November 14, 2023
Cancellation policies between jet card companies vary, but either way, provide a more flexible approach to canceling than on-demand charter brokers.
While most people think about flying when they think of private jets, plans change. With on-demand charter, your full payment may be taken as a cancellation fee, particularly during peak periods. In browsing an online broker’s website recently, virtually all of the best offers came with cancellation fees of 50% to 100% from the time of booking, even though the proposed trip was more than 30 days away.
In addition to comparing lead-time for reservations for both Peak and Non-Peak travel days for over 100 jet card membership programs, Private Jet Card Comparisons compares Cancelation Deadline for Peak, Non-Peak as well as International Flights. What we found is there are variances between each, and depending on your flying patterns, the differences could be important to you. In either case, the relative generosity of jet card programs in allowing you to cancel is perhaps another reason demand for jet cards keeps increasing.
In terms of canceling Non-Peak U.S. trip, the deadline for programs ranged from four hours up to 15 days, so quite a spread. Unlike the number of Peak Days in various programs where there are outliers, but the majority of programs cluster between 15 and 25 Peak Days, the lead time for canceling flights is much more spread out which means there is a significant difference. For Non-Peak International Flights, you should expect a notice period of at least 24 hours with 72 hours being more typical.
In the case of some broker programs, the cancellation deadline depends on the actual operator from flight to flight. Other programs reserve the right to charge you for any positioning and crew costs that have been incurred. Don’t expect to be able to cancel a U.S. flight on a Peak Day with less than 12 hours notice and more typically 48 to 96 hours, although we saw a number of programs with a 7-day notice period for Peak Days. If you need to cancel a Peak Day international flight, 24 hours is the shortest notice period we found.
Of course, in most instances, having a jet card will give you more flexibility to cancel your flight than if you are using on-demand charter.
