Charter UK - Greece - how much?

[chopperchav]

I'm looking to charter private jet for trip from UK to Greece. Initial research suggests price of approx £18K. My question is are these quotes up for negotiation? Obviously you wouldn't negotiate on an easyjet ticket, but at this end of the scale is there any room?

My thinking is if jet is on the ground with nothing booked are they going to turn away say £12K. There must be customers who are price insensitive and will always lift the offer but are there people like me who like to think they are paying 'value' and getting a bit of a deal.

Some of the money saved could go towards tipping the crew!;)

[Onan the Clumsy]

people like me who like to think they are paying 'value' There's an interesting statement. Twelve grand to Greece is "value"? :confused:

Don't get me wrong, each to his own and not being judgemental or anything.

I would have thought if you could be flexible with your timing, they might go for it. They might also say no so as not to devalue their service. Still, market forces etc etc.

[leonbrumsack]

Which type of aircraft are you looking at? Something 'light' like a Citation 550 or Hawker 400, or something a bit bigger?

[Daifly]

Edited, as I should've started with: Yes, ask for a discount by all means. There is sometimes a little bit of slack, but you'll quickly discover whether there really is or not in your particular case.

As for discount at the level you're talking about well, some of us will look at a loss-leader, but you'll have to be a known quantity to get a good result 99.9% of the time.

Contrary to first impressions, there really isn't that kind of level of profit in this sector. Whilst we might (and that's a big 'might') go down to Direct Operating Costs, we're unlikely to be knocking anything like your £6k off. In fact, I have to say "no chance"!

There's enough work out there who will take market (or -1 to 2%) rates for us to justify saying no.

I can see your thought processes, but there are times where it's better for us to turn away DOC rates in the hope (which is often realised) of grabbing a last minute "go-now" where we can get full market rates (and we're all living in the belief that another operator has taken the DOC job on so we must be the only operator with availability!)

If you're flexible with your dates you might want to speak with some charter brokers to see if they'll entertain a one-way charter from you. I.e. if they've got a charter going from London to Rome and you want Athens-London, they might charge you for a Rome-Athens-London (+ a little extra) charter - saving yourself about 2 hours off the price (which could be £3-4000 depending on type); but if you're considering business jets, then chances are your time is precious and relatively inflexible.

Secrets of the trade all down the pan again... ;)