Flying on a Boeing Business Jet
[message type="custom"]I have dug up some posts from my original blog that I started almost eight years ago. Back then, I worked for Netjets - world's largest operator of business jets and as one of the benefits, we could ride on the planes during ferry flights (when there were no passengers flying). I have flown many trips like that so it is no wonder that business or even first class airline travel has never impressed me after that. This is another one of my ferry tales from June 2005.[/message] Long story short, on Saturday we found out that there is a ferry flight on a Boeing Business Jet from Cleveland to DC and there is a ferry to Cleveland AND a ferry back from DC. So, it didn't take long for me and Jay to make our plans for Sunday. In the morning we jumped on a Hawker 800XP, one of our midsidsize jets, to fly from Columbus to Cleveland.
We had a few hours to kill in Cleveland before our scheduled departure so we headed downtown to grab a very nice buffalo burger and came back to catch the BBJ.
I've never been on a 737 before and that was a hell of a first time!
Normally configured for well over a hundred people, ours is set up for 18. With a master bedroom, two full size bathrooms, showers, and a conference room, it is literally the cream of the crop - the largest business jet in the world!
Oh, and did I mention three awesome flight attendants that baked us cookies? :-)
Once we got on board, we were told that there is a 40 minute ground hold in DC and we ended up going to Baltimore instead. It took us just over an hour to get there (which, by the way, would cost us over $15,000 if we would of paid for it). The funny thing was that the ramp at Signature Flight Support BWI cannot support the weight of a BBJ so we had to park at the terminal and have them pick us up airside from there.
Our original plan was to go to DC and spend the four hours we had before the returning flight by checking out the airspace museum there. Unfortunatelly, it took Avis over an hour to get us a car so we can drive to DC from Baltimore and then we got stuck in traffic on our way. We have barely made it to our return flight on a Citation Encore. I guess we'll save the museum trip for the next weekend.
Dang, the BBJ was nice... too bad I probably will never ride on it again... ever. Oh well, it was nice while it lasted!
It turned out that I would fly again on another BBJ exactly six months later. I will repost that story soon!