Took the leap and bought a Marquis Jet card to make travel to a relatively obscure small airport easier for all concerned (it had 2 scheduled turboprop flights a day with a feeder carrier---and sometimes they are canceled for 2-3 days at a time---without notice--trapping everyone there with the other alternative being a 14 hour drive out)...

Long and short of the Marquis Jet card to date: Expensive, even for the smallest jet--but the safety factor can’t be beat. Service has been excellent, though there are some subtle issues here to consider---and everything I though I knew when I bought their card turned out to be correct--but then, I did some pretty geeky research.

Why Marquis? In brief, safety, safety and safety. More time training its pilots in just one type of airplane than any other fractional or charter service (the more you do something, the better you are at it), superb, two party release systems for any flight to head into the air (you will NEVER be able to coax, argue or bully a Netjets/Marquis flight into the air if someone in their command chain doesn’t think for even one second that it isn’t going to be safe to do so all the way from taxiway to taxiway--and you want it that way) and a profound intolerance for releasing a jet to fly with even the smallest, apparently meaningless problem (maybe the pilots could make a fibber out of me on that one, but I don’t think so)..

Do note that the safety focus can influence what you think you are going to be able to do with your shiny new jetcard in some interesting ways.

Since they don’t want you to end up in a flaming ball of shiny aluminum at the end of the runway or in the treeline somewhere, they put inviolable restrictions on certain flight operations.

For example: 1) These are jets; no dirt or grass strips (there goes the fishing camp) 2) Though your model of jet might be certified by the maker and the FAA to operate off n airport’s 3600 foot long concrete runway, NetJets/Marquis might not even consider flight operations out of anything with less than a 5000 foot long runway for that model (the theory being that the longer runway gives everyone time and distance tto turn a potential take off or landing disaster into an inconvenience)---so, if you are getting a card to “get away” somewhere or do business in a small town with an airstrip---call Netjets/Marquis first (or do the research yourself on line---it’s easy) and make sure that the airstrip you are thinking about using is a) public b) has good quality paving c) and meets the minimum runway requirements for the aircraft you want to buy a card for. I think they thought I was crazy for doing so, but it made me a much happier customer. Sort of like telling a car salesman that before you buy the car, you want to talk to the head mechanic in the garage first. 3) That safety perspective appears to extend to weather conditions. Therefore, if the commercial flights in and out of the airport of interest routinely cancel because of weather conditions during miserable weather conditions, make sure you discuss with flight operations what their minimums are for that airport and your aircraft (for example, one minimum appears to a weather/cloud cover ceiling of no less than 1000 feet at one airport using one particular model of aircraft)---before you go thinking that you are now exempt from irritating delays. If you then want to know how often the conditions exist at that airport, call the local FBO and find the smartest guy/gal there (usually a senior dispatcher) and pay them a consulting fee to help you map out the typical weather “black out dates”. For those of you thinking “Hey, I can go ski anytime”, take notice.

A couple wonderful things about the experience and one thing that I haven’t quite figured out.

The trick to Netjets/Marquis and its captive airplane fleet (for the most part) is that they basically warranty the entire experience from beginning to end (which is a contrast to an open charter firm’s arrangements). For example, during a recent adventure, flight operations grounded a jet for what turned out to be a quirky, inessential flight instrument--(the pilots were annoyed but compliant; it was hard for them to get excited about a 24 hour wait for Netjets/Marquis to fly in a certified mechanic while they stewed in the local Motel 6)---But that led to only a little inconvenience on our part. Flight Ops scrambled a jet to replace our scheduled but grounded plane as soon as they knew it couldn’t be conveniently fixed at the airport (no mechanic available to fix it who was certified on that airplane type). Total delay was only 2 hours and the replacement jet was nicer.

The pilots are completely courteous and professional every time and inspire confidence (this is important when flying around old ladies who don’t like “small airplanes”--i.e., my mother-in-law).

The private potty on the smallest jet has never raised a complaint from some otherwise fussy ladies. This matters. Laugh, but it does. Some turboprops just use a curtain. Whoaaaaa….

Bizarrely, for those passengers who have focused on it, the fruit plates have been copious and tasty and have been the most “luxurious” aspect of the whole experience for some of the people who have flown on the jets so far (go figure; the fruit plate? are you kidding me? I’m flying you around in a jet and you are impressed by the fruit plate?) Your mileage on this particular feature may vary…

When they upgrade you because “your” plane isn’t free (it’s never actually free; that you own a tiny fractional lease of an airplane is basically a fiction, but a nice one given that you have the services of a whole fleet), it’s sometimes quite a wonderful upgrade from the speed and cabin size perspective. Wow, you could get used to that sort of flying.

The slightly interesting part is that sometimes, ever so subtly, it feels like they are trying to coax me/us into something a little more convenient for them (maybe an earlier flight time) using possible weather delays as a prod---but you never heard me say that.

OK, cost particulars; There is always a one hour minimum to any flight along with mandatory (but minimal) time on the ground assigned to any segment--so any flight you take basically burns just over an hour. If your flyfishing camp’s concrete airstrip is only 40 minutes away by jet--well, Warren Buffett thanks you for your overpayment.

Each hour for their smallest jet (The Ultra) is about $6000/hour in basic flight costs (plane and taxes) and then a fuel charge which seems to running about $1200 for each segment---call it $7200/hour. Yes, this is a ridiculous amount of money; I mean, is there anything you do that brings a smile to your face at the rate of $120/minute? (all the boat owners can now sit down).

Of note, if they upgrade you, you pay the fuel your little® jet would have used, not the nicer, but fuel-guzzling upgrade they had to scramble for you. As far as I’ve been able to tell, there are no hidden charges, no surcharges---and as I noted above, if something goes wrong, they will move what they need to move, including larger, more expensive jets (at no additional expense to you) to get you moving again as soon as humanely possible.

If you don’t use all 25 hours in a year after you buy it, you technically lose the unused portion---but apparently, sometimes what they will let you do instead (revocable on their prerogative if they feel like it) is let you pay something like 5% of the remaining balance to keep the card alive for another year--and so on. This could change at any moment; that would be sad.

Flying around on a card is quite a bit more expensive than a larger fractional buy (assuming you can use 50 to 100 hours of jet time a year)---and definitely more expensive than the charter quotes that I’ve pulled for some destinations (by about 30-40%)---but 1) 50-100 hours of fractional jet is a quicker, faster and more effective wealth destroyer than I want to have available to me right now; with the money I “saved” just buying a jet card, I just bought a boat! and 2) No one, as far as I could tell in my research, offers either the level of awe-inspiring safety levels or the ability to get their own captive or on-call charter fleet to bail you out of any mechanical or crew problems at their end in quite the same way. Certainly no open charter provider could make that commitment. I don’t have the same direct experience with any other “captive fleet” provider---but in my reading, I just couldn’t get quite as comfortable with their operations standards. Of course, if anyone wants to give me free hours on their card so that I can test out the other services…

As far as I can tell, no one has ever had to feel bad about putting people they love onboard one of their flights to go somewhere. That’s priceless.

Now, if I could just win a $100 million dollar MegaLotto so I could opt for a full 100 hour fractional share---and if they would add a solid, flawlessly safe turboprop option with short field capability (fly fishing camp, anyone?) life would be perfect.

Despite the completely ludicrous cost of this “travel option”--we’ll be re-upping when we use up our hours next year….

Happy Flying and Wealth-Destroying…

A Marquis Jet member… August, 2008

PS They send you all sorts of branded swag; the golf club covers are actually nice---but they open you to mockery from your friends with a 100 hours of time on a Falcon…(oh well, someone has to be the small fish)...