The large jet card companies all quote their prices in slightly different ways. Some of them include fuel, some of them add fuel surcharges (ie costs above a fixed allowance per gallon), some include Federal Excise Tax and others don't. Another item to ask about is the reservation period for "Peak Days" - the busiest travel days of the year. On normal days you can often request a jet within 10-24 hours but this increases significantly for Peak Days when demand is much higher.
Other key jet card features that can vary between providers are i) the term of the agreement, 12 months is a common period, and some providers offer 18 months or two years ii) what happens at the end of the term, most providers will let you roll over unused hours or money into a new card, or will simply reset the fixed hourly price for each aircraft, iii) what catering is included, most providers include basic catering with extra fees for additional provisions.
When you're comparing jet cards you'll first need to decide what type of aircraft you want to be in - so whether it's a light jet, midsize jet, heavy jet etc. Here's an example of actual prices and services for three of the leading jet card providers in light jets. Note in 2021, due to the record private aviation demand several of the leading card providers put new card sales on hold, to allow them to focus on their current customers.
| Compare Light Jet Cards | NetJets | Air Partner | Sentient Jet |
| Aircraft | Phenom 300 | Light | Light |
| Hours | 25 | 25 | 25 |
| Response Time (hrs) | 10 | 72 | 24 |
| Quoted Price | $198,000 | $160,000 | $168,775 |
| Fuel Fees | Inc. | Inc. | Inc. |
| Fuel Surcharge | Add | Inc | Inc. |
| FET | Add | Inc | Inc. |
| Catering | Inc. Std (+Premium) | Inc. Std (+Premium) | Inc. |
| Peak Surcharge | Inc. | 10% | 5% |
| Term | 24 Months | No Expire | No Expire |
Use the table below to make your own comparisons of the providers and aircraft that you're looking at. To get a hard copy of this checklist table access the fully inclusive Guide on the right of this page. The appendix to the Guide includes a checklist.
| Compare Cards | Card 1 | Card 2 | Card 3 |
| Aircraft | |||
| Hours | |||
| Response Time | |||
| Quoted Price | |||
| Fuel Fees | |||
| Fuel Surcharge | |||
| FET | |||
| Catering | |||
| Peak Surcharge | |||
| Term |
Notes: NetJets has its own fleet of newer aircraft. Sentient and Air Partner both broker their aircraft, working with a select group of operators. See the leading jet card providers for more details on these business models. Sentient offers two card programs, their SJ25 is for light jet flyers. Their "SJ25+" offers larger aircraft and gurantees wifi. AirPartner offers a very flexible card program, with minimum payments as low as $25,000, and also has a Trans-Atlantic card program.
The Federal Excise Tax (FET) rate is currently 7.5%.
