Empty leg or charter: which fits your trip

The one question that decides it

Every private flight is one of two things. Either the trip bends to the aircraft, or the aircraft bends to the trip. An empty leg is the first: a jet is already going from A to B on a date the operator chose, and you take that flight as it is, for a fraction of what it would cost to charter it. A charter is the second: you name the airports and the dates, and the whole aircraft comes to you on your schedule, quoted as one total.

So the question to ask before anything else is how much your trip can bend. If the answer is a day or two either way, one direction, and any of a few airports around each end, an empty leg is worth looking for. If the answer is not at all, a charter is the right tool, and there is no penalty for asking for one straight away.

When an empty leg wins

An empty leg wins whenever a jet is already doing most of your trip for its own reasons. In practice that is when:

• Your dates can move. A leg is listed for the operator's day, or for a window of days. If you can fly on any of them, you have a match.
• You are flying one way. Every empty leg is one direction, because it is a jet repositioning in one direction. Out on an empty leg and back on an airline, or back on a second empty leg if one lines up, is a common shape for a trip.
• Your route is one jets fly often. Legs cluster on the routes private jets fly most, between big cities and between big cities and resort towns, such as Los Angeles to Las Vegas. The board shows what is posted on yours right now.
• You can use a nearby airport. A leg from the airport across town is still your city, and a leg into an airport an hour's drive from your destination can still cost far less than a charter to the one next door.
• The cabin can be whatever comes. An empty leg comes with the aircraft it comes with. If three of you can fly happily in a light jet or a heavy jet, you have more legs to pick from than someone who needs a particular cabin.

When a charter wins

A charter wins whenever the trip cannot bend, or nothing is flying your way.

• Fixed dates. A board meeting, a wedding, a surgery, a game: if the day is the day, you want an aircraft on that day, not the hope that one turns up.
• A round trip. Empty legs are one-way by nature. A round trip is a charter, quoted as one total for both directions on your dates. The round trips guide covers how that is priced and when two legs can line up instead.
• A group that needs a specific cabin. Ten people, a lot of bags, or a flight long enough that a small cabin is a hardship all point to a particular class of aircraft, and an empty leg in exactly that class on exactly your route is rare.
• A route with no repositioning traffic. Some routes see a leg most days; some see one now and then. If your city's page is quiet, a charter is how you fly it.
• Short notice on a quiet route. Tomorrow's leg from one small city to another may simply not exist. A charter request gets you a quote for the flight you need on the day you need it, or a straight answer that it is not available.

Empty leg and charter, side by side

The middle path: a specialized inquiry

Many trips sit between the two. Your dates can move a little, you would use another airport, but you have no idea whether a jet is repositioning your way. That is what a specialized inquiry is for. You give us the route, how far you would travel to a nearby airport, your dates and the most you would pay.

We look for an empty leg first: legs operators sent us that never went on the board, aircraft based near your route that are repositioning around your dates, and aircraft passing along it. If one fits, you get it with one final price. If nothing does, we quote a charter for the same trip, so you still have a number and you only had to ask once. Asking costs nothing.

What stays the same either way

Whichever door you use, four things do not change.

• The operator. Every flight arranged through UpLeg is flown by an FAA-certificated Part 135 operator, and that operator is named to you before you pay. UpLeg is an air charter broker under 14 CFR Part 295: we arrange the flight and the operator flies it. How we check operators is on its own page.
• One final price. An empty leg on the board shows an estimated total; a charter starts as a request. Either way you get one final price for the whole aircraft, fees and taxes included, before you agree.
• One payment. You pay once, to the operator or to UpLeg, as your quote says. Never both.
• Nothing to ask. No deposit to request, no membership, no card on file. A quote you turn down costs you nothing.

How to ask for each on UpLeg

1. For an empty leg that is listed: search the board by route, date, cabin or price and request the leg. You sign in with your email and get a reference straight away.
2. For an empty leg that might post later: set a free flight alert for the route and the window of dates, and we email you when one matches.
3. For an empty leg nobody has listed: send a specialized inquiry with the route, how flexible you are and the most you would pay.
4. For a charter: send a charter request with the airports, the dates, how many are flying and whether it is one-way or round trip, and we come back with one quoted total.

If you are still deciding, the guides on what an empty leg is, what a charter costs by the hour and how a booking works from start to finish fill in the rest.