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Card vs charter calculator

Four questions about how you fly, a straight verdict with its reasons, and an estimate of what the same hours cost on demand. No provider names, no sales pitch.

30 h
20%

Our read

Move the sliders to see a verdict.

The answer updates as you change any input.

    Same hours on demand, a year, incl. 7.5% excise tax—

    Estimates use typical US hourly ranges for the aircraft you choose. Card pricing varies by program and is not modelled; compare any offer against real quotes for your trips.

    Price a real trip

    How the verdict is reached

    The calculator weighs the same factors an experienced broker would ask about. Hours come first: below roughly 25 a year, money paid into a card spends most of its time waiting; between about 25 and 100, a card starts to earn its keep through rate certainty; past 100, fractional ownership deserves a look, since a 1/16 share works out to about 50 hours a year.

    Peak days pull the other way. Cards add surcharges, longer notice and sometimes blackout dates on the busiest holidays, so a calendar full of them favours charter. Short trips count against cards too, because daily minimums of 1 to 2 hours inflate the cost of every short flight. A strong need for guaranteed aircraft at short notice favours a card, because that guarantee is the heart of what a card sells.

    What to check in any card offer

    • The peak and blackout calendar for the next twelve months.
    • The daily minimum, and whether it applies on days the aircraft waits.
    • Taxi time added per leg, and any fuel adjustment to the rate.
    • The service area for one-way pricing.
    • Refund rules for unused funds and expiry of hours.
    • Which operators fly the trips and which audits they hold.