If I may, I would just like to add belatedly my 2p-worth to this interesting thread. I no longer ferry aircraft transatlantic; in fact, I no longer fly personally anywhere. But my experiences, when persuaded ‘as a favour’ or by contract wording, to carry a passenger on a ferry flight, were not always of the happy variety. In short, you never knew quite what you were getting (into).
In particular, a passenger’s likely action (or inaction) in the event of an emergency was unknown. Yet it was still an additional responsibility on me to look after them, land, sea and air. They had an unfortunate propensity to confuse role (pax) and status (proud owner) resulting sometimes in unexpected actions, like taking the liberty of fiddling with ‘their’ GPS, auto-pilot, fuel tanks or radios, not always noticed by myself at the time. And, for some, hearing the word ‘NO’ said to them was clearly alien .. and seen as a challenge. Language differences magnify these things too.
On one memorable occasion, approaching N Scotland from Reykjavik for refuelling in a SEP, my pax suddenly ‘requested’ I divert to Heathrow ! I declined, but it quickly became an awkward, heated, and potentially mutinous discussion in a very confined space. Another pax was clearly unhappy en route about fuel use beyond half-tanks, which made route planning particularly awkward and frustrating. How can one forecast such situations ?
So, while I can see that a transatlantic ferry flight might be the trip of a lifetime for many, on not entirely selfish grounds, I did my best to persuade owners that it might not be for them, all things considered. TBH the ferry pilot has enough to do without random and unwelcome pax-driven demands being introduced to the mix.
SI