As a user of four different private jet services, I can say I have been sold and experienced the agonies and ecstasy of all of them. Having used Sentient for over a year, I can say that they are the most service oriented. While not without occasional problems, and often it is hard to countenance delays and mistakes when paying for private planes, they always follow up with an apology and explanation. While in my experience apologies tend to be hollow, I value the honest explanation the most. Another benefit to their format is the ability to pick different types of planes in the same class. One can pick a slightly older plane, if for example you are taking kids on a short flight, or a much newer model if taking clients cross country. The ability to vary is something I value. In addition, their rate card is simple and their high travel days relatively few.

I bought into this program early and for a time found it worthwhile. At the time I bought in they also had a guaranteed repurchase program making the pricing more attractive. After a few years however I began to experience problems. At first it was just poor service, harried and sullen pilots or mistakes in catering or ground transportation coordination. One summer however, when I happened to be traveling all over the U.S. and Europe for business, I experience four equipment malfunctions in the space of six weeks. In one a front landing strut was broken making us unable to takeoff from a small regional airport. Net Jets demanded I wait six hours for their plane to fly in when a smaller local jet was available immediately. I chartered the local jet and they refused to reimburse me. When I heard other anecdotes of safety problems, I terminated immediately.

This is the best fractional program I have experienced, though my only comparison is to Net Jets. Flex Jets Challenger planes are all relatively new and extremely well maintained. The fleet is burdened by a much lower average number of owners per plane. And the operational problems, either because of that or because of better management, are much lower than Net Jets. I do not recall having a late departure because a plane was unavailable or late. Pricing, as far as I can tell, is comparable to other fractional programs.

As a user of four different private jet services, I can say I have been sold and experienced the agonies and ecstasy of all of them. I used Flight Options for only one flight. Having been sold on the basis of a lower rate card, I attempted to use them during a holiday. I found out to my chagrin, that not only did they have almost double the number of peak days, but when peak days were added in, the charges were 10-20% higher than other comparable services like sentient, or a pure charter with Tag Aviation. Having been enticed by a cheaper rate card, I found it irritating enough, when combined with the fine print of almost 30 peak days a year, to demand a refund of my deposit.