Can I choose a specific airplane type when I buy a jet card?

By Doug Gollan, May 20, 2018

When you charter on-demand, buy a full aircraft or fractional share, you buy a specific aircraft type. What about jet card membership programs?

 

In case you haven’t noticed, most jet card programs specify cabin size, then fulfill your needs from a variety of aircraft types in that cabin category. In some cases that’s because you are buying your jet card from a management company and they are clustering all of the aircraft in that cabin size category together. In other cases, it’s a broker program that is sourcing aircraft from charter operators, including management companies and fleet operators. You’ll often see a range of seating for the aircraft that apply to that category, so in the SuperMid category you could get a jet that fits eight people one time and 10 the next. In Large Cabin jets it’s not unusual to see a range of 10 to 14 seats. 

 

Most of the time this works fine. However, sometimes it doesn’t. For example, if you are traveling with a group of 12 people a Large Cabin jet seating 10 people is no good. In some cases, the answer is simply in that programs allow you to upgrade or downgrade, although sometimes there can be interchange fees, and sometimes it’s not allowed, particularly on peak days. On the other hand, some people just want a specific aircraft type, not a category. The Citation X, for example, is popular because it’s fast – able to fly over 700 miles per hour.

 

Can you buy an aircraft-specific jet card?

 

The answer is yes, and there are jet cards from all sorts of providers, brokers, fleet operators, management companies and fractional jet fleet operators who sell fractional jet cards. If you do go the specific aircraft route, keep in mind you may be paying a premium to select a specific aircraft type instead of just a category, and very importantly, if it is through a jet card broker, find out what safety criteria they use to source the charter operators who they are using. Private Jet Card Comparisons provides sourcing requirements and minimum pilot experience requirements for the over 250 programs we cover.

 

The tradeoff with some aircraft specific programs is you give up guaranteed availability. And remember, configurations can vary, so unless you are buying a fractional jet card make sure to find out if there is any variation in seating capacity, even if you are buying into a specific aircraft cabin. Again, that’s something we cover in our comparison spreadsheets. And don’t forget to read the fine print, since programs are often allowed to substitute a like or upgraded aircraft. If you need to have a specific aircraft type, you can do on-demand charter, however, the jet charter price is going to be based on market rates and you will have to scrutinize each of the aircraft and operators, your own due diligence, which is time-consuming.

 

Below we analyzed the Private Jet Card Comparisons database to find jet card programs that provide one-way fixed rates for specific aircraft:

 

Beechcraft Beechjet 400E (Light Cabin Jet)

  • Tee Bee Jets

 

Beechcraft King Air 90A (Turboprop)

  • Silverhawk Aviation

 

Beechcraft King Air 350i (Turboprop)

  • Executive AirShare
  • OneFlight International
  • Wheels Up

 

Bombardier Challenger 300 (SuperMid Cabin Jet)

  • Flexjet
  • OneFlight International
  • XOJET

 

Bombardier Challenger 350 (SuperMid Cabin Jet)

  • Clay Lacy Preferred
  • NetJets Europe
  • OneFlight International
  • VistaJet

 

Bombardier Challenger 601 (Large Cabin Jet)

  • Clay Lacy Preferred

 

Bombardier Challenger 604 (Large Cabin Jet)

  • Clay Lacy Preferred

 

Bombardier Challenger 605 (Large Cabin Jet)

  • OneFlight International
  • StarJets International
  • VistaJet

 

Bombardier Challenger 850 (Large Cabin Jet)

  • OneFlight International
  • VistaJet

 

Bombardier Global 5000 (Large Cabin Jet)

  • Clay Lacy Preferred
  • VistaJet

 

Bombardier Global 6000 (Large Cabin Jet)

  • Clay Lacy Preferred
  • NetJets Europe
  • VistaJet

 

Bombardier Learjet 35 (Light Jet)

  • Clay Lacy Preferred
  • OneFlight International

 

Bombardier Learjet 45 (Midsize Cabin Jet)

  • ProspAir Jet Charter

 

Bombardier Learjet 45XR (Midsize Cabin Jet)

  • Clay Lacy Preferred
  • Executive AirShare
  • OneFlight International

 

Bombardier Learjet 55 (Midsize Cabin)

  • Clay Lacy Preferred
  • OneFlight International

 

Cessna Citation CJ2 + (Light Cabin Jet)

  • Executive AirShare
  • OneFlight International

 

Cessna Citation CJ3 (Light Cabin Jet)

  • Clay Lacy Preferred
  • Nicholas Air
  • OneFlight International

 

Cessna Citation Latitude (Midsize Cabin Jet)

  • Nicholas Air
  • NetJets Europe
  • OneFlight International

 

Cessna Citation Mustang (Very Light Jet)

  • OneFlight International
  • GlobeAir (Europe)

 

Cessna Citation Sovereign (SuperMid Cabin Jet)

  • NetJets Marquis Jet
  • OneFlight International

 

Cessna Citation Ultra (Light Jet)

  • Clay Lacy Preferred
  • OneFlight International

 

Cessna Citation X (SuperMid Cabin Jet)

  • NetJets Marquis Jet
  • OneFlight International
  • StarJets International
  • Wheels Up
  • XOJET

 

Cessna Citation XLS/Excel (Midsize Cabin Jet)

  • Clay Lacy Preferred
  • NetJets Marquis Jet
  • OneFlight International
  • Silverhawk Aviation
  • Wheels Up

 

Dassault Falcon 2000/2000x (Large Cabin Jet)

  • Clay Lacy Prefferd
  • Magellan Jets
  • NetJets
  • NetJets Europe
  • OneFlight International
  • ProspAir Jet Charter

 

Dasssault Falcon 900EX EASy (Large Cabin Jet)

  • Clay Lacy Preferred

 

Embraer Legacy 650 (Large Cabin Jet)

  • JetSuite
  • OneFlight International

 

Embraer Phenom 100 (Very Light Cabin Jet)

  1. Executive AirShare
  2. JetSuite
  3. Nicholas Air
  4. OneFlight International

 

Embraer Phenom 300 (Light Cabin Jet)

  • Clay Lacy Preferred
  • Executive AirShare
  • Flexjet
  • JetSuite
  • NetJets Europe
  • Nicholas Air
  • OneFlight International

 

Embraer Legacy 600 (Large Cabin Jet)

  • Clay Lacy Preferred
  • OneFlight International

 

Gulfstream G150 (Midsize Cabin Jet)

  • Clay Lacy Preferred
  • OneFlight International

 

Gulfstream G200 (SuperMid Cabin Jet)

  • Clay Lacy Preferred
  • OneFlight International

 

Gulfstream IV/4SP (Large Cabin Jet)

  • Clay Lacy Preferred
  • Magellan Jets
  • NetJets
  • OneFlight International
  • ProspAir Jet Charter
  • StarJets International

 

Gulfstream 450 (Large Cabin Jet)

  • Clay Lacy Preferred
  • Magellan Jets
  • OneFlight International

 

Gulfstream GV/550 (Large Cabin Jet)

  • Clay Lacy Preferred

 

Hawker Beechcraft Hawker 400XP (Light Cabin Jet)

  • Magellan Jets
  • OneFlight International
  • StarJets International

 

Hawker Beechcraft Hawker 800XP (Midsize Cabin Jet)

  • Clay Lacy Preferred
  • Magellan Jets
  • ProspAir Jet Charter
  • OneFlight InternationalHa
  • StarJets International

 

Hawker Beechcraft Hawker 900XP (SuperMid Cabin Jet)

  • Clay Lacy Preferred
  • OneFlight International

 

Pilatus PC-12 (Turboprop)

  • Nicholas Air
  • OneFlight International

 

Subscribe now to compare these jet card programs by over 65 variables, including how the aircraft you will fly on are sourced.

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