How to fly private · 10 min read
Private Jet Etiquette: A First-Timer's Guide
Private jet etiquette is a strange subject because almost nothing about it is enforced. Nobody will correct you. The crew will smile through a great deal. The result is that first-time charter passengers spend the flight quietly worrying about the wrong things — whether to take their shoes off, whether the pilot expects conversation — while missing the two or three decisions that genuinely affect how the day goes.
This guide is written from the operator's side of the counter. It covers when to arrive and why fifteen minutes matters, how catering actually works, why luggage is a weight problem rather than a space problem, what crews are typically tipped and when they cannot accept it, how to add a passenger without derailing the flight, and the short list of things that make an operator quietly decline your next request.
Private jet etiquette starts before you leave the house
The single most useful thing you can do is finalize the passenger list and the bag count the day before. Both feed the weight and balance calculation the crew completes before departure, and both determine how much fuel the aircraft can carry. Two extra passengers and four extra bags on a light jet out of a shorter runway can be the difference between a non-stop and a fuel stop, and the crew will discover this on the ramp with everyone standing there.
Send full legal names as they appear on the identification each passenger will carry. Nicknames on a manifest cause real delays at customs and occasionally at the FBO. If a passenger is a foreign national on an international leg, that needs to be on the trip sheet days ahead, not mentioned in the car.
Confirm which airport. This sounds facetious until you have watched a group arrive at O'Hare for an aircraft sitting at DuPage forty minutes west. Chicago has eight fields that take private traffic and the FBO name matters as much as the airport name, because several fields have more than one. Your trip sheet carries the FBO, the address, the tail number and a phone number. Put the FBO address into the car, not the airport.
Arrival timing: fifteen minutes, not fifteen seconds
The convention is to arrive fifteen minutes before your scheduled departure for a domestic flight, and thirty to sixty for an international one where customs and immigration paperwork has to be completed on the ground. That is genuinely all the margin required. There is no security line, no gate, and no boarding process — you walk through the FBO lounge and out the door onto the ramp.
Arriving very early is not a courtesy. The crew are running checks, loading catering, and often finishing a duty-time calculation, and a passenger sitting in the lounge for an hour creates a low-level pressure to depart before the aircraft is ready. If you want to arrive early, say so when you book and the FBO will simply look after you.
Arriving late is the expensive direction, and not for the reason most people assume. Crew duty limits are regulatory, not negotiable. A crew that started their day at 5 a.m. has a hard stop on the crew duty day, and if your two-hour delay pushes the return leg past it, the trip does not happen and the aircraft may be somewhere you are not. On slot-controlled or curfewed fields the same delay can cost you the arrival entirely. Call the moment you know you are running late — a fifteen-minute warning frequently lets the crew re-plan; a surprise rarely does.
The other side of that coin is that departure times move for you. Charter is not scheduled service. If your meeting ends early, tell your broker and the aircraft will very often leave early. That flexibility is the product you actually bought, and the number of first-timers who sit in a lobby waiting for a printed time is remarkable.
Catering: order it, and order it early
Catering on a charter flight is not included by default and is not cooked on board. Almost every light and midsize jet has a refreshment center rather than a galley — a place to keep things cold and, at best, a small oven. What arrives in the cabin was made on the ground, usually by a specialist aviation caterer or a local restaurant the FBO uses, and it is loaded before you get there.
Order at least twenty-four hours ahead. Standard provisioning — coffee, water, soft drinks, ice, a fruit and cheese platter, snacks — is usually included or costs very little. Anything beyond that is billed at cost plus a handling fee and can move quickly into three figures per person, which is fine as long as it is not a surprise on the final invoice.
Two practical notes. Strong-smelling food is a genuine consideration in a cabin with limited air exchange and no way to open a window; crews will not say anything, and your fellow passengers will. And alcohol on board is at the captain's discretion. Most operators will carry what you ask for, but a captain can decline to serve a passenger who has already had a long lunch, and that judgment is theirs to make.
If you have a dietary requirement or an allergy, put it in writing at booking. A caterer working from a phone message at 6 a.m. will get it wrong eventually.
Luggage is a weight problem, not a space problem
This is the misunderstanding that causes the most ramp-side friction. People look at a light jet's baggage compartment, see that their four roller bags fit, and assume they are done. The constraint that matters is the aircraft's maximum takeoff weight against the fuel required for the leg, and on a warm day out of a shorter runway that constraint arrives well before the compartment is full.
The rough working number crews use is around 25 to 30 pounds per passenger on a light jet at typical loads, more on larger cabins. Soft bags win over hard cases every time, because baggage holds on business jets are irregular shapes rather than rectangles. Golf bags, ski bags, oversized instruments, and anything in a rigid case need to be declared at booking, not mentioned at the aircraft.
The table below is published baggage volume by type — useful as a sanity check, but volume is only half the picture. If you are close to the limit, the honest answer is often to move up a class rather than to leave something behind, and the midsize jet step is the one that usually solves it. Say so when you request a quote and the difference will be priced for you before you commit.
| Class | Typical baggage volume | Typical market hourly range |
|---|---|---|
| Very light jets | 46–70 cu ft | $2,600–$3,800 /hr |
| Light jets | 65–76 cu ft | $3,200–$4,800 /hr |
| Super light jets | 59–90 cu ft | $4,200–$5,600 /hr |
| Midsize jets | 49–127 cu ft | $5,200–$7,200 /hr |
| Super midsize jets | 106–120 cu ft | $7,200–$9,800 /hr |
| Heavy jets | 115–169 cu ft | $9,500–$14,500 /hr |
Tipping the crew: what is normal and when to skip it
Tipping is customary but not obligatory, and the range is narrower than people fear. On a domestic leg, $50 to $100 per crew member is a common figure. On a long day, a multi-day trip where the crew has waited on the ground, or a flight where a flight attendant has worked hard, $100 to $250 per crew member is the usual band. Cash in an envelope handed to the captain to divide is the cleanest mechanism.
There are two situations where you should not. Some flight departments and some corporate operators prohibit crew from accepting gratuities outright, and putting a captain in the position of refusing is worse than not offering. And on a fractional or jet card program, gratuities are sometimes already built into the price. If you are unsure, ask your broker before the flight rather than the crew during it.
The thing crews consistently say matters more than money is being told what the day actually looks like. A crew that knows you have a hard meeting at 2 p.m. and want to leave the moment it ends will build their day around that. A crew that finds out at 1:45 p.m. cannot.
- Domestic day trip: $50–$100 per crew member is typical
- Long day, long leg or heavy cabin service: $100–$250 per crew member
- Multi-day trip with overnights: many buyers tip once at the end rather than per leg
- Corporate flight department or jet card: ask first, gratuities are often prohibited or included
- Give it to the captain in cash to distribute, and say thank you to the person who loaded your bags
Bringing an extra guest, and other changes
You cannot add a passenger at the aircraft. This is the rule that surprises people most, because everything else about charter is flexible. Every passenger has to be on the manifest before departure for weight and balance, for insurance, and on international legs for customs. A person who turns up unannounced at the FBO will, in most cases, not be flying.
Adding a passenger the day before is usually straightforward — one phone call, a revised manifest, and possibly a re-run of the fuel calculation. Adding one an hour before is sometimes possible and sometimes not, and the answer depends on the leg length and the aircraft rather than on goodwill. Ask. The answer is often yes.
The same principle applies to changing the destination airport, adding a leg, or moving a departure by three hours. All of these are routine, all of them may have a price attached, and all of them are far easier with notice. Charter is elastic in a way scheduled service is not, but the elasticity lives in the planning, not on the ramp. If your plans are genuinely unpredictable, that argues for a different buying model, which is what the comparison of jet card versus on-demand charter is about.
What genuinely annoys operators
None of these get you refused on the spot. All of them get quietly noted, and in a market where operators choose which brokers and which passengers they want repeat business from, that matters more than it should.
The underlying theme is that charter runs on information given early. Almost everything in this list is a piece of information that arrived too late to be useful. Give it early and you are, from the operator's point of view, a good customer — which in a tight week is worth more than the money. If you are working out which class and which field make sense for a specific trip, the private jet cost guide covers the buying side, and Chicago Midway is a good starting point for anyone flying from the city rather than the suburbs.
- Passenger and bag counts that change on the ramp after fuel has been ordered
- Undeclared oversized items — golf, skis, instruments, cases of wine
- Undeclared animals, which have to be approved by the aircraft owner in advance
- Smoking or vaping in the lavatory, which sets off detectors and can divert a flight
- Treating the crew as staff rather than as the two people responsible for the flight
- Repeated same-day schedule changes that push a crew toward a duty limit
- Booking a light jet for a leg that clearly needs a midsize, then complaining about the fuel stop
- Bringing a guest who is not on the manifest and expecting it to be sorted out at the door
Frequently asked questions
How early should I arrive for a private jet flight?
Fifteen minutes before departure for a domestic flight, and thirty to sixty minutes for an international one where customs paperwork has to be completed on the ground. There is no security line or gate process. Arriving much earlier is unnecessary, and arriving late risks crew duty limits, curfews and slots rather than simply delaying you.
Do you tip private jet pilots and flight attendants?
It is customary but not required. A common figure is $50 to $100 per crew member on a domestic leg, and $100 to $250 on a long day or a flight with substantial cabin service. Cash to the captain to divide is standard. Some corporate operators and jet card programs prohibit or already include gratuities, so ask your broker first.
How much luggage can I bring on a light jet?
Plan on roughly 25 to 30 pounds per passenger on a typical light jet leg, though the real limit is the aircraft's takeoff weight against the fuel needed for the route. Soft bags fit irregular baggage holds far better than hard cases. Declare golf bags, skis and anything oversized when you book rather than at the aircraft.
Can I add a passenger at the last minute?
Not at the aircraft. Every passenger has to be on the manifest before departure for weight and balance, insurance and, internationally, customs. Adding someone the day before is usually a phone call. Adding someone an hour before is sometimes possible depending on the leg and the aircraft, so ask early rather than arriving with an extra guest.
Is food included on a charter flight?
Basic provisioning such as coffee, water, soft drinks, ice and snacks is usually included or costs very little. Anything beyond that is ordered from an aviation caterer, billed at cost plus a handling fee, and should be requested at least twenty-four hours ahead. Nothing is cooked on board — most light and midsize cabins have a refreshment center, not a galley.
What should I wear on a private jet?
Whatever you would wear to the meeting or the dinner at the other end. There is no dress code on a charter flight and crews see everything from suits to ski gear. The only practical considerations are that cabins run cool at cruise, and that you will walk across an outdoor ramp in whatever the weather is doing in Chicago.
Related pages
Sources and further reading
- NBAA — the National Business Aviation Association — The industry body whose operational standards and guidance shape how charter operators run flights
- FAA PackSafe — what you can carry aboard an aircraft — Federal guidance on lithium batteries, aerosols and other restricted items, which applies to private flights too
- TSA — what can I bring? — Useful reference for items that become a problem on the commercial leg of a mixed itinerary