A year after relaunching its jet card program under the Elevate brand, Boston-based Magellan Jets is doing away with the name, keeping many of the good changes, and seemingly adding more. It’s also launching two pay-as-you-go membership options.
The moves come as many companies in the industry have switched gears to attract the many new-to-the-market consumers who are seeking to minimize exposure to Covid-19.
The new membership options are priced in the first year at $8,500 and $14,500 on a pay-as-you-go basis.
On the jet card side, Magellan has split up its quasi-dedicated super-midsize Gulfstream 200/Challenger 300 membership which also included Hawker 400s to a Gulfstream 200/280 membership and a separate Challenger 300/350 option.
There is also now a dedicated Citation Excel/XLS midsize private jet membership.
Another new element is the ability to purchase deicing insurance and it continues with its escrow account option, introduced after the JetSuite bankruptcy.
In terms of the jet card options, rates for existing programs have not changed.
As part of the revised jet card structure, Magellan Jets is also bringing back its fun build your own jet card feature.
You select the cabin category and then your preferred aircraft in that category. Each aircraft provides an hourly rate, passenger count, and cabin dimensions.
You then choose from 25, 50, 100, 200, and 300 hours. With each increment comes additional complimentary items and better terms.
For example, at 25 hours you get a 12-month rate lock, 40 peak days, and a 72-hour cancelation window. Buy 50 hours rate lock goes to 18 months, high volume days drop to 20, you get guaranteed WiFi, and two complimentary upgrades.
At 100 hours, cancelation drops to 24 hours, there are five complimentary upgrades, and a dedicated advisor. At 200 hours, there are just 10 peak days and 12 upgrades. When you get up to 300 hours, there are no peak days, you get 16 complimentary upgrades and cancelation deadline drops to just 10 hours.
Notably, Magellan continues its policy of no surcharges on peak days, which it calls high-demand days. While lead-time for reservations shoot up to 168 hours, since 300-hour buyers don’t have peak days, they keep the eight-hour booking window 365 days a year.
| 25 hours | 50 hours | 100 hours | 200 hours | 300 hours | |
| Rate Lock (months) | 12 | 18 | 18 | 18 | 18 |
| 10% Long Flight Discount | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Guaranteed WiFi | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Peak Days | 40 | 20 | 20 | 10 | 0 |
| Call-Out – Non-Peak (Hours) | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 |
| Call-Out – Peak (Hours) | 168 | 168 | 168 | 168 | 8 |
| Peak Day Surcharge | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Upgrades | 0 | 2 | 5 | 12 | 16 |
| Cancelation Window (hours) | 72 | 72 | 24 | 24 | 10 |
| Dedicated Aviation Advisor | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
You can then also select additional add-ons such as premium catering, carbon offsets, deicing insurance, and a flight attendant on super-midsize types.
In terms of the pay-as-you-go memberships, there are two options – Membership and Premium Membership.
Unlike its card program where you can semi-select specific private jet types, the memberships go by the more typical category breakdown of light, midsize, super-midsize, and large cabin categories.
The Premium Membership not only costs more the join and renew, but it has higher hourly rates.
In return, you get newer aircraft, shorter lead times for booking, fewer high volume days, and perks like complimentary catering, WiFi, and carbon offsets for your flights.
The basic Membership is then Magellan Jets offering for those of you who are simply looking for the best rate.
| Premium Membership | Membership | |
| Aircraft Age | 2007 or newer | 2000 or newer |
| Call-out Time | 12 hours | 24 hours |
| Same Day Multi-Aircraft | Yes | No |
| High Volume Days | 22 | 40 |
| Carbon Offsets Included | Yes | No |
| Complimentary Catering | Yes | No |
| Wi-Fi Included | Yes | No |
| Light Jet Per Hour | $6,032 | $5,128 |
| Midsize Jet Per Hour | $8,075 | $6,831 |
| Super Midsize Jet Per Hour | $10,403 | $8,753 |
| Heavy Jet Per Hour | $14,064 | $12,209 |
| Membership Fee/ Renewal | $14,500/ $9,500 | $8,500/ $4,500 |
So which way should you go?
A number of companies have gone from 25 to 10 hours as a way to attract new fliers while several others have done the pay-as-you-go thing.
If you look at 25 hours on the Hawker 400XP at $5,386 per hour, that works out to a $134,650 deposit.
A light jet in the Membership category is $5,128 per hour.
Let’s assume you plan to be in it for at least two years. You will pay $8,500 in year one and $4,500 to renew for year two, so a total of $13,000 in membership fees.
If your thought is you only will fly 10 hours per year, then you would have to divide the $13,000 first by two years, then by 10 hours. In other words, to get your true hourly rate, for Magellan’s Membership program, add $650 to $5,128 for an hourly rate of $5,778.
Compare $5,778 to the $5,386 Hawker 400XP hourly rate and it’s a premium of 7.2%.
If you bought the basic pay-as-you-go program and then flew 25 hours, add $260 to $5,128 and your hourly rate is $5,388, virtually the same as the Hawker 400XP rate. However, you have a lead time for booking of 24 hours instead of 8 hours.
In other words, if you are okay with a light jet cabin category aircraft instead of a specific type until you get up to 50 hours where the terms improve markedly, it might make sense to compare the basic pay-as-you-go option instead of buying 25 hours.
When you get to midsize, super mids, and large-cabin jets, there is no efficiency to going the membership route instead of buying 25 hours.
That said, there is another element to think about, which anyone buying a jet card from any provider should be doing. That’s where you will be flying and how long those flights will be.
For its Jet Card Ownership, the daily minimum is 120 minutes, except on light and midsize aircraft, where you can use one-third of your hours with a 60-minute minimum.
If you buy 25 hours, you can use 8.3 hours for 60-minute light and midsize flights. At 100 hours, you can use 33.3 hours for the lower daily minimums.
In the Membership options, lights and midsize aircraft have 90-minute minimums, period, full stop.
Minimums on all options are inclusive of the taxi time, so if you are doing mainly 75 to 90-minute flights on lights and mids, the membership options might just be the better way to go.
Since Magellan Jets uses estimated flight times (as opposed to actual flight times) for billing, you should be able to get an accurate read on which program better fits your needs.
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