How to travel on a private jet for £850

Life is pleasantly uncomplicated when you’re living the ultra-high-net-worth life. I lived it for precisely two hours and 25 minutes. It’s a lifestyle the savvy but less monied traveller could live too – but they might need to bring their own sandwiches.

That smooth-as-silk 145 minutes was the elapsed time between being driven by limousine from my hotel near Farnborough’s private-jet-only airport and collecting my key from reception at the five-star Hotel Grace in St Moritz, Switzerland. Such speed is addictive, and surprisingly accessible – if you know how...

By comparison, flying commercial between London and Zurich and then ground-transferring to or from St Moritz takes seven and a half hours at best. But I now know what it’s like not to say, “That’s three hours of my life I’ll never get back,” when battling through each end of a flight involving major airports, usually miles from where I actually want to be.

Flexjet, which offers variations on shared access to its 300-plus private jets, with a platinum service for people who fly 50 hours or more a year, added hours to my life. Arrive, discreetly, at Farnborough’s reception, nonchalantly ease past Will Ferrell hanging out in the lounge, with brief eye contact and a nod, and you’re wheels up within 30 minutes and fine-dining at 41,000ft soon after, before an equally expedited arrival process 90 minutes later.

Private jets can use small airports that commercial aircraft can’t, in this case Samedan, 10 minutes from St Moritz. It’s like a private jet bus station.

Flying private is not just about champagne and fine dining: my end-to-end journey was done and dusted in the same amount of time commercial fliers spend in the departure terminal. Such brevity adds massive value to certain people.

I flew on Flexjet’s tech-laden “mid-size” $25m, 8.25-hour-range Praetor 600. Seven of us in Rolls-Royce-like comfort at 600mph, plus cabin server Amelia, who calmly laid tables, served two courses and drinks – fizz, of course – all from a postage-stamp galley. And so tranquil: on approach to Samedan, it felt like floating on air over the Alps. It was a flight you never wanted to end.

The cost? Flexjet doesn’t pretend to be anything but a service for people to whom money is no object. For a €1.5 million (£1.26 million) annual fee and then €22,600 (£19,000) a month for the Praetor, “owners” get 50 hours’ use and can fly whenever and wherever they want.

The next step “down” is a standard private jet hire through the likes of Air Charter Service at around €15,000 (£12,600) for a one-way hop from London to St Moritz.

Then there’s something called “empty legging”.

Ski trips aren’t cheap, so maximising slope time, and, of course, après-ski, is key. Regular skiers know flights and transfers can wipe out whole days of a ski holiday.

But swot up on private jet “empty-leg” flights, understand the process – and you can land the occasional bargain. However, be prepared to be stonewalled by those who already use the system and don’t want too many others catching on.

Empty-leg flights involve a private jet flying a party one way, but with no paying passengers in the opposite direction. Consequently, deals for seats on those empty legs can be negotiated: discounts of more than 50 per cent aren’t unusual. It’s in the financial interest of private jet owners and operators to fill otherwise-empty seats.

Assuming the jet’s six or seven seats are filled, then a one-way empty-leg flight could cost around €6,000 (£5,000) to €8,000 (£6,700). Split between the passengers, that’s somewhere between £850 and £1,000 each. Other routes on smaller jets can be even cheaper.

The last-minute nature of the deals means you need to be flexible – it’s ideal for people who own a place in the mountains, or can swing free accommodation from friends.

Flexjet doesn’t offer empty-leg seats, but others do. You need to get savvy on empty legging: be prepared for flight schedule changes or cancellations, maybe travelling at strange times, or poker-facing until the last minute to get the best price.

Catering is usually included; however, you may have to take your own champagne and sandwiches if it’s a super-short-notice deal. But as well as the sheer convenience, there’s the swagger factor. Can you put a price on that?

“There’s undoubtedly the feel-good or even bragging rights, and people will pay for that, but sometimes not as much as they might think,” says Andy Christie, of Air Charter Service, which runs 28,000 private jet flights a year.

Christie says savvy travellers with flexible diaries and switched on to empty legging are not shy in chasing down deals through him.

But in the interests of objectivity, I had to sample another option: the four-hour train journey from St Moritz to Zurich Airport, and then the flight to London – all for almost £500. Whoever was in “my” seat in Flexjet’s Praetor was probably home at about the same time that I made the second of three train changes.

How to find empty-leg deals

Most private jet charter operators will offer empty-leg deals. First, get geeky on the range of private jet sizes there are. Some, such as the Phenom 100, have just four seats, no loo and will get you as far as the south of France; others, such as the Gulfstream G650, seat up to 19, have beds, and a 7,500-mile range.

There’s a vast array in between; the smaller, the cheaper. Next, some charter operators actually list empty-leg availability on their websites; if not, phone or email private jet charter companies such as Air Charter Service or Private Jets United Kingdom in the UK and Europe, or Mercury Jets in the United States, with either a specific desire or timing, or maybe just some free time to fill, an adventure in mind, or a will to be flexible. Ask what’s available, or ask to be alerted with offers or suggestions.