On the shelves between the gift cards for prosaic things such as e-books and holiday packages, was a tempting offer of a $17,499.99 ($28,350)-a year private jet membership.
Not actually offering much in the way of a discount, it did come with a $3500 Shop Card and $4000 of flight credit to sweeten the deal.
The service for US based shoppers promised short-notice private charter travel from anywhere in the States on a fleet of 100 planes. The card “guaranteed nationwide aircraft availability up to 365 days a year”.
Although if you actually wanted to use any of said jets it will cost you extra.
In an interview with Fox Business CEO Kenny Dichter said that a flight from Washington to Boston would set you back US$5000 from or US$12000 to Florida. Although that price was for all eight seats and at the travellers leisure, you’re unlikely to get a Costco discount.
The service also offered empty-leg repositioning flights from $296 for the whole plane. However the real pitch of the charter travel membership was the access to private airstrips and air travel at a time when many Americans where worried about using public transport.
Launched mid-pandemic, the partnership with Wheels Up was looking to cash in on the trend for more passengers flying on private aircraft.
In response to the concerns of passengers the charter service began offering Covid-19 screening, testing, and monitoring far before commercial liners had uniform screening and guidelines. Telling Fox he wanted the bring “charter travel to the masses,” Dichter’s service failed to find mass appeal through the wholesaler.
On the Costco website, reviews were mixed with an average rating of 3.7 stars. Ralph from Portland, Oregon said it was “far from price competitive”.
Despite the hard sell and plenty of publicity, the partnership was discontinued last year. There do not appear to be any plans to expand into New Zealand.
However, despite the strange and short lived partnership between a charter airline and Costco, private jet memberships saw a boost during the Pandemic.
JSX launched their US members’ airline offering small plane charters from $99pp and the $199 per month Surf Air was bought by Southern Airways earlier this year as a company offering access to chartered and scheduled private flights across America.
Though it’s noted that none of these private charter companies sell ‘off the shelf’ memberships in Costco.
