How to book a private jet, start to finish

Step 1: pick the leg, or describe the trip

There are three ways to start, and they lead to the same booking. If a leg on the board fits, you request that leg: the route, the date and the aircraft are already set, and the price shown is an estimated total for the whole aircraft. If your dates can move but nothing listed fits, a specialized inquiry asks us to find a leg that is not listed; you give us the route, how far you would travel to a nearby airport, your dates and the most you would pay. If your dates are fixed or you need a round trip, a charter request asks us to quote the whole aircraft on your schedule, one-way or round trip.

Which of the three fits is the subject of empty leg or charter. The steps below are the same from here on, whichever door you came through.

Step 2: request it, free

A request is free. On the board you sign in with your email or with Google, fill in your name, a US mobile number and your home airport once, and click Request. You get a reference straight away and a copy by email. A specialized inquiry or a charter request asks for the trip, your name, your email and a US mobile number, and gives you the same.

There is no deposit to request, no membership and no card on file. A request is not a booking: nothing is owed until you have agreed to a total and the operator has confirmed. If the leg goes to someone else first, or the operator withdraws it, you have lost nothing but a few minutes.

Step 3: one final price

We take the request to the operator and confirm two things: that the aircraft is available for your date and your passenger count, and the total. On the board, every price is an estimated total, built around the operator's published price where there is one and around UpLeg's own model where there is not; estimates are marked. The operator's confirmed figure replaces the estimate, and it can land above or below it.

That figure comes to you as one final price for the whole aircraft, fees and taxes included, valid for the period the quote states. The operator is named to you before you pay. UpLeg is an air charter broker under 14 CFR Part 295, which requires a broker to give you the operator's corporate name and any trade names before you contract, and on request the broker's business relationship with that operator, the total cost of the air transportation including fees and taxes, and any third-party fees you may be responsible for. All of that is yours before you agree.

If the operator cannot confirm the leg, we tell you as soon as we hear and look for an alternative. An empty leg can change or be withdrawn until the operator confirms; that is the nature of a repositioning flight, and it is why your money stays out of it until this step is done.

Step 4: agree to the terms

When you say yes to the final price, your booking page shows a short contract for that flight: the total and who it is payable to. You agree to it on the page. It sits on top of UpLeg's Terms of Service, which say the same things at length: that UpLeg arranges the flight and does not operate it, that the operator is responsible for the aircraft, the crew and the insurance, and that UpLeg is compensated for the booking inside the total you agree to, never added afterwards.

Read the cancellation policy before you agree rather than after. It is the operator's, it differs from one operator to the next, and it is what decides what you get back if the plan changes on your side.

Step 5: pay once

Your quote names who you pay: the operator, under its own agreement and payment terms, or UpLeg, which then pays the operator. You pay once, to whichever the quote names, never both, and you pay nothing until you have agreed to the total. The booking page repeats who the total is payable to before you agree.

Once you say yes, we email you exactly who to pay and how. From that moment the total and the cancellation policy stated in the quote are the ones that apply.

Step 6: passenger details

The operator needs a few things from you before the flight, and the booking page collects them so we can pass them on in one go.

• Your full name as it appears on your ID, and how many are flying. The count is checked against the seats on the aircraft, and the operator may ask for the other passengers' names for its manifest, spelled the same way.
• A mobile number the operator and UpLeg can reach you on, on the day. We may text you about the request.
• Whether any pets are on board, and what they are. Operators decide what they carry and how, so say so before the flight rather than at the terminal.
• On a leg listed without an exact time, the hours you would prefer to depart. Many listings show a day with no time because the operator has not set the departure yet and settles it with you.
• Food preferences, and anything else the operator should know: catering, oversized bags, ground transport at the far end.

Pets and preferred hours are saved to your account, so the next booking starts already filled in.

Step 7: the day of the flight

Private flights leave from a private terminal, often called an FBO, not from the airline terminal. The operator tells you which one and where to go. There is no queue: you arrive, the desk checks your name and ID, and you walk out to the aircraft.

Bring government photo ID for every adult, and a passport for any leg that touches another country. Arrive on time. The crew has planned the flight around the departure the operator confirmed, and on an empty leg the aircraft has somewhere else to be afterwards.

Bags are the one thing that surprises people. A light jet's baggage hold is small, and soft bags fit where hard suitcases do not; skis, golf clubs and anything oversized need a mention in your notes so the operator can say yes or no in advance. Bigger cabins have bigger holds. If in doubt, ask before the day.

If plans change

Until the operator confirms, an empty leg can change or be withdrawn, because it exists to serve the operator's other commitments. After confirmation, the operator's cancellation policy, the one stated in your quote, applies. If the operator cancels, nothing is owed to UpLeg and anything you paid UpLeg is refunded in full; whatever you paid the operator is refunded under its terms, and we help you take it up with them. If you cancel, the operator's policy decides what comes back. What happens when an empty leg cancels walks through each case.

And if the whole idea is new, start with what an empty leg flight is.