Ditch elbow-rattling economy this Christmas by hiring a private jet for you and your family, skipping the festive frustrations that plague turkey-time travel.
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Travelling with family is, at the best of times, a test of endurance. Christmas is a time of year when we all want to be able to forget about our responsibilities and revert back to a child-like state, shovelling as much festive food into our mouths as we can. For some, though, the stress of organising the family Christmas reunion or vacation means that they miss out on what should be the most wonderful time of the year. Fear not: help is here.
Egle Poluskina, Aircraft Charter Broker at Skyllence, knows all too well how valuable the assistance of a private travel provider can be at Christmas time: ‘In this industry, you often encounter panic-stricken customers who are overwhelmed by the task of bringing everyone together. It’s my job to sit them down, talk to them, and calm their nerves by breaking down exactly what arrangements I’ve put in place to ensure that their loved ones are able to reunite at Christmas. I suppose you could say that my job is part travel organiser, part therapist – but the customers always seem to be relieved at having the responsibility taken off their shoulders!’
For an idea of exactly what private jet travel can offer at Christmas time, let’s take a detailed look at some of the common pitfalls of Christmas travel and how private travel can get around them. There are also unique advantages of private travel that commercial airlines can never hope to match, which, if you choose to go private, are sure to make any seasonal excursion that much more memorable.
Simplifying travel arrangements for split families
We live in a globalised world, and it’s not uncommon for a family to have each child working on a different continent. Reuniting once a year can be a difficult task, involving juggling spreadsheets, time zones, and a host of other variables. If the minutiae of this organisational nightmare put you off pulling your family together, private jet travel can help.
The right provider can pull together all kinds of awkward requests, picking up anyone from anywhere to ensure that everyone makes it for the big day. No longer are you forced to negotiate between 6 different airlines, keeping track of everyone’s departure times and organising transfers to your destination. With private travel, it’s just a case of supplying the details, getting confirmation, and then looking up turkey recipes on YouTube (I hear Gordon Ramsay’s is great).
Choose your climate
Everyone likes winter weather, right? The feeling of a freezing cold snowflake that’s found its way down the back of your neck; having to wear 7 layers just to walk the dog; the gentle squelch of your soaking-wet socks in the bottom of your boots. You know what, scratch that – get me out of this frozen hellscape. By chartering a private jet, you and your family can custom-build your Christmas climate. Martinis in the sun on Christmas day? Yes, please.
There are a whole range of different Christmas climates to enjoy, each more unique than the last. Whilst it might sound a little – well, let’s be honest – English to choose your destination purely for the weather, take it from us that the novelty of a sunny Christmas never wears off. Perhaps, if the cynicism of the last paragraph was wasted on you, you might even want a more intense winter for your festivities. This is just as simple – simply instruct your provider of your desire to head to an even colder destination, and then schedule a doctor’s appointment as you’re obviously insane.
Whether it’s tequila in the tundra, daquiris in the desert, or rum in the rainforest, chartering a private jet puts you in control. Make sure you’re opening your presents under a palm tree this year by chartering a private jet to take you exactly where you want to be.
Split destinations
Can’t decide where you’d like to spend Christmas? When chartering a private jet, you’re in control. If your grandparents want some sun but auntie loves the snow, you don’t have to worry about the impracticality of the travel arrangements as you would if you were flying commercially. Just instruct your travel provider that, after a brief sojourn in Barbados, you’ll be heading to Lapland on Christmas Eve to save Santa the trouble of a long commute.
If I was paid to design a torture chamber, I think I’d include: thousands of screaming children; never-ending queues; the constant, migraine-inducing reek of discounted perfume; and, to crown it all, everyone’s least favourite coffee shop – except everything’s now triple the price. Fortunately, airport designers would save me a lot of work, as just a glance over their latest blueprints would give even the most despicable sadist cause for concern.
If you think the above sounds bad, I’ve got news for you: this is on a good day. At Christmas, the normal, everyday awfulness of everything that happens once you’re past the €10-per-hour car park is dialled up to a tinsel-touched 11. Christmas in the duty-free world makes the hard-sell that they throw on you for the rest of the year look almost hospitable. If you’re lucky, you’ll emerge at your gate from the labyrinthine folds of the perfume section empty-handed – beaten (mentally), bleeding (at the ears from all the ‘excuse me, would you like to hear our special offer’), and having lost your sense of smell (mercifully) – but unencumbered nonetheless.
Chartering a private jet is a great way of sparing your family the travails of navigating a Christmas-time airport, and ensures that their festive spirit remains intact on arrival. To see just how much of an impact the traumatic Christmas airport experience can have, wait until you arrive at the family get together and see those who travelled commercially. While, yes, they’ll undoubtedly have made savings, the cost of economising will be etched into their faces. Bags under the eyes, furrowed brows, frazzled hair – if you want an illustration of the value of private travel at Christmas, just take a look at someone who’s travelled commercially.
Take your pets
A dog in a little Christmas outfit might, and this is the result of extensive research, be the cutest thing on earth. If your family is heading out on a Christmas holiday, though, then what’s in it for the pooch? No doubt you’d spend more than the budget for your own holiday to put them up in the swankiest dog-hotel that you could find, but wouldn’t they rather be sat under the Christmas table, waiting for that tipsy family member to ‘accidentally’ drop half their turkey?
It’s worth repeating the mantra of private travel again here: you’re in control. If you want your pets to have their own seat on the flight, your provider can accommodate, sparing them the cruel experience of flying commercially. For most families, pets are fully-fledged members, and a family get-together wouldn’t be complete unless every member of the family was there.
It’s special
OK, this might sound a little simple, but hear me out: private jets are cool. If your family is heading out on a Christmas vacation, surely the point is for it to be as special and memorable an experience as possible. Let’s not forget that travelling to the destination is more than just a means to an end – with a private jet for your family, the journey can be just as much of an indulgence as the rest of the trip.
We’ve all returned from holidays when, after being asked how our vacation was, we’ve replied ‘yeah it was okay, this kid kept kicking the back of my seat though, oh and the airport was…’. If your family is planning a truly special getaway, don’t risk souring the experience by subjecting them to the whims of commercial travel. Hiring a private jet guarantees that the journey will be at least as much fun as the destination, and ensures that the Christmas trip you’ve organised will be talked about around the turkey for years to come.
It’s COVID-safe
Look, I get it, this isn’t the most fun festive topic. While nobody wants to have to think about issues like this at Christmas time, it’s important that everyone feels safe and comfortable so that they can enjoy your Christmas get-together as much as possible. If anyone in your family is not in the best of health, perhaps the best way of reducing the risk of transmission is by having everyone isolate before the big day. What good is isolating, though, if everyone’s forced through the churn of an airport before arrival, mingling with thousands of other passengers?
Private travel can completely remove this risk factor by enabling you to avoid the crowds in the airport and socially distance during your flight. You can even make special requests of your travel provider to ensure that the chance of anyone becoming infected during transit is as close to zero as possible. These measures might not seem very Christmassy at first, but just think about how much of a relief it will be to know that you can hug each other on the big day without that hesitation in the back of your mind, secure in the knowledge that your private travel experience has kept your family safe.
If your family can’t come to you…
Christmas surprises are just the best. If you’ve been hearing for months about how your daughter can’t make it, what better way to bring a sleigh-full of Christmas cheer than to drop in unannounced? Spur of the moment plans are often hamstrung by practical difficulties – flights are fully booked, don’t serve the right city, or have even been cancelled – but chartering a private jet dispels any anxieties by putting you in control. When you’re in charge, if you want something done you can simply do it: charter that flight, arrive at the doorstep, and make Christmas memories that you’ll never forget.
A question of timing
Don’t you love getting up at 3AM for a flight, dragging yourself through the airport, and losing the first day of your holiday to exhaustion? No? No problem. If you’re chartering private travel, just choose a more humane departure time, freeing you to enjoy your vacation fully refreshed and replete with Christmas cheer. If you’re really addicted to Christmas, you could even have a truly unique in-air celebration by following the time zones to make midnight on Christmas Eve last for a full day. A word of warning though, if you pass into Christmas day 12 times, the kids will expect a new set of presents each time!
Every family has an admin, and if you think yours doesn’t, then I’m sorry – it’s you. Private jet travel can lift the admin’s organisational burden, freeing this poor anxiety-ridden mess to lounge back with a mulled wine safe in the knowledge that everything’s taken care of.
Vilius Radziukas, Head of Sales at Skyllence, has seen many Christmas during his work experience in the industry, and observes that: ‘The Christmas period sees a surge in demand for private travel spurred by passengers’ desire to customise their trip. Everyone has their own Christmas rituals and traditions, and the personal detail and level of control provided by chartering your own flight enable families around the world to reunite and share memorable festive experiences together’.
If you use the right private travel partner and your trip goes well, then with just a few emails exchanged you’ll have secured credit for organising the Christmas vacation of a lifetime. If you choose a less scrupulous partner and the trip disappoints, then look on the bright side – at least you won’t be asked to organise it next year!
