Eight Shocking Secrets I Learned While Working on Private Jets
From comforting naked celebrities who are afraid of flying to cleaning up after pet (and human) accidents, nothing is surprising among those who fly privately for a living.
Illustration: Jaci Kessler Lubliner
For those who can afford it, private aviation is an easy way to bypass the epic lines at TSA, stale food court sandwiches, and those armrest-hogging seatmates. It also buys an elusive treasure: additional hours in the day. Sunrise yoga in Los Angeles, lunch in Napa, a show in Vegas—it’s all doable when the sky isn’t the limit. As insiders say: “Jets aren’t aircraft, they’re time machines.”
These flying miracles became more accessible after the 2008 recession, when membership clubs began offering UberPool-like sharing schemes. Dallas-based JetSuite led the pack. Its SuiteKey program is like a debit account for airfare: The more you deposit, the deeper your discount. Of its 900 members, at least 50 have invested $1 million.