Odd question - free ride on a biz jet

[ManfredvonRichthofen]

Hi

Bit of an odd question, but anyway here goes...

My wife is a business journalist. She also freelances for various travel based publications, one of which is a magazine aimed at the luxury sector. As a result we often go to luxury hotels, restaurants etc to review them.

She has been asked to do some more work for this UAE based publication and one idea that has been floated is writing something on travelling from a European destination to another European destination by business jet, rather than a scheduled flight - essentially "reviewing" the experience and the service etc. - you get the picture.

The magazine does not pay the costs of any hotels, travel etc. and essentially views it as a marketing tool for the business in question. Some businesses are happy to provide their service free of charge in return for the publicity. Others are not. I imagine that the companies offering business jet services in Europe are operating on very tight margins and would understandably be unwilling to throw out freebies. On the other hand I suppose they will inevitably have sectors where the aircraft is empty and may not mind having someone along for the ride in return for some publicity.

Does anyone have any thoughts on whether any biz jet operators would have any interest in this or which ones my wife might contact ? I suppose she would be looking at the smaller operators rather than your Net Jets, but who knows... I am not sure if it might just be a complete non-starter, although I am sure I saw an article in a paper some time ago featuring a Times(?) journo who went from farnborough to Dinard or the like.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

If this comes off I will obviously be doing my best to go along too :)

[doubleu-anker]

Hello ManfredvonRichthofen

I thought that circus of yours was broken up years ago. If it's still going I'll make you a deal.

If you can get me a fly of your Fokker Triplane I'll get a jet ride for you and your wife.:suspect:

[EatMyShorts!]

Hallo Manfred,

your wife should go ahead and contact Netjets Europe's PR department. I am sure they can give her a definite answer. Especially in financially hard times companies need any possibility to announce their product. One would think :)

[stansted_dan]

Hmm I think you'd be lucky. The cheapest you're likely to get is a discounted empty leg. You must remember that Farnborough-Dinard is about 30 mins flying time, on something like a Mustang you could be looking as little £1500-2000 rtn for that, at full ticket price.

[flexy]

oh come on chaps - free publicity and all that! PM me and we can set you up with a stooge about on a Falcon...

[ManfredvonRichthofen]

flexy - I expected your reaction and am not surprised.

Just to put this into perspective though, the cost of what I am talking about here is almost insignificant in relation to some of the other things that have been involved in producing articles for this magazine.

dan - that's the short kind of stint she'd be looking at. Basically just enough to hang an article off, but I doubt the magazine would pay. They might, but they are fairly arrogant about that sort of thing - they consider a business lucky if they deem it worth putting in their magazine.

[5711N0205W]

is writing something on travelling from a European destination to another European destination by business jet

Not UK to Dubai..... see above :ok:

[Romeo India Xray]

Contact as many operators as possible. Get your name (and the name of the publication) out there and ask them if you can have first refusal on a positioning leg. Bizjets are not immune from flying one way empty. My guess though would be that you will need to make your own way to or from the dowline destination.

Worth a try anyway.

RIX

[ManfredvonRichthofen]

Thanks Romeo

That is exactly what I was thinking. Basically leave them some contact details and if they really cannot fill the seats, they give us a call and we see if we can go wherever to meet the A/C and fly wherever it happens to be going.

I'll get her on the case. She has the gift of the gab. I do not.

[INNflight]

I got a ride on a Citation once, purely for the fun of it because I knew one of the pilots. That being said it's far from the usual thing to happen.

You can tell your wife tho, security screening is sometimes more friendly, the airport you fly from is usually smaller and the food aboard doesn't come with plastic forks :E

Other than that it's a wing outside your window and more legroom, should be nuff to write a nice article ;)

On a serious note, try small operators, best when they have to ferry their acft to another airport for mx work. They have to fly those flights anyways.

[Phil Brockwell]

If a CJ or CJ2 is of interest I'm sure we can let you have an empty leg, at lease then you can make your comparison with the EZY flight home!

PM me, I'll let you have some available dates. I'll need a media pack and copies of past magazines.

Phil

[UlrichVW]

As Phil says there are a few people who could offer short empty legs with some info about who your wife works for (website?)...

PM for my company info :ok:

[ManfredvonRichthofen]

Thanks Phil

I'll try to get some details together and put her in touch. As I understand it the magazine is distributed to a "club" of wealthy people - it is not a magazine for sale to the general public.

Thanks for your response.

Ulrich - thanks to you too

Like i said I will get the details. My wife is employed full-time as a business journalist, but she also freelances for certain magazines (mostly travel-related). This article would be for one of the latter. I am not entirely sure which one, but as stated above I believe in this case it is a UAE based "luxury" focused magazine that is distributed to certain people.

I'll pass on more info when i get it.

[Romeo India Xray]

I also have a mate who is on Citation Svereign out of STN. I will be seeking him while I am in the UK for a couple of days over Xmas. I will ask the question of who your wife should contact. I know they sometimes have some empty sectors, so I can see if they will give you a contact.

I will PM you with any details I am able to get. P.s. you get bonus points if me and Mrs RIX can come along too. :} We have been pitching for a ride for ages!

RIX

[theWings]

Great blag, MvR! ;)

[ManfredvonRichthofen]

Yeah, pretty good isn't it

To all those that have PM'ed me - many thanks (and sorry for the delayed reply - never really used pm before...)

I now have a press info sheet and the wife is getting some back issues of the magazine.
Turns out it is a magazine that gets distributed to certain people by a luxury hotel chain which also has a "yacht club" where people with more cash than you or I buy shares in rather nice boats.

I'll get in touch with those who've contacted me once I have all the info together.

[G-DAVE]

Just turn up at an airport and ask the handling agent.

Worked for me today!

[RAPA Pilot]

Sounds fun. I must try that....