The short answer
A jet card is a pre-paid block of private flight hours — commonly 25 — that you draw down as you fly, in exchange for guaranteed availability on agreed notice and a fixed set of terms. Getting one involves a conversation about how you actually travel, a written agreement you should read in full before paying anything, and a payment. The terms that matter most are refundability, peak-day treatment, callout notice, and what is excluded from the hourly rate.
Note. The original 2021 version of this article has been rewritten and expanded. The mechanism has not changed; the explanation is better.
The mechanism
A jet card is pre-paid flight time. You place funds, you fly, the hours draw down. When they run out you top up or you do not.
In exchange for paying ahead, you get guaranteed availability on an agreed notice period and a fixed set of terms that do not move with the market. That is the trade in its entirety.
The three types you will encounter
Broker-issued cards, like Velocity’s. The provider owns no aircraft and sources each trip from the whole market. The advantage is the absence of any incentive to place you on a particular aircraft, and access to every operator rather than one fleet. The trade-off is that raw short-notice scale at peak demand is harder than for a company flying its own metal.
Fleet-program cards, issued by companies that own or manage aircraft. The advantage is scale and cabin consistency. The trade-off is structural: a fleet carries a utilization target, and an aircraft earning nothing is a cost.
Membership programs, which layer a joining fee or annual dues on top of hourly access. Read the total cost of these carefully; the dues change the arithmetic considerably.
What actually happens when you buy one
A conversation. Twenty minutes about how you genuinely travel — routes you repeat, party size, how much notice you usually have, what has annoyed you before. That last question shapes the program more than the others.
An agreement. You should receive it in full, before paying anything, with time for your counsel to read it. If a provider will only send the contract after a deposit, that is itself an answer.
Payment, and then you are a member. With Velocity that is a phone number rather than a portal, but programs vary.
The four terms that matter most
- Refundability. What happens to funds you do not fly. The largest financial variable in the category — the detail is here.
- Peak days. How many are designated, whether they carry a surcharge, and whether callout notice lengthens on them.
- Callout notice. The number the availability guarantee is attached to. A guarantee without a notice period is not a guarantee.
- What is excluded from the rate. Overnight fees, ground-hold and wait fees, repositioning outside a service area, de-icing, international handling.
We publish all of ours in one table, before anyone asks. That is not universal and the reasons it is not universal are worth thinking about.
How to actually choose
Take the nine questions to every provider on your list, including us. Ask for the clause rather than the summary. Compare the answers side by side.
The differences will be larger than the brochures suggest, and they will not be in the places the brochures emphasize.
Related questions
While we are here.
How many hours is a typical jet card?
Twenty-five hours is the most common entry block, including the Velocity Jet Card. Larger blocks exist and generally improve the per-hour economics.
Do you need to be approved for a jet card?
There is no credit approval in the consumer sense. There is a conversation about how you fly, because a card written around the wrong assumptions serves nobody, and there are standard identity and compliance checks.
Can you buy a jet card for someone else?
Yes. Corporate and family cards covering multiple named travelers are routine. Say so at the outset because it affects how the agreement is written.