Membership
While air travel on private jets is the context within which SocialAir.us operates, the business is essentially a social membership and matchmaking service. SocialAir.us will not own or operate any aircraft. Rather, SocialAir is in the business of helping members who want to travel together on private jets coordinate with each other as well as with jet operators, concierge services, ground transportation, and all the other associated organizations.
In that sense, SocialAir could be compared to websites as diverse as Match.com or LinkedIn, in that it’s primary function is to facilitate people connecting with other people. SocialAir begins by providing powerful and user-friendly tools to help members find others who have similar travel plans. It further assists by providing interfaces through which all involved parties–aircraft operators, FBOs, airports, and concierge services–can coordinate. Of course, SocialAir flight planners and customer service staff are available to assist members as necessary. But at the heart of SocialAir is a powerful web-based social app, flight routing system, and membership management system.
Pricing Model
The essential units of exchange are dollars and miles. People become members in SocialAir by purchasing packages of miles, starting with a 5,000 mile membership, and scaling up to as much as 100,000 miles. The cost per mile pricing model is unique in private jet charter industry–a per hour pricing model is standard–and a distinct selling point.
The base price is $2 per mile. This is about 1/5 to 1/10 the average cost of chartering a jet for ‘private’ use, and about twice the cost of first class travel on a commercial airline. This puts the price point of SocialAir clearly in a class by itself. But while there is a vast difference between the cost for SocialAir and chartering private jets, the margin between SocialAir and commercial travel is much narrower, and more fuzzy. A generous mileage rewards program automatically brings the cost of SocialAir below the $2 mark. An even more generous referral rewards program can bring that hourly cost even lower. And a game layer designed to motivate flexibility, generosity and other behaviors that improve efficiency and benefit the community further increases rewards and thus decreases costs. There will be many members who, because of their Bonus Factor, will actually pay less per mile for SocialAir than they would pay for first class tickets.
Blurring the line between the cost of SocialAir and first-class travel diminishes price as a factor and makes it easier for many people to rationalize stepping up to private jet travel. Meanwhile, the huge 5:1 to 10:1 gap between SocialAir and charter means that it is extremely difficult for members to make the leap to true ‘Private’ travel.
Simplicity
SocialAir’s pricing structure of $2/mile in packages of $10K, $25K, $50K and $100K is incredibly simple compared to the standard per/hour pricing model. It is obviously in a class by itself in terms of pricing. And the concept is quite simple to understand as well–when multiple people fly together, the price goes down. Simple.
The process to book a flight will be easy as well, as will all other aspects of the Members’ web portal. Though these members will not have the convenience in air travel that ‘private’ jet passengers may have, the system for finding, booking, and coordinating flights will be as user-friendly as it can possibly be.
In every way possible, SocialAir will be an effortless, frictionless experience for Members as the SocialAir development team utilizes built in feedback loops to provide Members with every possible web-based tool they can imagine to make their travel simple.
Rewards Program
Most Airlines have a rewards program, and SocialAir will certainly have one as well. But the Social Air Rewards Program is unique. In fact, it is actually the secret formula that will allow Social Air to dominate the charter jet industry.
Quite simply, for every 100 miles a SocialAir Member flies, they earn one point times their personal Bonus Factor. Members’ can increase their Bonus Factor in three ways:
- By purchasing travel packages – Bonus levels increase based on the size of the package purchased.
- By promoting Social Air – When Members refer new members, their Bonus Factor increases based on the value of their referral’s purchase.
- By being flexible in terms of booking trips – Members can increase their Bonus Factor through the web-based Social Trip Router application by agreeing to fly at a different time or from a different airport than their original request in order to accommodate other members.
Bonus Factor Breakdown
Here is a chart of the specific point schedule for Bonus Factors.
| Member Action | Bonus Factor Increase |
| Purchase 5,000 mile plan | 5 |
| Purchase 10,000 mile plan | 10 |
| Purchase 25,000 mile plan | 15 |
| Purchase 50,000 mile plan | 25 |
| Purchase 100,000 mile plan | 50 |
| Referral Purchases 5,000 mile plan | 1 |
| Referral Purchases 10,000 mile plan | 2 |
| Referral Purchases 25,000 mile plan | 5 |
| Referral Purchases 50,000 mile plan | 10 |
| Referral Purchases 100,000 mile plan | 25 |
| Change Arrival Time more than 12 hours | 1 |
| Change Arrival Time more than 24 hours | 2 |
| Change Arrival Time more than 2 days | 3 |
| Change Airport to one more than 25 miles away | 1 |
| Change Airport to one more than 50 miles away | 2 |
| Change Airport to one more than 50 miles away | 3 |
| Change Airport to one more than 100 miles away | 4 |
| Change Airport to one more than 200 miles away | 5 |
For Example
Let’s say Member A signs up for the 10,000 mile package (10 points), refers a friend who signs up for a 25,000 point package (5 points) and agrees to fly a day after the planned to in order to accommodate another member (2 points). They will have a Bonus Factor of 10+5+2=17, and thus will earn 17 miles for every 100 miles they fly. Thus, the miles aren’t actually costing them $2 per mile, but rather $2 per 1.17 miles, or $1.70 per mile.
Theoretically, a member could actually achieve a lifetime of basically free flight through this method. A member who had a Bonus Factor of exactly 100 would earn one mile for every mile they flew, and thus would have a rotating reserve of miles that never ran out.
Bonus Factor as Promotional Tool
These point levels are subject to change upon further discussion, and indeed will be variable going forward. Bonus Factor awards will be adjusted for promotional purposes the way grocery stores run sales to stimulate shoppers to buy. In order to stimulate people to recruit members, we could run a temporary promotion where any Members referred during a certain period of time will result in double Bonus Factor points.
Bonus Factor as Behavioral Modification Tool
If more flexibility among Members is needed, we can increase those Bonus Factors to encourage members to be more flexible in their travel plans. Greater flexibility means higher probabilities of getting profitable flights booked, so the additional ‘cost’ in Rewards will be offset by more flights.
Bonus Factor as a Cost Control Mechanism
The Bonus Factor point system provides us with a set of levers we can pull to control income and expenses. If we choose to get very generous with the Rewards program the cost becomes more competitive, Members are happier, more flexible, and more likely to refer their friends, but those points erode future purchases as members earn more miles to fly with, so they are a very real cost, and indeed, are the biggest cost factor. Fortunately, this cost structure is completely under our control, and we can run ongoing tests to determine the Bonus Factor structure that will optimize Sales, costs, and Member satisfaction.