“Crazy Logic” — Woman Calls Private Jet Company Because Commercial Was Too Pricey

One of the signs of being a big-time baller is having the capital to be able to book a private jet to go wherever you want, whenever you want, and not have to wait in line at a commercial airport to do so.

Having access to private jet travel is a massive privilege, but it also comes with a massive price tag. Which is probably why an employee for the private jet booking company Amalfi (@amalfijets) uploaded a TikTok video seemed so perplexed by a customer who phoned him up stating that she wanted to inquire about private jet pricing in the hopes of trying to save money.

"Amalfi Jets, this is Kolin," the man in the TikTok video announces after answering his phone.

The potential client on the other line announces her reason for the call. "So I was just looking to book a flight from LA to Nashville, it's for a bachelorette party..."

The man replies, "Awesome, congrats."

"It'll be me and a few girlfriends ... about 13 people. So we were looking at flights, looked a little bit too expensive so I just wanted to get a quote from you and see kind of what you guys had."

The private flight business worker repeated back the woman's request to her: "Got it, so you said you were looking at like commercial flights and it was too expensive? So wanting to kind of compare commercial to private see if we could save some money."

The woman says, "Yeah so we, um, I was just looking at American flights, and [they're] a little bit too expensive, I think they were like $400."

The worker responds back to her, "Got it, so $400 round trip I'm assuming, right? You said you had 13 people so you're looking at spending $5,000 total to get from L.A. to Nashville, so we wanted to compare the $5,000 versus chartering a private jet from LA to Nashville."

After he poses this query to the woman there's a slight pause, until she responds by stating, "Correct."

"Got it," the man responds, before continuing, "So our pricing specifically for 12 people, we would need something like a Gulfstream G4. I'd probably recommend something like a G5, it's a little bit larger, a little bit more comfortable," he tells the potential client.

"It will have a private flight attendant on board from LA to Nashville and back. You're looking at about $80,000. So 100 percent going to be more expensive than American Airlines Economy," he informs the woman, who gasps slightly on the other end of the phone.

"That said, there's another kind of private I guess, I guess they're kind of a public company, that I could recommend that would likely be cheaper than American if you wanted to check them out. I can give you the name of the company if you wanna write it down."

Kolin continues to look off camera and smile at whoever is recording the video.

"Um that's OK, I think if you have like, we'll just go with your cheapest jet."

Kolin seems to prepare himself for giving the woman information she's not about to enjoy hearing. "Yeah, the cheapest jet is $80,000 —" he says ultimately before the video cuts out and a final text overlay pops up on the screen that reads: "The client did not end up flying private with Amalfi."

The TikToker who posted the video added some further context in a caption for the video, writing: "Kolin received a phone call regarding chartering a jet from LA to Nashville for a bachelorette party. We always try to accommodate for our clients, however this particular person did not seem to have the budget for our cheapest available flight."

According to Paramount Business Jets, the cost of booking a private flight ranges anywhere from "$2,000 to $14,000 per billable flight hour."

There are different variables that go into nailing down the ultimate cost of these flights, however — some jets are more luxurious than others, and variations in fuel prices could ultimately result in higher or lower transportation costs for clients.

There have been some people who've taken issue with the private jet chartering industry for not having a transparent enough pricing model for clients, like this Redditor who asked, "How much does private jet travel really cost?"

They penned in their post: "I loathe markets which lack pricing transparency. Talking here one-off charters (could be shared) NetJets, that sort of thing. Seems like no matter where I check, you always have to fill in specific itineraries or call for quotes, etc."

One person recommended that folks who are interested in chartering private jets should avoid brokers altogether and that they should instead directly contact the flight operator for pricing: "I work for a private jet management / brokerage. My advice: go to an operator not a broker (i.e., avoid Sentient Jet, Apollo, Fly Victor, etc.). Go with a company who is a broker and operator (Jetlinx, Flexjet, Netjets)," they said.

What do you think? Was the woman kinda nuts for thinking that she was going to save money by attempting to book a private flight versus going commercial on American Airlines?