Surf Air European destinations
Originating in California, Surf Air offers a unique all-you-can-fly membership scheme. We thought the service was a revelation and were interested to find out more. We decided to catch up with one of the other passengers on our flight, Wealth Manager Shan Phoenix, to get the lowdown on his motivation for using the service and his opinion of the product.
Shan, who splits his time between his home in Hertfordshire and work in Central London, manages investment portfolios for his private client base. He is a successful guy, who loves the freedom his job gives him to travel around the Europe and to visit the world's hotspots. Shan flies a lot for leisure and for business. He is happy to take long haul-flights to exotic destinations such as Bali, Dubai and Barbados to spend his free time but says he would be very tempted to stay much closer to home when the Surf Air service is rolled out to more European destinations.
Although he had never used private hire aviation before, after reading an article about Surf Air while thumbing through a magazine, Shan's interest was pricked. That first journey was a double success as he fell in love with Ibiza at the same time. Never having visited the island before, Shan was immediately wowed by charms and sees plenty of scope for return visits with his friends when he becomes a member.
Private jet terminals
We loved the very smooth transit through the superb, modern private jet terminal at Luton Airport and so did Shan. The fast-track check-in and security clearance saved a lot of wasted airport time at both ends of the journey. Luton is a very convenient airport for him, both from his home and from work – the direct train ride from Kings Cross taking him only half an hour.
Apart from the convenience of the service, Shan was extremely complimentary of the people behind the scenes at Surf Air. The very personalised service and the feeling of membership were the key factors that first convinced him to give it a try. Although he is not yet a full member, Shan is very seriously considering signing up. To finally take the plunge he would like to see a little flexibility in being able to take non-members along for the ride with him, for a fee of course… He says that the word is definitely spreading and has many friends and colleagues interested in becoming members.
Shan's overall assessment of the Surf Air experience: ‘in a word, unbelievable'
