The company I work for has offices in Santa Barbara and in San Francisco. We shuttle so often between SoCal and NorCal that it's cheaper to fly private than it is to fly commercial. Certainly more convenient

Our company has an account with SurfAir, an innovative private airline that services much of California. I say innovative because it's a subscription-based service (pay a monthly fee and fly as you need). They have a fleet of 7 and 8 seater planes.

Of course, it's all about the convenience and the experience. So I thought I'd share a bit of that here with the community

I left my office in downtown SF at 5:00pm for a 6:30 flight. With SF traffic the way it is, I would get to SQL (San Carlos) at 6:00pm. When flying SurfAir, you just have to be there 15min before flight departure. But since I got there early, I caught up on some email and reading in the comfy lounge and enjoyed a snack and a beverage. The concierge took my bag for storage on the plane.



About 5 minutes before departure time, the concierge announced boarding, and we headed out onto the tarmac to board.



The plane has 8 seats, which are very comfortable (they swivel). For this flight only 4 of the 8 seats were filled. The interior is well appointed and it's nice to chat with the pilots up front.



One minute later, we were taxiing out to the runway for takeoff.



The flight is short, so a quick nap and some light reading was in order. Also, phone service comes and goes (I guess we fly at a low enough altitude), so answering a few emails is possible as well. About an hour later, we were approaching the stunning Santa Barbara coastline.



Our approach into SBA was close to sunset, and the light and view were exquisite.



And then we were on the ground. As I walked away from the plane, I turned to snap a last photo -- the sunset was just too beautiful not to

Brilliant! Thanks for sharing... ^

Thanks for posting, so interesting^

Surfair has good frequency, but the idea of flying a Pilatus is not too appealing.

A Pilatus sounds a bit more appealing than a UA CRJ-200.

Im cynical bout these kinda posts. Are they real or fake as an advertisement for these private jet companies that are popping up with more frequency? Ive seen a few here lately jetsuites comes to mind with a few others. Dont get me wrong its way kewl been there done that but its how these read, this one in particular.

So you think OP joined FT in 2009 with the intention of waiting 6 years to plant an advertisement for a private aviation company?

There are a thousand TRs on the same SQ routes but there have been like at most 5 or 6 that I've seen in the last year about flying private. And, come to think of it, I'm not actually sure that any two have been about the same operator.

This is an area where data availability is really making/changing markets and opening up new possibilities to potential customers. A lot more people are going to start having this as a viable option in the near future. So it's good to see some info on it.

surfair only has single props? i think i would prefer twin prop.

JHIN, youre kidding right? only one FTer has done reports for actual charters using jet card. rest are deals of some kind.
also cheapest charters of turboprops etc, at $1K/hour for 1 hour, are WAY less than the up to $20K many on FT pay for F/J.
im not looking forward to safety due diligence, but ill do that kind of cheap charter before paying a lot for longhaul J/F.

I can understand where you're coming from. I revere this community and only try to give back as much as I take from all the wonderful advice people share here.

I've posted other trip reports from my personal journeys, but this was the first time I posted a TR about my business travels. Sorry if it came across as an ad for the company -- wasn't intended that way at all. From my perspective, I thought it was interesting that as business travelers, as travel in general feels the effects of the on-demand economy and continued disruption (i.e. Uber), this is just another way that we can travel. And as much as we often need to travel, communities like FT make it possible for us to enjoy the parts of travel that we love.

Mordy

You don't need to apologize; the adverse post was uncalled for. Any rational person would see your report and understand exactly what you are trying to highlight. How many of us were being chauffeured around in black cars 5 years ago? Now we can do it for $20. The future of private aviation is going to be really interesting.

thank you for posting. i have been curious about SurfAir's service and this thread provides a lot of clarity.