[Removed by moderator per Rule 12.] Your reccomending a company that has no one listed who works there. That’s the mark of an awesome company. Give me $250 and you will be introduced to all the operators. Do you not know that there’s already companies hat do this. Like aircharterguide. They love been in business for 20 years. The reason people use brokers and buy actual memberships or cards is they have different requirement than you. They don’t want to deal with the ........ that collecting options and finding out how many hours a crew has or insurance limits. I could reccomend good companies but I just do t think that’s what this is about. No one is asking hey. Where can I spend $250 a month and go direct to operators. Awesome name for a website. Cause this is a real membership.

Why Private...

No need to say sorry. I ramble and don’t spell that well and these are just my opinions. I am lucky that I’ve been able to fly privately with my family since I was a kid. I used to make it a game when I was younger to get 5-10 companies working on our trips. I used to get the information from aircharterguide. I don’t really use it anymore just because life is just busier now. . (You can do the same thing with them that the jet membership places does. You just put in a trip and it spits out ops. Or you can just search different places. Maybe it’s not as good as I haven’t really looked on a while. And no I didn’t sign up. Again I ask myself. Can this model work. You pay $250 and book...say 25 trips. Or maybe they have a back end deal...that every request made through their software gets $xxx added on top. But they are saying they are transparent so I assume that’s not happening. I would have ask them to sign something saying they won’t make $ on the back end. Maybe they sell Marketing on their software or charge the ops to be on their software. But then again both of those cost the op $ so somewhere somehow the op will add it in to the cost. They can’t pay the bills with that $250 and nothing else. Unless they have hundreds of clients and they don’t as I’ve asked a few people and no one has heard of them. Even aircharterguide is like a book company or something like that. I’ve spoken to the people over there. No one is printing $.

Same thing with jetsmarter. Free endless flights with small initial upfront cost. For me this one is simple. I don’t want to share my wife, cars, homes or private jet. What if I have to use the bathroom. Literally I think of that. I’d just rather be on a much larger jet with people I don’t know going through the same security they went through.

For brokers...Everyone is really calling the same ops. I am
positive no company has the magic bag of great aircraft or ops. If you call a bunch of brokers I’ve seen the op usually just holds tight on price and now your negotiating with a broker that has 10-15% (usually). Your not going to go from $20,000 to $15,000. You may go from $20k to $19k.

I’ve used both operators and a lot of brokers. Sentient and Magellan (Brokers) now...but there’s literally a list of 15 if you really want to know and theres usually a mechanical or pulled jet that happens and it doesn’t end well. It usually ends with that can happen in this industry and here’s the next best option. That’s not what I want to hear. What I want to hear is hey there was an issue and we have another aircraft on its way to you. Go get something to eat or go back home and I will let you know when the jet is 15 minutes away.

Operators Meridian, XO and EJM, TMC, Red Wing to name a few. But they aren’t that good at service. Funny thing I did with an op that jetsmarter did a deal with for empty legs or something. Every time I would call and want to book their aircraft I would say. Take 10% off because your selling the front end, back end or both to jetsmarter. I don’t want to pay for them to use whatever Repo I’m creating to be on that day. They always came down.

Brokers seem to put more effort into the whole experience. I even tell them to check on...XXX company if I like a specific jet (I’ve seen that itself check brokers to be fair on price). And I’m not stupid I don’t just go in blind...I check on whoever I work with to make sure especially when the price seems high.

Here is what anyone should do if they are considering flying with x company. Show up to their office unannounced. There are really only 10-15 real brokerages. I’m talking about companies that actually have staff. With so many companies saying the same thing...if you just show up wherever their “office” is you see what kind of company they are running and the actual ownership and operation. Now if the office is in Kansas I wouldn’t conatct them because I’m in northeast. I would say there’s good people in Nortgeast..(where I am). For me it’s about the issues that happen...granted not that often but when a jet breaks or an owner pulls something I’ve been .... out of luck on a few occasions with kids or worse family members and that is the worst. These issues were with mainly small operators and small brokers. I don’t really like to pay more when this happens and I’ve seen a good relationship make that happen. I believe if you make a relationship with 1-2 companies (depending on how much you fly) the benefits you get with a broker outweigh the markup. Now if the broker is making 30-40% which I’ve seen then your better with a card or program or going direct to an op. If you do a lot of one ways I think a broker is better. Round trips I would say the operators are going to be better.

Ive booked empty legs with brokers and ops and they are great until something happens and that’s the day that sucks the most. Because now your paying a good chunk more and or trying to get commercial...and for me I hate that. I have a specific price in my head and when it goes up that bothers me. Or when I have to get in a car go to another airport and get on a commercial flight that stinks.

The Brokerage side needs to be regulated and the majority of companies dissolved as there are way too many brokers. I didn’t mean to insult the jetmembersip thing just when you go on someone’s website and no one is listed as owner or any information I know it’s not a real company since I’ve literally shown up to these places and seen the shared “Regis office” or whatever they call it. Everyone says the same thing. Highest safety ARGUS, Wyvern, great customer service, customer comes first attitude. ARGUS and Wyvern aren’t really keeping anyone safe. I believe it’s the crew. That’s the information I ask for. How much time do you have in this jet. I don’t even really care about the other numbers. Not that I want someone with 500 total hours but the time in that aircraft and being a captain in that aircraft is important to me. Typically I see 2500-3000 total in pilots that have good flight time in a soecific aircrxft. I love when companies print Aircrafts or Fleets. Or when a broker says our fleet and then at the bottom they have the we don’t operate disclosure...or even worse no disclosure. That shows me they are new to the industry and don’t even know someone things. Like on the membership company your talking about. Go to whatever company website and look at “about us”. If there no names, pictures or information on who actually owns and or runs the company the chances are it’s a very small operation. And they don’t do whatever they are telling you they do...in my experience.

for instance I looked up this company your talking about. every red flag is there. They share an office with another company...not just any other company another broker. luxury aircraft solutions. Who? They stole a picture from Taylor swift wearing an ugly sweater and said giving thumbs up to their company. I just know from my experience these guys are clowns. Again...my opinion but sharing an office in Long Island with a broker no one has ever heard of just makes me know whatever they are doing isn’t for me.

There’s ...... companies both broker and operator. Take XO. Was a good operator...now is a broker???? Now they tell me they can get me a 400XP. I told them I am good. Why would I want XO calling around for me? That makes no sense to me. Every time I chose to go to an operator direct it was because I wanted to be on their aircraft. That made me feel safe. Now all it tell me is they don’t pay 100% attention to their aircraft, safety of their aircraft and are putting effort into finding me a light jet. What about making sure the aircraft doesn’t break? Or when I was on them last making sure the seats didn’t look like tan mom. I don’t ask for their aircraft anymore so they might have really nice jets now I don’t know. Their price just went up too much for a Jet that’s as big as an 800xp and I don’t do a lot of 6 hour flights cross country.

Im a relationship person. I know not everyone is like me and some people just want to book on a app. But when something bad is happening I truly believe if you have a good relationship with a larger broker they will help you. Even steer you away from the bad operators. But I know that app is not going to help me.

Please don’t take this the wrong way but I don’t want to reccomend any particular companies. I’ve told you who I use and they do a good job. Sentient seems to get better deals on shorter flights like an hour (and sometimes I get flight options...somehow) and Magellan seems to do better on longer flights. I think you said you had a bad experience with Magellan from an event. I don’t go to events that much so I avoide the drunk guys. You seem to have a good feel for the companies though.

I don’t know the amount of listings I have has anything to do with anything but since you mentioned it. I just came across this website a few weeks ago and I will post a lot more if it helps anyone.