Flying privately doesn’t mean buying a plane anymore. For anyone who flies more than a handful of times a year but nowhere near enough to justify a $20 million flight and crew, four programs rule the middle ground: NetJets, Flexjet, Wheels Up and VistaJet. All four sell you guaranteed access to a private cabin without the full cost of ownership. None of them, despite the shorthand, is the same kind of “membership.”
That’s the first thing you have to understand, because it determines everything about the price. These four programs operate on three very different models. NetJets and Flexjet are fractional operators: you can buy a flight share or prepay a block of hours on the card. Wheels Up is a deposit funded membership: you fund an account and cross it with limited or market rates. VistaJet is a premium: you commit to a minimum number of hours per year at a fixed rate, and you have nothing at all.
What is difficult is that the private jet is guarding its numbers. Most operators quote privately, so most of the online streaming is old or established. Below we’ve broken down what’s actually published from what’s a dealer estimate, and we’ve dated every price we could find. Where an estimate is a quotation only, it is stated as such rather than inclusive.
Private jet membership at a glance
Read that table as a trading map, not a ranking. The cheapest door to (Wheels Up Charter) buys a small guarantee; the biggest commitment (VistaJet) buys the most consistent product. Here’s how each one actually works.
NetJets
The first and greatest of all. Owned by Berkshire Hathaway and flying a fleet of around 850 aircraft by 2026, NetJets is building a fractional ownership model and still setting the benchmark. You buy in three ways: a fractional share (real property, about 50 flight hours per year with a minimum share of 1/16, over a five-year period), a lease, or a low-commitment 25-hour prepaid NetJets Card.
The card is the only rating that NetJets publishes with any accuracy. In January 2025 it resets its card prices and added the Phenom 300 light jet to the Card275 program by. $8,600 per hour, or $215,000 for 25 hoursincluding 7.5% government excise tax. Fractional share prices are quote only, estimated for buyers at $500,000 to $850,000 upfront for a simple flight plus monthly management fee and hourly rate. We break down the full frame in our dedicated NetJets cost guide.
| Model | Fractional share, rent, 25 hour card |
|---|---|
| The owner | Berkshire Hathaway |
| The Fleet | ~850 aircraft (Cessna, Bombardier, Embraer) |
| A highly verified standard | $8,600/hr light jet card (Jan 2025) |
| A little dedication | 25 hours (card) to ~5 years (share) |
Flexjet
Flexjet is the closest competitor to NetJets, and is becoming more and more ambitious. It sells three similar products, a partial share, a lease agreement, and a Flexjet 25 card, and it differentiates itself with information: Its Red Label program offers a dedicated flight team in one plane and fits cabins with its LXi Cabin collection, in what it sells as the smallest fleet in the industry. Flexjet does not publish Red Label pricing, so treat any “Red Label is more expensive” claim you see elsewhere with caution.
One of Flexjet’s best available cards is its card. The Private Jet Card comparison puts the Flexjet 25 card on the Phenom 300 roughly $7,937 per hour in 2026, about $198,425 minimum 25 hours before fuel and tax. Fractional shares start at around $600,000 for a simple flight at dealer rates, with a 1/16 share buying 50 hours per year for up to five years. Flexjet has momentum behind it: in July 2025 it raised $800 million from a group of investors led by L Catterton (a private equity firm backed by Bernard Arnault of LVMH), one of the largest investments in private aviation.
| Model | Fractional share, rent, 25 hour card |
|---|---|
| The owner | Directional Aviation (Kenn Ricci); L Catterton is a small part |
| The Fleet | ~ 340 aircraft (Embraer, Bombardier, Gulfstream) |
| A highly verified standard | ~$7,937/hr light jet card (2026) |
| A little dedication | 25 hours (card) to 5 years (share) |
Wheels Up
Wheels Up is a game that has changed a lot, and this is where the old numbers will mislead you. After nearly collapsing in 2023, it was rescued by a group of investors led by Delta Air Lines (Delta now holds about 36%, the broader group about 95%) and rebuilt its entire pricing model. The old membership structure, the $17,500 initiation fee and annual dues, is gone. Don’t trust any 2026 guide you quote.
Today there are effectively three departments. A scroll you pay as you go with no membership fee, you get flight credit as you spend. Membership it costs $8,500 a year and requires a $100,000 flight-fund deposit, with fixed rates (an easy flight starts at about $7,395 per hour used) until the fund runs out. Signaturelaunched in September 2025, it is a premium class: deposit from $200,000 to $1 million, monthly fee of $500, and published fixed hourly rates, with the Phenom 300 operating at $8,695 to $9,295 per hour and the Challenger 300 at $12,3,94 as your cheap deposit to $1. The Delta tie-in is a real value: Signature members receive SkyMiles Diamond Medallion status and up to 20% off select Delta fares.
Another 2026 change to note: Wheels Up moved its King Air turboprops from capped to variable, market-based pricing on January 1, 2026, so lower guaranteed prices now remain on its Phenom 300 and Challenger 300 jets.
| Model | Membership funded by deposit or char-pay-as-you-go |
|---|---|
| The owner | Investor group led by Delta (Delta ~36%) |
| The Fleet | Combining on Phenom 300 + Challenger 300 core, and King Air |
| A highly verified standard | From ~$7,395/hr light jet with cap (2026); Unsigned tables are published |
| A little dedication | None (Charter) to 5 years (Signature) |
VistaJet
VistaJet is an outlier, and for some travelers it’s more appealing because it strips ownership completely. There is no share to buy and no flight is assigned to you. You sign up for its Program, commit to a minimum number of hours per year at a set hourly rate, and any of its silver and red Bombardier aircraft completes your trip, a “free-floating” fleet of some 360 aircraft flying the same livery and cabin around the world.
The basic program starts at 50 flight hours per year over a three-year period; the smallest part, VJ25, takes 25 to 49 hours per year. VistaJet doesn’t publish prices, and its deposit or membership fees aren’t disclosed, so anyone quoting you a firm VistaJet price is guessing. Reliable broker estimates put its Challenger 350 at around $15,000 per seat hour and its larger Global fleet between $18,000 and $25,000, but these are third-party figures, not VistaJet’s own. The subscription features are notable: carbon removal as standard, and no membership fees. The catch, flagged by rating agency Moody’s, is that VistaJet passes fuel price fluctuations on to customers, so “adjusted” has an asterisk.
| Model | Fixed hourly rate subscription (no ownership) |
|---|---|
| The owner | Vista Global (Thomas Flohr) |
| The Fleet | ~360 all-Bombardier jets (Challenger, Global) |
| A highly verified standard | Quote only (clients estimate $15,000/hour+) |
| A little dedication | 50+ hours/year, 3 year period (25+ in VJ25) |
Which private jet membership is right for you
The decision comes down to two questions: how many hours do you fly per year, and how much certainty are you willing to pay for.
- Less than 25 hours per year: you probably don’t need a membership. Pay as you go, such as Wheels Up Charter or an on-demand charter through one of the best private jet companies, keeping you untethered from deposits and fees.
- 25 to 50 hours: jet card is a sweet spot. The NetJets Card and Flexjet 25 give you a known amount of jet travel without making a big purchase, and the Wheels Up membership does the same with limited rates compared to the deposit.
- 50 to 100 hours: this is where a fractional share, or VistaJet subscription, begins to earn your commitment. You get guaranteed availability and a price that exceeds ad-hoc bookings, in exchange for locking in money or signing a multi-year contract.
- International, large fixed-cabin aircraft: VistaJet’s case is very strong here. One ship, one standard, one call, anywhere, if you can meet the hours and time.
If cabin size and sheer spectacle are what you’re after instead of the plan, the more expensive private jets show what the surface of a private jet looks like. And if you’re still weighing whether privacy is worth more than a commercial first-class cabin, the best business-class flights bridge the luxury gap more than the price gap suggests.
What “membership” really costs more than average
No estimate has been published for the total bill. Regardless of which plan you choose, budget for extras that are often buried in quotes.
- State property tax. A federal excise tax of 7.5% applies to charter jet and charter style flights on US domestic legs. NetJets and others often quote the included card rates, so find out if the rate is “tax included” or not. Actual fractional flights are taxed differently, with a federal fuel surtax of 7.5%.
- Fuel costs. Almost every system adjusts for jet fuel prices above the base rate. Even VistaJet’s “fixed” registrations exceed fuel volatility.
- High days. Cards and memberships have designated expiration or expiration dates, often multiple times a year, with additional fees and longer notice requirements. If you are traveling on holidays, this is important.
- Position and international funds. The reset legs are empty, international handling, customs and world to remove the coating on the final invoice, not the price of the article.
Honest summary: these four programs aren’t really competing for number one, because there isn’t one. They compete on how you want to manage costs, such as the assets you buy and sell (NetJets, Flexjet), the balance you pull down (High Wheels), or the subscription you commit to (VistaJet). Compare the layout with how you actually fly, and negotiate the price, because in three out of four cases, the published price is only a starting point.