Thread: Fractional Ownership/Jet Cards

Anyone here use or have membership to PlaneSense, NetJets, Marquis Jet card, CitationAir, FlexJet, or Avantair and care to share their experience, opinion, suggestions, or recommendations on the program and so forth.

Also, if their are companies I have forgotten to mention, please post them up.

It really all depends on what you want to do with the hours you purchased, how many hours you want, and if you need to fly internationally or over water. All of the companies mentioned above are great, but each program has it's own pro's and con's of course. If you are really picky you may want to request info from each and study them so you know what you are getting yourself into and from there it will become personal preference. If not you can always just pick one of the main companies like Netjets, or Marquis..

The main thing you should look for is safety ratings of each company (ARG/US or Wyvern) and their jet card program.

If you would like, PM me more info like the type of flying you do, and how often, and I will gladly shed some light on the many different cards and companies out there.

Oh, I don't need information personally, I could talk for hours on these programs, I have friends that use some of them, I personally don't have a need for charter currently. I was just curious if there is members that are interested in sharing there experience with them, maybe sharing why they picked PlanseSense over Avantair and what not. These programs definitely don't fall into the same category of jet charter by any means.

On another note, Status, welcome to L4P, hope you enjoy your time here, also FYI it takes 20 post min to get PM privilege. Just curious about your avatar, its pretty nice set up in that hangar.

I have a question, more of a curiosity thing, but what are the costs involved in something like that?
Are there initial set ups? Or do you just purchase the hours plus monthly maintenance?

traditional experience is $100K for 16 hours of air time in your choice of multiple aircraft. It is more ideal than owning because of the variety and lack of headaches. Cannot remember the name though. if anyone can cop a better deal...... let me know

I haven't look into pricing in some of these in a while, but I know with NetJets you have two options, if you need less than 50 hrs, they have a Marquis Jet Card, basically entitles the bearer to 25 hrs of occupied flight time on a preselected size of plane, starts at around $120,000 for a small 7 seat jet. Then if you fly a lot they have fractional ownership, which start at 1/16 a share of the jet, 50 hrs a year for a one time fee of $450,000 for small 7 seat jets, but than you have hourly operating charges of around $2,000 plus a monthly management fee of $8,000. Of course you can always buy more shares, and also they have a rather large and wide array of jets available.

For Avantair, they fly a propeller Piaggio Avanti, and they have similar programs to Netjets/Marquis Card, they have an Edge Card which come in a little less time of 15 hours and 25 hrs and start at $75,000 and $115,000 respectively. There plane seats 7 passengers, but travels at a slower speed. Then they have a fractional ownership program that runs like $425,000 buy in, $10,000 monthly, but not hourly charge except a fuel surcharge.

PlaneSense is regional, small propeller plane that operates in the south and east coast. They only a fractional ownership, I forgot what their buy is, somewhere around $300,000, has a monthly management fee of $6500, and hourly operating of $1,000.

The other programs are pretty similar, they all have pro's and con's. Obviously if your flying from New York to Las Vegas, your going need a pretty decent size jet. Also if your living in California and you want to fly up to Oregon PlaneSense doesn't operate in your area per say. NetJets has the best competitive advantage because of their size, there relocating cost are minimal because their jets are scattered throughout the country and these savings are passed to the customer. Also sometimes, people who own a private jet will charter out their jet at a super lower cost to just help with fixed expenses of jet ownership, because most people who own a plane have full time pilots, so you will charter rates which are pretty much the cost of jet fuel, landing, catering, and a small additional percentage to help take the hit of the additional hours and to subsidize the cost of having pilots, hangering, and so forth.

My family has been using Pentastar Aviation for the past few years. We normally buy about 25 hours (I think it's just over the $100k mark) since my grandfather is the only one who really "needs" it and the only flying he does is from Michigan to Florida in the fall, and Florida to Michigan in the spring. I honestly don't know how many hours we've gone through, but it ends up being more than YOU actually use because they charge to fly the plane back IIRC(at least with Pentastar). I remember that we looked into Net Jets when we were thinking about switching, but it actually ended up being such a minimal difference that we decided to stay with a company that already knew us.

We've had a great experience with Pentastar.....they're great people and I'd highly recommend them.

Originally Posted by steve0827

I honestly don't know how many hours we've gone through, but it ends up being more than YOU actually use because they charge to fly the plane back IIRC(at least with Pentastar). I remember that we looked into Net Jets when we were thinking about switching, but it actually ended up being such a minimal difference that we decided to stay with a company that already knew us.

Thanks for sharing. That is interesting that Pentastar makes you pay for bringing the plane back (deadhead fee), I know with Marquis Jet Card, basically everything is included in the cost within reason, even catering as long you operate in their collective service area, which is basically everywhere. Also I know that Marquis Jet Card doesn't have deadhead fees or reposition fee's.

Do the hours NOT used during the year roll over into the second?

Yes they roll over or they refund your money, depends on the program.