Flying in Style

All my business travel last year had one huge benefit: it bumped me up to Silver Preferred status with U.S. Airways (aka American). This means priority boarding, zipping through security (which I already do with TSA PreCheck), &, best of all, complimentary upgrades.

However, all this pales in comparison to the flight I recently took on a private jet. I hitched a ride with a client of mine (who shall remain nameless to protect the fabulous!) on a quick flight to an event. It makes sense for them to fly privately vs flying commercial. After all, think of how expensive it is in lost time to have your CEO stuck in the airport, paralyzed by a giant snow storm that has left his flight aircraft-less. I was just thankful they let my  non-C-Suite self on board!

One of the strangest things about flying a general aviation aircraft (that is non-scheduled air travel – this covers everything from a 2 seat Cesna to Donald Trump’s 737), is there’s no security. You simply drive onto the tarmac, park your car next to the plane, get out & glamorously walk up the stairs, pretending your a rich, famous model jetting off to St. Barths for the weekend (or maybe that was just me).

The cabin of this jet was set up with 10 first class-esque seats. I sat in one of the rear-facing seats, which is definitely a strange sensation. Soon enough, the pilots were on board & we strapped in for take off. There was a brief safety instruction (this is how you lower the stairs, this is how you get out through the window, your oxygen bag may not inflate) & we were rolling down the taxiway.

Take off was smooth as silk, although facing backwards definitely led to some strange g-forces. I’m normally a nervous flier, & was a little nervous preflight, but once we were up in the air, it was smooth sailing.

The flight was short – less than an hour – which only left me wanting more. Descending into the little airport was a little bumpy as we moved through the cloud levels, but really no worse than on a typical commercial flight. We landed safely & our rental car was waiting for us at the bottom of the stairs.

Unfortunately, I only got a one way lift on the plane: they left me to go back home & I returned to DC flying commercial. At least I got a first class upgrade to soften the blow a bit!