AirBoss Membership

[john smith]

Is anyone on this forum a member of AirBoss, the fuel discount program on airnav.com?

How much of a discount do you receive?

I do not see much participation by FBO's when I look at the fuel report.

 

[wabower]

This same issue was raised on one of the boards a while back. At the time, it didn't seem to be a popular program. One guy said he got a nickel discount on four-dollar fuel.

Is anyone on this forum a member of AirBoss, the fuel discount program on airnav.com?

How much of a discount do you receive?

I do not see much participation by FBO's when I look at the fuel report.

 

[Dave Siciliano]

John: I've been a member for almost a year and it's paid for itself. If you go into bigger places, it seems to help. If you shop and go into places with better prices, it doesn't seem to matter. I had the operator of one FBO tell me they opted out because they would have had to raise prices to give a discount.

So, it's a matter of where you go. If required to use bigger airfields, every bit helps.

Best,

Dave

 

[midlifeflyer]

Glad to hear that report Dave.

I just joined up and it looks like some of the places I go have a decent discount (I get to use it tomorrow).

But getting my money back was not the goal. Paulo Santos has done a fantastic job with AirNav through the years. And, unlike some others like the 100 Hamburger site, he never tried to impose "user fees." AirBoss is a program that was started by and benefits AirNav directly.

To me, $39 a year to support AirNav is a worthwhile investment even with only the possibility of a periodic discount.

 

[flyingcheesehead]

Is anyone on this forum a member of AirBoss, the fuel discount program on airnav.com?

How much of a discount do you receive?

I do not see much participation by FBO's when I look at the fuel report.

From the AirBoss page:

we can tell you that based on current discounts pledged by FBOs, members save between $0.05 and $1.30 per gallon, with an average savings of $0.19 per gallon.

At an average of $0.19/gallon, you'd have to buy 205 gallons to break even. If you only have one of the nickel places within range, you'd have to buy 780 gallons to break even. I'm sure I buy that much fuel in a year, but I'm also pretty sure that I've never bought fuel from an AirBoss participating FBO. So, it's a no-go for me.

 

[flyingcheesehead]

But getting my money back was not the goal. Paulo Santos has done a fantastic job with AirNav through the years. And, unlike some others like the 100 Hamburger site, he never tried to impose "user fees." AirBoss is a program that was started by and benefits AirNav directly.

To me, $39 a year to support AirNav is a worthwhile investment even with only the possibility of a periodic discount.

Airnav could be a great site, but there are two problems:

1) Accuracy. By that, I mean acknowledging the existence of an FBO. They have plenty of FBO's listed that have never gotten the paid subscription, and they show up just fine. The problem is, if an FBO gets the paid subscription and then drops it, they won't show up on the site at all any more. They should at least show them as existing so that we can still get fuel prices and leave comments.

2) Reliability. They seem to go down more often than most sites. They may have improved this, though, since I haven't noticed it being down in quite a while now.

If those were fixed, I'd be a lot more apt to support them.

 

[Dave Siciliano]

Glad to hear that report Dave.

I just joined up and it looks like some of the places I go have a decent discount (I get to use it tomorrow).

But getting my money back was not the goal. Paulo Santos has done a fantastic job with AirNav through the years. And, unlike some others like the 100 Hamburger site, he never tried to impose "user fees." AirBoss is a program that was started by and benefits AirNav directly.

To me, $39 a year to support AirNav is a worthwhile investment even with only the possibility of a periodic discount.

Interesting perspective Mark! Actually, when I called about it, it was them that pointed out the payback. I got what I paid back on my first trip from Dallas to San Diego and back with stops in Las Cruses and west Texas. I burned over 400 gallons of gas on that trip and the FBOs I frequented honored that discount.

Happy to support AirNav, but happier to have that card and use it when it helps. But, it just won't help some folks as much as it did me.

Best,

Dave

 

[midlifeflyer]

I just used my AirBoss card at Avitat at KBCT, one of the more expensive airports to buy fuel (I was staying there overnight). The 80¢ per gallon discount meant that almost half of the card was paid for with one refueling even of a little Cherokee 140!!