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Hurry Up: Magellan Private Jet “Sale” at Ruelala.com!

by on July 27, 2011 · 10 comments

in Private Jets, RueLaLa.com

Dust off your Platinum/Centurion/Titanium/Palladium/Whatever cards and pray these charges go through: Ruelala.com (one of my favorite discount online luxury good retailers) is selling “discount” packages on Magellan private jets. Unfortunately, these were a bit out of my price range, but it was interesting to see how much jet rental costs. To see for yourself you need to be invited for site access, which you can do so instantly using my link.

TPG Christmas present?

Let’s take a look at the offering:
25 Hours of flight time on a seven passenger small jet:

  • A twenty five-hour Jet Card to be used toward domestic flights on a Beechjet 400A aircraft from Magellan Jets. This jet can seat seven passengers with a range of 1,748 miles. Travel is available beginning July 30, 2011; all travel must be scheduled by July 30, 2012. Card is valid for domestic travel with a minimum duration of two hours.
  • A $12,500 fuel surcharge is included in purchase price. (And we thought British Airways had high fuel surcharges!) As a client of Magellan Jets, you’ll also receive access to an aircraft with only 24 hours notice and no repositioning costs.

You may take-off from any public airport (with a 5,000-foot runway) of your choosing, and Magellan Jets will arrange the specific details of your flight. Ground transportation to and from the airport is not included in purchase price, but may be arranged through Magellan Jets at an additional cost after purchase.

Please note: Federal excise tax is not included (I wonder if this is waived while the government has it’s budget meltdown/ FAA freeze?)

Other jet prices for 25 hour blocks:
Mid size (6-8 passengers)- Lear 60 or Hawker 800: $131,000, Hawker 800 XP: $142,750
Super mid-size (8 passengers)- Citation X $178,450 or Challenger 300: $195,000
Large jets (10 passengers)- Challenger 604: $212,200 Gulfsteam IV:$277,280 Gulfstream 450: $346,250

I’ve yet to fly private, but would love to hear the thoughts of the TPG readers who have. I most likely won’t be able to afford this luxury anytime soon (even with these “sale” prices),  though who needs it when you are a Delta Diamond?!

But seriously, if anyone does have any private jet time, I can make myself available on a moments notice and I promise to be a good seat mate!

Disclaimer: This content is not provided or commissioned by the credit card issuer. Opinions expressed here are author.s alone, not those of the credit card issuer, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by the credit card issuer. This site may be compensated through the credit card issuer Affiliate Program.

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  • Gene

    Can I spread my purchase over several credit cards? :-)

  • tivoboy

    I’ve flown on private/personal jets about 15 times in my life, either friends or corporations I have worked for. It CAN be very convenient and it certainly is personal. I didn’t say luxury since I think the greatest benefit is “my flight, my time” departures, where to land, no lines, crowds, nothing. From a cost perspective it makes no sense with possible exception of moving a number of execs across oceans where they would normally be in First at 10-15K a pop, move six of them, then double it and you can have your own plane. (many corps. won’t allow that many execs on one plane though) Personally, to make it truly luxurious you have get up to a Callenger 600 series size or better, THEN it feels luxurious. For me 6’5″, the Hawkers and Lears actually feel confined. In many of the “6-8″ passenger JETS you are pretty CRAMMED in there. Seats are comfy, but there may not be much legroom and moving around the cabin means leaning over and moving around peoples stuff (there are NOT usually OVERHEAD storage bins, only sides, front/rear and floor – this is true even on the bigger jets)

    Honestly, when things run smootly in a major flag carrier, expedited check-in, easy boarding, business seats hopefully or better, no IROPS, I prefer that especially for the over ocean flights. I don’t think I EVER was able to SLEEP on one of the Atlantic or Pacific private jet flights. It just felt wierd, you feel SMALL and have the feeling that if anything happened you would just be this VERY tiny dot on a big big ocean.

    Honestly, I’m surprised the fuel surcharge isn’t higher. Any private jets use a TON of fuel, compared to a passenger jet with of course higher numbers the amount per passenger is 10-20x depending on the jet.

  • Matt

    On a more fiscally-realistic note, it might be worthwhile/interesting to find a cheap empty leg to fly and review. UPGRD interviewed a guy from social flights – http://upgrd.com/upgrd/upgrd-87-social-flights.html

    Apparently there are some options as cheap as $150. Probably not where you want to go, but could be an interesting experience.

  • James

    I don’t think anyone that has a private jet is reading this blog for free miles lol

  • Dan

    I used to work in ramp service for these things, and tivo boy is right. When flying on the smaller aircraft, you don’t fly on them for luxury, you fly on them for convenience.

    Although, I would disagree with his break-even analysis, so to speak. IMHO, GA makes the most sense when you need to fly around in a region with limited air service, say upstate NY or somewhere in the midwest. You can get the small planes for a few thousand dollars per flight hour.

    OTOH, when flying overseas, one wouldn’t use the smallest jets that were discussed. Over the pond, one is more likely to take a GIV or a GV, and the last I checked, those were running $5000 and $8000 per flight hour, respectively. Figure 24 hours for a round-trip, and you’re looking at $120,000 for the whole she-bang.

    BTW Brian, the prices you were getting, even as a “special” are highly inflated. See my comments above — the GIV rate per hour is about double what I mentioned. And the G450? That’s one I’m not familiar with, but if it’s in the same class as the GIV, then the charter operator wants way, way too much.

  • tivoboy

    My experience with pricing flights is one only pays for “wet time”, so when the motor is running. Yes, there is an on the ground fee for parking and service, but nothing like the hourly rate. So USA to EUROPE from say east coast you might just have about 12 hours worth of burn rate time. Has this changed in the past couple years?

  • HoKo

    Private flying is a blast. I’ve only done it once when I was a lot younger (I couldn’t have been older than 9 or 10 at the time) but the memory is still ingrained in my head. At the time my father was working for a lawfirm and was taking his first family vacation in over 15 months. Long story short one of the partners told him he had to cancel his vacation in order to get a deal closed.

    Once the deal closed the partner felt bad, so to make it up to my father he sent out the firm’s private jet to pick us up in Seattle and flew us out to his personal ski-in ski-out cabin in Aspen for a week.

    Fond memories!

  • Bluto

    I flew on a Gulfstream V once. I felt it was luxurious. Very convenient, no wait. There was an attendant just for the small group of us. And it was sort of surreal to be taking off and not have anyone tell you to buckle up or demand that you shut off electronic devices. And it felt odd to be able to get up and stay standing whenever you wanted. However in terms of seating and food, you can probably get equivalent or better pampering in international first (though you still have to deal with waiting).

  • Chris

    Personally, I think that flying a crappy, beat-up, old Delta 737, in domestic first class, feels downright spacious and luxurious… compared to flying in my friend’s Lear 35A.

  • Icurme

    Two words: dry lease