Do you fly private?
#16
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: Marriott or Hilton hot tub with a big drink <glub> Beverage: To-Go Bag™ DYKWIA: SSSS /rolleyes ☈ Date Night: Costco
Programs: Sea Shell Lounge Platinum, TSA Pre✓ Refusnik Diamond, PWP Gold, FT subset of the subset
Posts: 12,509
#17
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: UK
Posts: 7,560
If your company's office is an hour's drive from the nearest airport with scheduled flights, but only five minutes from a GA airfield offering air taxi services...
... and your client company is an hour's drive from the nearest airport with scheduled flights, but only five minutes from a GA airfield...
... and flying time between the two GA airfields is an hour in a light twin...
... then it's a complete no-brainer, especially if there is more than one person travelling.
#18
Suspended
Join Date: Jun 2009
Location: NCE - GVA - MUC
Programs: mosttraveledpeople.com
Posts: 492
I fly on private aircraft when I travel. Taking the obvious aside, it always amazes me that the press has never picked up on it that a potential terrorist could walk onto a private aircraft and load pretty much anything he/she wants while the TSA is standing on its head harassing commercial travelers.
I will say though that I do not miss the security theater courtesy of TSA.
I will say though that I do not miss the security theater courtesy of TSA.
#20
Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: YVR
Programs: Aeroplan Former E
Posts: 1,022
As far as a no-brainer, anytime you go private the cost-benefit ratio becomes a higher bar to cross. Do you absolutely need to travel to this location, can you combine it to see multiple customers, etc... Because at some point, higher travel costs can offset a low cost location.
#21
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Rio de Janeiro, Miami, Nice
Programs: Marriott Titanium, AA Concierge Key, Delta, United, Emorates, and others
Posts: 4,694
Sam Walton was an avid flyer and used to fly himself in his Cessna 414. Once I was at FlightSafety in LGB doing recurrent training for the Cessna 421 I had then and Sam Walton was the only other person in my class. The two a/c are identical except for the engines and use the same simulator. I was astonished to see him there and was pleased that he was a very, very good and diligent pilot as well as being an unassuming, but very confident person.
Many people use private aircraft because of convenience, some because they're usable in places commercial planes do not go, soem because they're cheaper than commercial for their specific uses and others because they save time. Some also do it because they love flying themselves in their own planes.
Many people use private aircraft because of convenience, some because they're usable in places commercial planes do not go, soem because they're cheaper than commercial for their specific uses and others because they save time. Some also do it because they love flying themselves in their own planes.
#22
Join Date: May 2010
Location: Vancouver, BC, Canada
Programs: Aeroplan
Posts: 3
I fly on private aircraft when I travel. Taking the obvious aside, it always amazes me that the press has never picked up on it that a potential terrorist could walk onto a private aircraft and load pretty much anything he/she wants while the TSA is standing on its head harassing commercial travelers.
I will say though that I do not miss the security theater courtesy of TSA.
I will say though that I do not miss the security theater courtesy of TSA.
#25
Join Date: Feb 2010
Location: Missouri (USA)
Programs: AA Lifetime Platinum (2m+ miles)
Posts: 9
I fly myself
Five years ago, after 15 years of nearly 100% travel, I got so frustrated with my airline travel experiences that I decided to get my pilot's license and my own airplane. I have a non-stop range of 900 miles, and I live in the midwest, so I can get to most of my destinations non-stop in 5 hours or less. I can't reach the west coast, Florida, or Maine, but can get just about everywhere else. It's obviously not economically advantageous, if I'm flying by myself, but I don't have the sense of powerless frustration when the airline cancels my flight for no apparent reason. And, I have no TSA to deal with.
#26
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Neither here nor there
Programs: UA Slvr, DL Slvr, AA plt, HH LTD, MR tit/LTP at least two of those buy 10 get 1 free coffee cards
Posts: 3,450
I am crew on private aircraft, and occasionally get to hitch a ride if we happen to have an empty leg from where I am to where I'm going.
#28
Suspended
Join Date: Apr 2017
Location: Nebraska, USA
Posts: 10
Private flying really is expensive and many could not afford it. But the convenience that you can get and the experience as well seems to be incomparable. I just experienced once flying in a private aircraft when I'm out for a business trip. Checked it already on my bucket list for 2016 year 'round.