The lead time to book flights with a jet card varies significantly.
(Updated Oct 10, 2019) For those of you that plan in advance, you may not need access to a private jet on short notice, but all things being equal it never hurts. Sometimes, life happens and you need to get from where you are to some other place quickly. Or sometimes, you may need to fly a business colleague or family member on short notice. If you are using your jet card for business, shorter windows can be an advantage.
To help you identify which programs can get you to the runway fastest, we’ve scanned the over 300 jet card programs and more than 50 providers in our database.
Below are the contractual minimum lead times for each provider, although it’s worth noting that that for the providers, some programs can have different lead-times, or call out as the industry lingo goes.
For example, entry-level programs with Nicholas Air have a 48 hour notice period while most of its jet cards are 10 hours. With NetJets, its Marquis Jet memberships are 10 hours while its Elite cards are 24 hours. Magellan Jets offers a six-hour window for the corporate jet card memberships with eight hours for their regular cards.
Included in our list are those providers and programs that offer both guaranteed availability with a fixed hourly price. If you need to book with shorter notice, many providers will try to accommodate you and honor your contracted hourly rate, although you may need to pay a custom quote, much like on-demand charters.
Of course, if the lead time is a critical part of your decision-making, changing plans at the last minute also could be. In that case, make sure you also compare lead time for canceling your flight.
Another factor to consider is the peak days. Lead-time for reservations and cancellations are usually longer during these high-demand periods. You can compare over 300 programs by subscribing to Private Jet Card Comparisons.
