Hilariously wasteful charter flight

ArrowFlyer86

ArrowFlyer86

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The Little Arrow That Could
I was getting my daily dose of WSJ and catching up on FTX founder's (Sam Bankman-Fried) trial where hopefully he goes to prison forever.

If you're not familiar, the guy's whole claim to fame is that he aside from being the founder of FTX and an overnight eccentric billionaire, he also claimed he didn't care much for money. In fact the only thing he wanted to do, his sole motivation in life was to be an altruist and donate everything to the best causes.

That, of course, didn't stop him from taking hundreds of millions of dollars out of the firm to pay for frivolous purchases, and then showering friends and family with tens of millions in cash and luxury real estate. He also left like an $8-10 billion dollar hole in the FTX balance sheet that he claims he was surprised by. I know it's easy for me to misplace billions, too.

But the aviation part that got me was this:
1698729071463.png
Hiring a private jet to fly Amazon packages? AMAZON PACKAGES???

That got me thinking... For those of you who have worked in the charter space, any tales of absolutely absurd usage of jets that you can share?
 
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ArrowFlyer86 said:
I was getting my daily dose of WSJ and catching up on FTX founder's (Sam Bankman-Fried) trial where hopefully he goes to prison forever.

If you're not familiar, the guy's whole claim to fame is that he aside from being the founder of FTX and an overnight eccentric billionaire, he also claimed he didn't care much for money.

That, of course, didn't stop him from taking hundreds of millions of dollars out of the firm to pay for frivolous purchases, and then showering friends and family with tens of millions in cash and luxury real estate. He also left like an $8-10 billion dollar hole in the FTX balance sheet that he claims he was surprised by. I know it's easy for me to misplace billions, too.

But the aviation part that got me was this:
View attachment 121963
Hiring a private jet to fly Amazon packages? AMAZON PACKAGES???

That got me thinking... For those of you who have worked in the charter space, any tales of absolutely absurd usage of jets that you can share?
Click to expand...
We had a guy that routinely flew from NY to London.
It did not take eight hours, but he wanted eight hours of sleep on the airplane. He insisted on us holding in order for that to happen while he slept.

ETA: I cannot read your article due to formatting.
 
ArrowFlyer86 said:
That got me thinking... For those of you who have worked in the charter space, any tales of absolutely absurd usage of jets that you can share?
Click to expand...
Story is on Wikipedia that in 2020, while attending rehab in Switzerland, Matthew Perry paid $175,000 for a private jet to take him to Los Angeles to get more drugs. When doctors there refused, Perry spent another $175,000 to take a private jet back to Switzerland.
 
ArrowFlyer86 said:
I was getting my daily dose of WSJ and catching up on FTX founder's (Sam Bankman-Fried) trial where hopefully he goes to prison forever.

If you're not familiar, the guy's whole claim to fame is that he aside from being the founder of FTX and an overnight eccentric billionaire, he also claimed he didn't care much for money.

That, of course, didn't stop him from taking hundreds of millions of dollars out of the firm to pay for frivolous purchases, and then showering friends and family with tens of millions in cash and luxury real estate. He also left like an $8-10 billion dollar hole in the FTX balance sheet that he claims he was surprised by. I know it's easy for me to misplace billions, too.

But the aviation part that got me was this:
View attachment 121963
Hiring a private jet to fly Amazon packages? AMAZON PACKAGES???

That got me thinking... For those of you who have worked in the charter space, any tales of absolutely absurd usage of jets that you can share?
Click to expand...
The relevant quote was: "...approved private jets to fly Amazon packages to the Bahamas" (he was using company money to do this). He claimed he didn't know how much the jets cost he just said yes.

Also, I'm surprised you are even allowed to do a hold for hours voluntarily!
 
I have been part of a few.
I have read of many others.
Too recent to share mine.
 
Tales of some of the more interesting ones probably would require violating NDAs.
 
I flew with a guy who told me about flying a Citation solely to take the owner's clothes to get dry cleaned.
 
Flew a PC-12 to pick up sandwiches to fly them to western MA from ACY for a certain disgraced comedian.
 
I took an E-2 to Portland, ME on a lobster run. Then again to Tampa for the weekend to "burn hours," this is where I learned that the Embassy Suites is the best .gov deal in town.
 
Imagine being hungry for a specific sandwich enough to dispatch the Pilatus, BUT, not so hungry as to dispatch the G4. That just reeks of a lack of commitment to the craving. He didn't realllllllly want that sando. :D
 
schmookeeg said:
Imagine being hungry for a specific sandwich enough to dispatch the Pilatus, BUT, not so hungry as to dispatch the G4. That just reeks of a lack of commitment to the craving. He didn't realllllllly want that sando. :D
Click to expand...

The PC-12 could land at the airport that was down the street. The G4 would have to land much further away. And on a trip that short there isn't much of a time difference
 
When visiting Graceland recently, they had a video interview with Elvis's pilot. In the interview he described a trip in the Lisa Marie, Elvis's Convair 880, at 1:00 AM from MEM to DEN to get peanut butter sandwiches for Elvis and his friends.
 
Does this qualify as hilarious + wasteful + charter :)
 
My dad flew a 727 for a Saudi Sheikh years ago. They were in the US and got a call to take the prince's daughter from Saudi to England for a dentist appointment. Empty 727 - US to Saudi, round trip to England with a few passengers, then empty back to the US.
 
Plano Pilot said:
My dad flew a 727 for a Saudi Sheikh years ago. They were in the US and got a call to take the prince's daughter from Saudi to England for a dentist appointment. Empty 727 - US to Saudi, round trip to England with a few passengers, then empty back to the US.
Click to expand...
Smoke ‘em if ya’ got ’em, boys!
 
Flew an airline part short notice from chicago to atlanta 4 legs MKC ORD ATL MKC probably 35k+.
 
I once took a C-207 load of King Crab from Kotzebue to Wales for a Christmas party for a company.
 
DavidWhite said:
What company was being run out in Wales???
Click to expand...

:lol: :lol: :lol:

I was just told it was for a company Christmas party. It was an extra flight for me, late in the day, well, actually that time of year it was a night flight. They coulda shared a little with me for the flight back to Kotz...
 
TIL Wales is also a place in Alaska. :cool:

Nauga,
y mae ei hofranlong yn llawn llysywod.
 
nauga said:
TIL Wales is also a place in Alaska. :cool:

Nauga,
y mae ei hofranlong yn llawn llysywod.
Click to expand...

Fun fact: Alaska Wales is one of the very few places you can see Russia from the ground.

C54475E2-EF69-4A62-AF12-4DFC7286FC50.jpeg

Not from the ground obviously, but Wales is right past the little hill on the shoreline. Big/little Diomede islands can be seen past that, and in the haze on the far shoreline to the right of the islands is the East Cape of Provideniya.
 
I was flying for a company under contract to the US forest service. I usually did fire patrol but when I arrived to work one morning I was handed a small envelope to fly to Troutdale, OR near Portland. I said "this must be very important" & the dispatcher replied "No, since it rained all night & there were no known lightning strikes we figured we'd give you something to do". Understand, we were contracted to fly eight hours everyday so otherwise I would have sat on the ground & done nothing. At the time, I thought it a waste but hey, I got paid & 8 hours!
 
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