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The term “Vaunt,” originally meaning to boast or praise, was chosen as a brand name because it embodies the as- pirational goals of the social media influencer era. Vaunt seeks to tap into the desire to share selfies while boarding a private jet on social media platforms while filling repo- sitioning flights.
With a $1,000 annual membership, you can fly yourself and up to three additional passengers for free. However, there are a few important caveats.
Booking a Vaunt flight implies being ready to depart within 1-2 days, with no long-range planning options. The app lists 20 available flights at this writing, ranging from one to two days in advance, with half heading to popular or major city destinations. Since these flights are one-way, specifically for repositioning their aircraft, Vaunt suggests members purchase commercial return flights if their travel plans are round-trip.
Even if you bid for a flight, there’s no guarantee you’ll secure it. Consequently, plans for rental cars, transporta- tion, accommodation, and more must remain in flux until flight confirmation.
If weather or mechanical issues lead to a canceled flight, it won’t impact a Vaunt member’s status.
If you join a flight waitlist and decide it no longer works for you, you may cancel your request without penalty. If you are confirmed as the passenger for that flight and don’t cancel or contact Vaunt, your bid clout drops because Vaunt sees no-show cancellations as “harming the ecosystem.”
Another challenge for operators trying to fill empty legs is the unpredictability of the aircraft owner’s plans. If an owner decides to alter their flight or arrangements, it may result in the need to bump a standby customer. It remains to be seen how such situations will be handled if a priority owner reclaims an empty-leg flight booked by a Vaunt customer.
Vaunt has garnered over 1,500 sign-ups for their service, though the number of members who have enrolled at the current membership rate remains undisclosed. This ser- vice is a tech-savvy, low-friction effort to address the issue of empty legs, and it’s likely to see increased utilization as Vaunt is exploring working with other operators and fractional partners to add their empty-leg inventory to the Vaunt platform.
Suppose Vaunt can fine-tune its app and API and estab- lish itself as the first choice for other fractional operators to maximize their empty legs. In that case, it will undoubt- edly have reason to boast about overcoming the persistent challenge of empty legs.
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Tigre Pickett is a commercial single- and multi-engine pilot type rated in the Citation 525-series jets. With his father and Co-Captain, Rich Pickett, Tigre manages multiple CitationJets in southern California. Tigre has a passion for aviation and loves to fly various aircraft, exploring new destinations with his family in their Cessna Turbo 206. You can follow his excit- ing journey as a professional pilot alongside Captain Pickett on their YouTube channel and find more aviation content on PersonalWings.com.
December 2023 / TWIN & TURBINE • 21