Dead head

[Traveler]

Sure.  If that's what's in the contract.

But I think you'll find that there's no breach of ethics, laws being broken or anything illegal being done.

We can start a thread for those things. Lord knows they happen. Just not in these examples.

Yes and when  Client “A” hasn’t agreed to pay for Pre or Post positioning of his charter,  that leaves the charter company trying to find a way to get a paying customer to pay for that leg, But that’s not double dipping as you put it. 

Typically, however, it's a double dip.  If the airplane costs $3,000 an hour to operate and normal retail charter rate is $5,500/hr, offering a "deep discount" on a 2 hour trip to where I was going anyway at $3500/hr then I generate $18,000 in revenue compared to $11,000 for the same $6,000 in operating costs.  Profit of $12,000 instead of $5,000 for that leg.  The client gets a discount and the owner gets a bonus for being in the right place at the right time and the operator gets a bigger piece of pie from which to take their percentage.
 

That just a company looking to sell a expensive charter for that one leg.  If they can’t find the business themselves they go the broker route and if that fails they go the Discounted Charter Route.  Bottom line is the price of a first class airline ticket will always be less expensive than the chartered Jet.

[briansold]

So just as a hypothetical example, A charter brings a paying client to Teterboro NY. The return expenses were covered by agreed upon fee. That plane needs to reposition to Van Nuys CA and is empty. Would it be reasonable to offer pilot or owner $2-3k cash to ride back to Van Nuys with my wife and child? Or does liability make not worth while for operator?
 
 Thanks for all the input in this thread btw

[Golfer]

So just as a hypothetical example, A charter brings a paying client to Teterboro NY. The return expenses were covered by agreed upon fee. That plane needs to reposition to Van Nuys CA and is empty. Would it be reasonable to offer pilot or owner $2-3k cash to ride back to Van Nuys with my wife and child? Or does liability make not worth while for operator?
 
 Thanks for all the input in this thread btw

Absolutely positively no!  That's the whole reason for operational control because that stuff was happening.

You'd have to book the flight through the operator and while cash is a viable means of payment, paying the pilots/owner directly would be an illegal charter.

And there's absolutely no reason to book an illegal charter if you're a charter certificate holder already...yet some do. 

What could be done in that case if I were approached by a family member would be to add you to the manifest and your names get checked against the no fly list. If you were interested in paying then I'd put you in touch with the charter sales folks and you'd make whatever deal you wanted. I doubt they'd take the trip for just a few grand but anythings possible.

Me personally if we're paid to fly empty then I know the cabin isn't going to get screwed up on that leg and the flight attendant has plenty of time to get the airplane squared away so there's no extra work when we get back home.

I've flown my family before on empty legs. Each time was with the approval of the operator and adding them to the manifest just the way you would a regular charter customer.  Except they didn't pay. There is a small per head tax that's less than 5 bucks but the company folds that into our monthly statement and the airplane owners never made us pay it back.

[briansold]

Thanks for the education. The Laws of commercial aviation are foreign to me. We own a large animal vet practice and the rules and regulations of fed and state govt keep me confused enough.