" and "business-related". The two meld. Leisure is strategic, cultivating contacts and burnishing one's brand. Work, or so-called work, is social, engaging, at some level just fun to do. Strictly personal expenses are kept modest, because there's some corporate or institutional tie-in. Institutional benefits can be channeled for personal use, legally and forthrightly.

The biggest difference between the truly wealthy, and the merely affluent, isn't the size of their portfolios at Fidelity. It's that the former don't have to spend in a conventional consumer way. They're part of a milieu. Things just happen around them, and being attuned to such happenings, they influence said happenings in a personally productive way... a virtuous circle. The merely affluent have to balance frugality with "blow that dough". The truly wealthy don't worry about that, because the "blowing" deftly happens in a way that itself brings in more dough.

Example: mere deca-millionaire has an expensive, lavish wedding. Billionaire also has a lavish wedding, but networks with the guests, plugs his new business venture, and so on. Catering is done by one of his businesses, in a venue that's owned by another of his businesses. The wedding is more lavish than that of the mere deca-millionaire, but the final out-of-pocket cost is actually less. And the long-term cashflow of doing the lavish wedding is actually positive.

Maybe I'm projecting here, but when I daydream about perks and pleasures like private flying, I'm not pondering whether the expense is affordable. Instead I'm wishing to be one of those guys for whom it isn't a personal expense at all, but rather, an aspect of doing business.
 
$100m. Discussion had with both friends and coworkers. $50m is maybe only for work. Commuting weekly highly efficient. DH Boss to him should I fly private? DH what are you waiting for? Time is money and he needs time more than money. And he has more money than time.

Also you can take 14 people but the real efficiency is you go when you want. Drive up hop on and you are off. But you need a good reason. Weekly commuting sure lower nw because of cost efficiency.

But pleasure I think higher. I'd do it once for the experience and that's enough. I'm a TBH nervous about flying in a small jet
 
planuntilthefisthits said:
At what point in your life might you decide to fly private?
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It depends on where you're going and the size of the plane... :)

My wife and I took a "private" helicopter ride around the Portland, Oregon area. Just the pilot and the two of us. I think it was only a few hundred dollars for the two of us for 30 minutes or so.

I've also been looking at a flight from Seattle to Victoria, BC with Kenmore Air. That's only around $250 or less per person (on a small plane). Not bad for a fun "private" flight to a vacation destination.

As for a private jet to some overseas destination, nope, ain't gonna happen in my lifetime. Even if I could afford it I wouldn't waste the money on transportation. Heck, I've never even flown business class, let alone first class.

That said, we haven't flown anywhere since going to Fairbanks back in 2016. The increased costs, hassles of airports, uncomfortable seats, and unpleasant passengers just isn't worth it to us. Someday we may travel to a destination unreachable by car or train, but for now there are plenty of places to see that we can reach with more enjoyable modes of transportation.
 
Perhaps 50m, but for me it would just be a permanent upgrade to first class at that level.
 
From the US Southwest where I am, flying to Europe on a private jet costs $150K one way. Round trip is $300K. If you take your family and friends with you, the 10-seat jet cost works out to $30K/head.

If my investable asset were $30M so that the $300K would be just 1% of my stash, I might do this. Or not. I might just fly commercial 1st-class or just biz-class ($8K RT). That's plenty good for this peasant.
 
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Megacorp had 3 luxury jets (1 G650 for the CEOs travel, and 2 G550s for the worker bees). This was traveling in style no matter how you slice it. Every flights had flight attendants and full service luxury catering. It was eye-opening to fly on one of the corporate jets.

Most private flights like Netjets have some business connection to use the travel as a write-off.
 
I don’t expect it to happen for us.

I also know the greenhouse gas emissions per passenger are far higher flying private versus a large commercial jet.
 
Somehow both my niece and nephew have already experienced PJ's...

Niece has a long term BF, parents are very well off after selling a successful business and then living their best lives with the proceeds. Multiple homes, boats, etc. They wanted to go across the state and back the next morning during the holidays, and commercial flights would have turned a 24 hour trip into 48 or more. A couple of other examples.

Nephew is in a band. One of the bandmate's Dad's is doing quite well and managing them to get them started. After a few shows and days of traveling, he treated them with a PJ home.

I'm like....wait how are you two already...and not me!
 
audreyh1 said:
I don’t expect it to happen for us.

I also know the greenhouse gas emissions per passenger are far higher flying private versus a large commercial jet.
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Eh, people do can afford this do not care about greenhouse gas emissions. Not being a hypocrite here, because if I were really environmentally conscious, I would just stay home, just riding a bike around the block and not traveling.
 
I think private delivers a commodity to the wealthy that for them is both precious and rare: time.

Forty years ago I was pretty heavy with a rich girl from Manhattan who's father owned a mid-sized company. Big money.

One morning she told me to cancel my evening plans because she'd made dinner reservations for the two of us at Nikolai's Roof.

I informed her that Nikolai's was in Atlanta. She informed me that Daddy had a late-day meeting elsewhere in Atlanta and that we were going along for the ride.

For strike two, silly me asked if she had had the foresight to make a hotel reservation as dinner was a bit late.
She informed me that no, we'd be back by 1am or so (an early night for her).

So it went. I'm not sure what happened to Daddy and his accountant who we flew down with, but we flew back just the two of us.

Its when I realized that that was the benefit for those with wherewithal: deciding to have dinner at one of you're favorite restaurants, even if its almost 900 miles away and still waking up in your own bed the next morning. Time travel.
 
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NW-Bound said:
Eh, people do can afford this do not care about greenhouse gas emissions. Not being a hypocrite here, because if I were really environmentally conscious, I would just stay home, just riding a bike around the block and not traveling.
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Yeah, and just flying commercial DW and I each created a ton of CO2 on our recent flight to the mainland. If we were to worry about greenhouse gas emissions, we'd never go anyplace and never buy anything. Living where we do means that almost everything gets transported a minimum of 2500 miles (more likely, an average of 5000 miles - from food to mail to fuel, etc.). If we worried about GHE, we'd probably just drown ourselves in the ocean and be done with it. I do what I can to be a good steward of the Earth, but I'm likely just one more of the 8 billion people on the Earth that want to enjoy my time here. If that dooms the Earth in 100 years, I won't know about it.
 
marko said:
I think private delivers a commodity to the wealthy that for them is both precious and rare: time.

Forty years ago I was pretty heavy with a rich girl from Manhattan who's father owned a mid-sized company. Big money.

One morning she told me to cancel my evening plans because she'd made dinner reservations for the two of us at Nikolai's Roof.

I informed her that Nikolai's was in Atlanta. She informed me that Daddy had a late-day meeting elsewhere in Atlanta and that we were going along for the ride.

For strike two, silly me asked if she had had the foresight to make a hotel reservation as dinner was a bit late.
She informed me that no, we'd be back by 1am or so (an early night for her).

So it went. I'm not sure what happened to Daddy and his accountant who we flew down with, but we flew back just the two of us.

Its when I realized that that was the benefit for those with wherewithal: deciding to have dinner at one of you're favorite restaurants, even if its almost 900 miles away and still waking up in your own bed the next morning. Time travel.
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Kinda sad that you didn't actually seal the deal with her
Oh well...
 
TheWizard said:
Kinda sad that you didn't actually seal the deal with her
Oh well...
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Tough to keep up with that kind of wealth even if you can swallow your pride and let daddy pay all the time.

A small piece of me envies the "Jet Set" - but a very small and shrinking part of me. I can do 90% of what the uber-wealthy can do and I can do it at 10% or maybe 1% the cost. I can live with that.
 
Corporate jet for 4-7 passengers is roughly between 2500-4500 per hour based on a conversation I had with someone who just flew with an executive team for work. We talked about this very question.

Someone traveling across the world probably wouldn't want to take a small plane like that. For most of us, going from $2500 per hour to $20k+ per hour for a larger, more comfortable plane with farther range is probably a financial consideration. So a lot of it comes down to where, how often, and what kind of plane is needed for comfort and range.

If the Icarus Hypothetical is spending anywhere from $400k to $800k less than his annual possible spend, I think it's more of a question if he wants to, more so than if he's achieved an imaginary badge that says his wealth dictates private class air travel.
 
In my flying club, we can rent “private” airplane for $200 per hour. You can fly to anywhere you want, by yourself or with your friends. It doesn’t cost you that much.
 
CalBird said:
In my flying club, we can rent “private” airplane for $200 per hour. You can fly to anywhere you want, by yourself or with your friends. It doesn’t cost you that much.
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How long does it take to fly this plane coast-to-coast? How many stops for refueling? I am sure over-ocean flight is out with this plane.
 
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