Jeffersons in the News (Edited Excerpts):

• You & Your Wedding
• Financial News, 4th August 2008
• Lady of luxury in Italy
• Gourmet Travel Special: Reims by Private Jet
• Private Jet Business starting to take off
• Six of the Best: Flights of Fantasy
• Is It Worth It?
• Fly like a Billionaire
• Step Aboard The New Concorde
• Join the Jet Ski Club
• Power Trips & Flights of Fancy
• Just Time for One More Glass
• My Flight Into The Future
• Luxury Travel - Holidays by Private Plane
• The Seamless Escape
• Private Jet: The Ultimate Luxury
• Six-Star Flying
• Got the Scratch? Take the Cessna
• "High Life for the Jet-Set"

http://www.youandyourwedding.co.uk/index.php/v1/Ready%2C_jet%2C_go%21

Ready, jet, go!
Start your honeymoon on a private jet

For those lucky enough not to be touched by the credit crunch, Jefferson’s Private Jet Holidays is offering bespoke honeymoon packages with a difference. Itineraries can be created to suit various budgets and individual requirements, including which airport you want to travel from, size of aircraft and destinations. A sample product is return private jet flight for two to Monaco, helicopter transfer from the airport to the harbour where you’ll spend seven days aboard a Sunseeker yacht, where you’ll wallow in champagne, caviar and generally live the life of a millionaire, for £18,695 per person. Contact http://jeffersons.com, 020 8746 2496.

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There is no way round it – airports are a hassle and an invariably stressful way to kick off your holiday. So what are your options? Travel on foot, by boat, hit the roads or charter your own aircraft. Private jet holiday operator Jeffersons has put together three ultimately indulgent bespoke packages to cater for your every whim – provided of course, you have a Brummell-sized wallet.

Take a spa break in Capri: Soak up island life on the exclusive resort of Capri, including return flights by Citation CJ1 private jet, champagne and a Jeffersons hamper with Beluga caviar on board, private helicopter transfers from Naples airport to Capri, seven nights’ accommodation in a junior suite at Capri Palace Hotel and Spa. From £15,998 (€20.288) per person.

Say yes to a yacht in Monaco: Sail the Mediterranean aboard a luxury Sunseeker Manhattan 64 motor yacht, including return flights to Nice by Citation CJ1 private jet with all the usual accoutrements, one-way private helicopter transfer from Nice to Monaco, seven nights aboard your private yacht, limousine transfer back to Nice airport. From £18,695 per person.

No expense spared in the Seychelles: Falling short of renting out the whole Necker Island for the summer, it doesn’t get much better than this. Ten days on the exclusive North Island, Seychelles, including return flights form Gulfstream G550 private jet, gourmet catering on board, private helicopter transfers from Mahe to North Island, 10 nights’ accommodation in a presidential villa with private butler, all food, soft drinks and alcoholic beverages, scuba diving courses and activities, sea kayaking, half-day deep-sea fishing charters, and island “buggy” and mountain bikes. From £129,995 per person.

All packages include the Jeffersons luxury service – flying from any of 70 chosen local airports, arrive just 15 minutes before departure, by-pass check-in and pre-clear customs safe in the knowledge that the jet will wait for you and you and your luggage will arrive at the same time, enjoy a Jefferson hamper on board including caviar and champagne and be met by a limousine or helicopter transfer on arrival at your destination airport. They can be contacted through www.jeffersons.com or on 020 8746 2496

Financial News, 4th August 2008

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Private jet, helicopter, limo . . . Cath Urquhart finds the smart way to travel to Lake Garda

AS OUR helicopter hovered over the croquet lawn at Villa Feltrinelli, smart staff in starched white aprons rushed towards us. At first, I thought they were extending an enthusiastic welcome, but they dashed to the oversized plant pots on a nearby wall and clung on to them for dear life, so they did not blow over in the helicopter’s downdraught.

Arriving anywhere in a black Augusta 109 chopper, with our dashing, Armani-suited pilot Alberto at the controls, would be thrilling, but this ten-minute hop was the last stage in a particularly swish journey.

I had joined a group of friends to try a trip with Jeffersons, a newish tour operator featuring lovely hotels and ski resorts in Europe, whose entire programme uses private jets. Since the demise of Concorde, holidaymakers who want “treat” trips are increasingly turning to private jets, Jeffersons’ MD, Robin Faw-cett, told me. Hence Jeffersons’ customers are not so much the rich and famous, but people who have saved long and hard to celebrate an anniversary or other landmark — such as the cancer survivor who took his surgeon and a dozen friends away to thank them for helping him recover.

In these security-conscious times, private jet travel really is a throwback to an earlier, gentler era: your limo takes you to the steps of the plane, formalities are brisk, and security is bolstered by the fact that you know all your travelling companions.

Our journey from Luton to Brescia, in a Hawker 800 jet with three crew, took less than two hours, just time for us to enjoy champagne and canapés. I had visited Villa Feltrinelli, on the western shore of Lake Garda, soon after it opened in 2002, so I knew what an exquisite choice this was for a short break (as did the actress Katie Holmes, who reportedly considered holding her wedding to Tom Cruise here before choosing Bracciano, near Rome, last November).

It’s not just the beautifully decorated rooms, the perfect setting with the lake lapping beneath the terrace restaurant, or the delicious Italian dishes, though these are all important: it’s that the staff have pulled off the difficult trick of making you feel as though you are staying at the home of an extremely wealthy friend (whose laundry maids are at your disposal, too).

With only 13 bedrooms, and another half dozen in smaller villas in the grounds, the hotel never feels crowded. And the bedrooms, all styled differently, are quite beautiful. Mine, La Poeta, on the second floor, had two star-shaped, shuttered windows offering a postcard-perfect view over the lake.

A gigantic mahogany bed, set at an angle, dominated the room, which was filled with mismatched antique furniture: a huge gilt-framed mirror, a marble-topped occasional table with a vase of yellow roses, silver-framed family photos, a leopardskin rug. There is no hint that you are in a paying establishment: no laundry list, no “do not disturb” sign, no plastic room key. And, classily, bottled water and wine are not charged for. The marble bath-room offered underfloor heating, generous Acqua di Parma toiletries and hangers that I feared cost more than the clothes I put on them.

The villa was built in 1892 by the sons of a lumber merchant, Faustino Feltrinelli (the Feltrinelli name is still synonymous with high-quality stationery in Italy today), and with its crenellated roof and ochre and vanilla stripes has something of the wedding cake about it. In 1943 the Germans took over the villa and installed Mussolini here. He was effectively under house arrest, guarded by German officers, until he escaped in 1945, was captured and killed by partisans.

In 1997 the villa was bought by the current owner, Robert Burns, 76, one of the world’s most renowned hoteliers, for $3.5 million. As renovation costs spiralled — he admits to $30 million — he decided to open it as a hotel, albeit one which could never make money. Perhaps with that in mind, he sold it this week for a reported £27 million (see story, page 39). Only the best furniture and decorations have been used, but it’s the lavish, all-en-veloping attention to detail and money-no-object mentality that puts Villa Feltrinelli at the top of so many lists of the world’s best hotels.

Mussolini might have thought twice about escaping had he had the 20m grey-green granite pool to swim in, or the elegant salon boat La Contessa to whisk him across the lake for lunch at a water-side trattoria, or the opera at Verona. In his time the villa’s olive grove would have been less shady, the limonaianot yet planted. And while the lake would have offered up bream and perch, I doubt it would have been prepared as simply, with lemon grass and olive oil, and served with a fine asparagus risotto, as it was for us.

Over this delicious dinner Burns summed up his philosophy for the hotel. “In the basement, we had a choice of a health club or a wine cellar. We chose the wine cellar.”

And when we came to leave, it was the wine that held us up. Because it dawned on us that, with a private jet at our disposal, there was nothing to stop us taking several cases of wine home. So we simply rang the pilot to delay our return flight by two hours while the staff loaded up the limo.

Times On-line, January 27, 2007

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Carlsberg (and Bollinger) don't do day trips. But if they did, they might do something like this...Fade in on my front door; I open it to a smiling, uniformed chauffeur. Scene two: a private jet takes off from Farnborough. Cut to me in a leather seat, sipping bubbly and peering down over the Channel. The next scene is in Chalons airport, in the Champagne region, where beautiful assistants wave me through. Cut to a cellar in a Champagne house, where an elegant lady shows me round. Next, me indicating the Champagne I'm sampling and saying "A crate please." Then, a montage sequence of my six-course tasting menu of two-Michelin starred, classical French fare in the antique-filled Chateau les Crayeres. Back to my doorstep: I'm smiling, the crate of bubbly in my arms... Finally, ahem, me planting a small forest to atone for my Yeti-sized carbon footprint.

Les Dunn, Waitrose Food Illustrated - February 2007

Jeffersons work with the CarbonNeutral Company to offset emissions.

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The number of passengers in the North opting for private jets is soaring, operators say. Firms operating from Newcastle ... have seen big rises in business in the last few years, despite worries in some quarters about emissions from aviation fuels. Though costing thousands of pounds for even short trips, private jets allow people the luxury of avoiding airport queues and delays, with passengers able to turn up just minutes before their flight.

Jeffersons Private Jet Holidays has been operating private jets from Newcastle since 2003, and has this year seen a big growth in business as people opt for luxury travel. The business specialises in special celebrations, with people in the North turning to Jeffersons for birthdays, wedding anniversaries and for celebrating business deals.

Managing Director Robin Fawcett said: "Since Concorde ceased, private jet flights to a luxury hotel are perfect for a special celebration. About 60% of our business is special celebrations: birthdays, weddings, finding a special venue for proposing to a fiancé. The rest is affluent people who can't face airport hassle any more. Newcastle is a very vibrant place right now and we're seeing increasing interest for trips for business triumphs, wedding anniversaries and special holidays..."

Other popular private jet breaks include ski programmes in the Alps, luxury yacht sailing from Monaco and day trips to Paris with lunch at a Michelin-starred restaurant, from £1,145...

Graeme Whitfield, Newcastle Journal - January 2007

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No 1: Jeffersons' Decadent Mini-Breaks

Whisk someone away on the private-jet trip of a lifetime, says Catherine Fairweather
Harper's Bazaar Magazine, January 2007

Jeffersons organises private-jet holidays to some of Europe's best hotels. The company has put glamour back into travel - of the kind that vanished with the introduction of cheap airlines and charter flights. The leather seats are spacious, canapés are fresh, and the champagne flows. It is about as different an experience as you can get from the usual airport cattle-herding: the schedule is in your hands; you can delay a flight if you are held up; you can drive to the stairs of the aircraft; and passport and security checks are hassle-free.

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CONCORDE IS history. Airports treat us like cattle. Sit in the middle of the demeaning mayhem that is Gatwick on a Saturday afternoon and you can’t help wondering where air travel went wrong.

It needn’t be like this. If you want excitement, romance and a sense of occasion, you can find them just 14 miles away (as the private jet flies) at Biggin Hill. Most of their prices are predictably stratospheric, but there is one jet-powered jaunt — a gastronomic day trip to Reims, the capital of Champagne — that starts at a comparatively low-flying £879pp. An arm, then, rather than an arm and a leg. Count me in.

Take all your preconceptions about commercial flying and jettison them: half the thrill of a private jet trip lies in what it doesn’t include, rather than what it does. Check-in, for instance. There isn’t one… No queues, no tickets, no paperwork, usually not even a passport check — today, you’re just too damn rich to need one….Trudi has barely poured the champagne before our pilots, Peter and Derek, are taxi-ing to the runway, and within two minutes we’re taking off. And even this is different. Instead of the lumbering charge of a larger jet, the Hawker accelerates fast and smoothly: …you’re airborne in less than 10 seconds. The jet’s not especially fast at cruising speed (450mph). Nor is it particularly modern (the basic Hawker design goes back to 1961), but — and here’s the thing — it’s yours. Want to play the Ride of the Valkyries at take-off? Fine. Sit up with the pilots during landing? No problem. Loop the loop over the Arc de Triomphe? There are limits. But not many.

We set a course for Reims, and we’re no further than the Isle of Sheppey when Trudi breaks out the snacks — beluga caviar, foie gras, smoked salmon blinis. It’s a short hop — 50 minutes — and we’re soon on the way down again, to our waiting limo…. First, it’s a personal guided tour of the Pommery champagne cellars…. Then it’s on to Château Les Crayères, a two-Michelin-starred restaurant in a seriously grand mansion on the edge of town. The surroundings are staggeringly opulent, and the food, from amuse-bouches to petits fours, unparalleled. We take our time — just under four hours, or about 40 minutes a course.

Replete, and dangerously close to dozing over a brandy in the salon’s easiest chair, I ask what time we’re taking off for home. “What time would sir like to take off?” comes the reply. Now that’s the way it should be.

So is it worth it? On one level, of course not: any day trip that costs £2 per minute is clearly ridiculous. But having £7m worth of plane at your personal disposal is an undeniable thrill. If you want a glimpse of the lottery-winner lifestyle on bingo-winner money, it’s the only way to go.

A private jet - worth it?

Nic Cooper, 43, a marketing executive from London. booked a private jet to Paris as a surprise treat for his wife’s birthday.

“We both thought it was wonderful, out of this world. You’re suddenly part of a very elite club. It’s ‘less is more’ — you avoid all the usual hideousness of airports, and it’s incredible to have a plane leave when you want it to.

“It was absolutely worth the money…. In fact, I thought it was good value for what it gave us, though I certainly couldn’t afford to do it every day!”

Sunday Times, March 2006

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You don’t have to be a rock star to join the private-jet set. Mark Hodson shows you how.

What’s your ultimate travel fantasy? Mine is simple: always to fly by private jet. Simple, but stupidly unrealistic, because, like most of you reading this article, I’m not a billionaire, a head of state or a Premiership footballer.

…However, recent moves by tour operators have at least made it more affordable than in the past …

Three years ago, arranging such a jaunt would have meant long negotiations with an aviation broker. Today, you simply call one of half a dozen tour operators that offer holidays and short breaks priced up with private flights. And thousands of us are doing just that: the market leader, Jeffersons, says that its bookings are doubling year on year.

Interestingly, Jeffersons says that most of its clients… are ordinary salaried folk who have saved up a few quid to celebrate a wedding anniversary or a 40th birthday. Until two years ago, these people might have splurged on a Concorde flight; now… they are going private.

Private-jet travel falls into three distinct categories. First, there is the deliciously gratuitous, just-for-the-hell-of-it treat — such as lunch in Paris.

Then there is the executive short break. Somebody… might use a private jet to squeeze three days of skiing into a weekend. This person is not swayed by beluga caviar and a walnut trim. What they want is convenience, flexibility and speed.

The third option is the packaged trip of a lifetime. This is not strictly private travel, because you share an aircraft with other passengers, but it does open up a world of mouth-watering experiences.

Still stuck for ideas? Here’s a selection of the best. All prices are per person, based on flying from an airport around London — usually Biggin Hill, Farnborough, Luton, Oxford or Stansted. If none of those is convenient, you can choose from another 65 airports nationwide, but prices will vary

CHAMPAGNE FOR LUNCH

It’s the height of decadence — jetting off to France for a slap- up lunch. Your destination is Les Crayères, a two-Michelin-starred chateau in champagne country, where you will feast on a six-course meal — with bubbly — before a leisurely tour of the vineyards. Trips cost £1,759, based on two sharing, or £857 for six.

A HOP TO THE SLOPES

For the time-poor, cash-rich skier, private jet travel really comes into its own when you fly directly into a resort. One of the best for this is St Moritz, in Switzerland,. If you take your own skis and don’t mind pulling on your thermals as you taxi towards the terminal, you can be on the lifts 15 minutes after landing. If two of you do this trip, with two nights half-board at the Kulm Hotel, in St Moritz, you will pay £3,986, but get together six friends and the price is £1,966. Lift passes are not included, but can be arranged in advance. Details from Jeffersons, as above.

GOLF WITH A PRO

For about £4,000, golfers can fulfil their ultimate fantasy — playing a round with one of Britain’s leading pros. Your day out begins with a flight on a four-seater Citation CJ1 to one of Europe’s top courses, where you meet up with your celebrity partner. After an hour’s personal tuition, you play 18 holes before a champagne tea or dinner. The trip is due to appear in Jeffersons’ new brochure in October, but can be arranged any time on request. The price, based on three travelling, depends on where you play and with whom; for £3,000 or £4,000 you could get to Turnberry and challenge the likes of Ronan Rafferty, Sam Torrance or Ian Woosnam. Details as above.

Sunday Times, August 2005

http://www.markhodson.net/

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A couple of years ago, if you had wanted to arrange a trip of a lifetime you may well have turned to Concorde. It offered style and cachet, fabulous speed and – in Barbados and New York – two very chic destinations…. Now it has gone what do you do if you want to celebrate a milestone birthday or an anniversary? You fly by private jet.

Until recently, this thought would not have occurred to me.  …even if I had had money to burn, I wouldn’t have known where or how to book one. Many of Robin Fawcett’s customers used to take a similar view.

Two years ago, after more than twenty years working in the travel industry for tour operators and city break specialists, Fawcett spotted a niche market for “treat travel” post-Concorde. He set up a company, Jeffersons …and put together a brochure that packaged flights by private jet, limousine transfers and a night or two in some of Europe’s best hotels. The business took off from day one and has grown rapidly: bookings are already three times they were in his first year.

To see what they got for their money I took a seat on an ‘empty leg’ to Venice, on a plane flying out to bring customers home. (When it was my turn to fly back it would be in humbler style – as a passenger of EasyJet).

For me the most enjoyable, and also the strangest, thing about the trip was the journey to the airport. To be driving down the motorway 25 minutes before take-off, without worrying about missing the plane, was an unadulterated pleasure. When you travel by private jet…your plane will wait until you arrive, and take off when you get there.

The jet was standing a few yards from outside the terminal, the captain came over to meet us, and I simply walked straight on board. Passport clearance had been done in advance by the tour operator, and there was no customs procedure (though in theory immigration officials or customs officers may come over to do a spot check.)

I was travelling on a Citation Jet, which seats up to seven passengers. The top of the fuselage was only about seven feet off the ground….

The interior, too, was compact. Although the seats were large and of plush leather, there was not a lot of head room. If you want more space around you in the cabin you will need to go for a jet seating more people – and, unless you fill all the seats, that costs more per person. However, on a short flight (less than two hours to Venice) space is not really an issue – especially when you are enjoying the Bollinger, beluga and blinis, plus other cold snacks that are laid on as part of the package.

After landing at Venice airport, we taxied over to the former passenger terminal, which is now used for private flights. We waited sixty seconds for an immigration officer to check our passports, and walked straight through to the water taxi. We were in the Grand Canal in 20 minutes, and at the Hotel Cipriani within 45.

In all, my journey had taken just over four and half hours door to door, including the ninety-minute drive from my house to Stansted. On a normal scheduled flight… it would have taken more than seven hours. And, of course I would have had to fit in with the schedule of an airline rather than arrange my own.

But how much do you have to pay for this kind of convenience? A two-night break at the Hotel Cipriani, with Jeffersons – the company I was travelling with – costs from £2,916 per person b&b. That includes shared accommodation in a twin room, private transfers with Venice to and from the hotel, and flights from Biggin Hill, Farnborough, Luton Oxford or Stansted (departures from other airports can be arranged but might cost more). The price is based on a group of six people travelling together – if the party is smaller the holiday cost per person rises steeply.

Is it worth it? There is no doubt that this kind of trip makes you feel extremely privileged, and it is a seamless way to travel, But you’ll have to swallow hard when it comes to paying the bills.

By Nick Trend, The Daily Telegraph, March 2005.

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There is an enduring conceit in the travel industry that niggles like sand in the trunks. It’s the blurring, in promo material, between flight hours and journey times. The huge growth in demand for ski weekends, particularly from Londoners, is especially victim to this scurrilous ruse. “Be on the slopes in three hours” they trumpet. No, you won’t. You’ll still be at Heathrow buying things you don’t need.

Let’s say you are off to St. Moritz, in Switzerland. Yes, it may take 80 Minutes to fly to Zurich but it can take an hour to get to your chosen London airport, two hours from check-in to boarding, an hour at Zurich for passport control, baggage and faffing about with car hire, then a three-hour drive to St Moritz. So it’s seven hours and that’s without delays. Earlier this season it took me 11 hours to get from Zermatt to London via planes, trains, automobiles and a horse.

The whole shebang makes weekend skiing slightly less appetising. But this season, Jeffersons, the private jet holiday company, has launched weekend ski packages that get you to some slopes in three hours. “That must cost a fortune”, I hear you cry. It’s not cheap but if you are a group of six the cost is about £2,000 each – and you get a lot for your money (besides, a private jet flight is one of life’s great travel experiences, especially now that Concorde is no longer an option.)

Here’s why. We went to Farnborough. The limo drives onto the tarmac where you meet the captain and crew, in our case Captain Murray, First Officer Graham and Tricia, the flight attendant.

Your bags are loaded, you climb the steps like a rock star. The door is closed and you taxi out. It is 50 minutes since leaving home. We flew in a Citation CJ1, which seats seven. It flies at 28,000 feet and once above the clouds it’s as smooth as the Krug and foie gras that Tricia liberally doles out.

We were skiing in St Christoph, a beautiful village between St Anton and Lech. A commercial flight would take you to Zurich, about three hours drive away, but we landed at Altenrhein, just 50 minutes drive. On landing, the steps are lowered and you walk 10 paces to a limo that whisks you to your hotel.

There is no passport control, customers or security checks at either end as this is cleared before your departure. We arrived in the Arlberg Hospiz, in St Christoph, at about 1pm. Four hours after leaving home.

This classic and comfortable open-fires-and-dark-wood-beamed Alpine hotel is on the site of an original hospice built in 1386 as a refuge for pilgrims passing the Alberg Pass.

The other ski itinerary offered by Jeffersons – although they fly clients pretty much wherever they wish – is to St Moritz, staying at the five-star Kempinski Grand Hotel des Bains. Jets can fly direct to St Moritz. “We had a client who got from his house in Londonderry to his hotel room in St Moritz in two hours, 40 minutes”, says Mike Bevens, one of the founders of Jeffersons. The trip would take about 11 hours with transfers and on a scheduled flight.

The Arlberg Hospiz has a ski shop so you can quickly get your equipment and be on the lift –so that means you can be skiing at 1.30pm. Four and half hours after leaving home.

The Arlberg Hospiz has a wonderful sister restaurant called the Hospiz Alm at the bottom of the piste in St Christoph, with one of the finest cellars in the world. Jeffersons can arrange for you to be shown around by Mr Werner, the ebullient owner. It contains about 70,000 bottles worth £2.5 million, most of which are huge bespoke bottles holding 15 litres called Nabuccodonsors and made solely for the Hospiz Alm.

After a second day’s great skiing and a spa visit, supper on the last night was at the Alter Goldener Berg in Oberlech, above Lech. Also owned by the Werners, this is reached by cable car in the evening and is a cosy cabin with a spectacular meat fondue.

On the final day you can ski until the lift closes at 4pm, be in your jet by 5.30pm, land at 6pm (UK time) and be home in time for the Antiques Road show at 6.45 pm.

By Simon Davis, Evening Standard, February 2005.

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I realised earlier this year, as I watched some friends refused boarding at Stansted because they were one minute past the 40-minute limit on checking in, that I had finally fallen out of love with flying. Anyone who flies regularly these days knows why: the two-hour check-ins, the endless security routines. Little treats such as visiting the captain in the cockpit, or even eating meals with decent cutlery, are now outlawed. The demise of Concorde, the last truly exhilarating regular passenger plane, seemed to seal the end of the affair.

So why am I now like a moping, jilted lover who has just discovered that flowers still smell and the sun also rises? Because I know there is a way to recapture the adrenaline rush of heavier-than-air travel: hire a private jet.

Before you start snorting in derision, let me assure you I haven't won the lottery or cashed in the equity on my property. A one-day jaunt over the Channel with Jeffersons, a company intent on positioning this luxury in the mainstream, will give you change — not a lot, but some — from £900 per person, which, by Concorde standards, is cheap. However, when you can get a plane ticket across the Channel for the price of a family bucket at KFC, why would you shell out close to a grand? The answer is simple: Jeffersons puts civility and style back into flying.

 We had a 10:15am flight out of Luton After a 9am pick-up by car, we arrived at the small private-jet lounge — operated by Harrods Aviation — just on 10. Having given our passport details earlier in the week for security checks, we had to endure no formalities other than showing the passports.

"Ready?" asked Tim, the first officer. "Okay, let's go." The plane was a sleek six-seater Raytheon Premier 1, four months old, still smelling of polished wood and supple leather. We sank back into the seats, buckled in, had a thumbs-up from Andy the captain, and we were off.

The plane twitched slightly from a burst of power before, in what seemed to be about 10 yards, it lifted off. The one downside I expected was that the compact aircraft would be tossed around. In fact, it was as smooth as silk and, although on a hop over to Deauville it barely reaches 20,000ft, these nimble jets can fly at 41,000ft, well above weather and commercial jets. On board, there were tasty canapés, plus champagne and caviar — spread on the blinis with metal knives (you can smoke with the captain's permission, although Jeffersons discourages it).

We landed at Deauville… being a small local airport, the pilot parked the Raytheon right outside the terminal, a short walk to the waiting car, which whisked us into Deauville for lunch.

Once more, the return was a relaxed affair — just an approximate departure time and a short jet back above clouds streaked with the sunset, to land at Luton. As we taxied to a halt, a car drew up to the plane's steps to take us home through mundane rush-hour traffic. Seamless.

So is it worth the money? Put it this way: I instantly racked my wallet for ways to do it again, and, less selfishly, my brains for people who might appreciate it as a gift (anniversaries and birthdays being one of Jeffersons' biggest markets), just so that they, too, can experience an all-frills flight.
One thing worries me. They say you can never go back to a lower class of travel. In which case, I can look forward to a life of happy jetting and total penury. But love is blind.

By Rob Ryan, Sunday Times Magazine, January 2005

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When Max Davidson flies by private jet to Reims for a blow-out lunch, naturally the Champagne is flowing the whole day.

Pop! went the first cork as we took off from Farnborough. Pop! went the second as we soared over the English Channel. Pop! went the third as we staggered into one of the finest restaurants in Europe.

It was like a particularly surreal episode of Absolutely Fabulous. The pleasure principle ran through the day like a thread of good-quality tweed.

Downing Champagne by the bucketful, of course, has long been the prerogative of the super-rich. But it is only recently that the travel industry has geared itself up to satisfying the ultimate imbiber's fantasy - swilling Champagne in the Champagne region of France with little more physical effort than nipping down to the local for a pint of bitter.

Jeffersons, the provider of this lip-smacking celebration package, is a newcomer to the market, and has one innovative feature: its luxury mini-breaks deploy private jets. There is no nonsense about check-in queues, passport control, security, customs and the like. You just hop aboard a Learjet or a Citation Excel and it deposits you at the destination of your choice like a magic carpet.

Its holidays do not come cheap, naturally. But the Jeffersons brochure has that hint of pure, unadulterated class that appeals to the snob in all of us.

From Farnborough to Reims, the heart of Champagne, took less than an hour; and with no immigration formalities to complete, we had time for a tour of one of the Champagne-producers before sitting down to lunch.

And so - after stocking up on a few cases of Champagne to take home with us - to lunch. Restaurants with three Michelin stars are thin on the ground, even in Champagne, and the Boyer les Crayères is one of the best of them. It is one of those classically built French hotels, in preposterously beautiful grounds; and from the moment you walk through the door, you are in foodie paradise.

Just reading the menu set the taste-buds tingling. Ile flottante à la truffe noire, fumet de rouget, homard bleu, émincé de veau de lait... As in most great French restaurants, formality and informality went hand in hand. Not many of the male lunchers were wearing ties. Jackets were draped over the backs of chairs. Every course, all six of them, was brought to our table by a small army of black-jacketed waiters, who, in perfect unison, lifted the silver domes from our plates to reveal the culinary masterpieces underneath.

My memories of the rest of the day are rather hazy. I think we must have had a conducted tour of Reims cathedral. I can certainly remember stained-glass windows at some point. The flight back passed in a kind of blur. More Champagne? More caviar? I imagine so.

But I am in no danger of forgetting the finale to the visit, which had a touch of pure jet-set theatre.

As our plane taxied to its stand at Farnborough airport, a convoy of limousines, one for each of us, glided across the tarmac to greet us.

We had to walk less than 20 yards from private jet to leather-upholstered car. Now that is what I call luxury.

Sunday Telegraph, June 2004

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Dollops of caviar were dished out. Champagne flowed. Then, as the pilot leant on the throttle, we were thrust back into sumptuous leather seats in a narrow fuselage. Yet this was not Concorde. Our airborne chariot was a humble little Cessna jet.

Whisked to the runway of Farnborough aerodrome by stretch limo, I was able to climb straight into the jet without any of the pain of standard airport. Passports had been cleared, security was taken care of.

As we soared at nearly 40,000 feet above the French countryside, Mike Bevens of Jeffersons Private Jet Holidays explained how small private aircraft could pick up from where Concorde left off. 'We are attracting a lot of interest from people who would previously have opted for a Concorde trip to celebrate a special moment in their lives. For less than £900 they can have a day they will never forget. And we offer far more flexibility than Concorde did by tailoring trips to the individual's needs. Concorde fantasy flights were pretty much a case of firing up the afterburners, taking off, serving drinks and breaking the sound barrier before returning to Heathrow.'

Our flight touched down in Reims little more than an hour and a half after I'd left home. Had I been flying by scheduled airline, I'd still have been in the departure airport dodging luggage trollies. Instead, I was basking in the glory of autumnal France.

Seven courses later we were back at Reims and wedged into the Cessna for the return flight. Going private may be expensive, but for luxury thrill-seekers it may be the perfect tonic for those post-supersonic blues.

Stephen Khan, The Observer, October 2003

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Jeffersons (0208 746 2496, www.jeffersons.com) is a tour operator set up last year to specialise exclusively in holidays by private jet. "Our timing was very good," said Mike Bevens, sales and marketing director. "We can offer people peace of mind and the ease of flying from regional airports."

Jeffersons arranges holidays to 30 hotels in eight countries in Europe. Prices start at £1,995 per person for a day trip to the Champagne region, including lunch at the three-Michelin-star Boyer-les-Crayères in Reims, based on two travelling; a two-night break at the Montalembert hotel in Paris for two is from £4,576 per person.

Jeffersons also offers ski packages to Switzerland, France and Austria, including the resort of St Moritz, where the three-hour car journey from Zurich is replaced by a five-minute transfer from St Moritz airport to the slopes.

Peter Hughes, The Times, October 2003

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A new company has devised the ultimate short break, offering all the glamour
of air travel with none of the frustrations. Gillian de Bono takes to the air
with grace.

As the person responsible for commissioning more than 90 Smooth Guides for this
very magazine, this is not an easy thing to confess. You see, personally, I
am not a fan of the short break.

My getting there/being there calculations don’t go down too well with my other half. He loves to get away for the weekend because a) he is an old-fashioned
romantic and b) he has extraordinary energy.

So when I received an email from a new travel company called Jeffersons offering
to transport a how to spend it journalist to the centre of Paris by private
jet and chauffeur-driven limousine in one swift, seamless journey, this was
the invitation for me. There would be no flights at antisocial hours, no tickets
and no formal check-ins (passengers give their passport details in advance for
pre-clearance with immigration and customs). It seemed Jeffersons was offering
me all the glamour of air travel with none of the frustrations. What bliss.

The day started will with my chauffeur picking me up promptly at 9am. The drive
to Farnborough Airport, however, took 15 minutes longer than planned, which
meant we swept on to the tarmac at precisely the time we should have been taking
off. And so it was that I began to grasp the real luxury of private-jet travel.

I wasn’t going to miss my take-off slot because private airports don’t have
queues of planes waiting to get airborne. I was merely ushered gently to my Citation II.

Travelling by private jet is a bit like flying on Concorde; the fittings are
luxurious but the interior is surprisingly compact.

… there was barely time to do justice to the Jeffersons wicker hamper of
gourmet nibbles (fois gras, lobster, baby asparagus) and generous side orders
of blinis, Beluga and Bollinger. For a decadently surreal moment I though I
was playing a cameo role in Ab Fab.

Fifty minutes later, after a smooth and surprisingly quiet flight, we touched
down at Le Bourget Airport where a chauffeur was waiting to whisk me to my chosen
destination - the exquisite, Andrée Putman – designed Pershing Hall, just off
the Champs Elysées. Door to door, the trip had taken three hours.
The last time I flew to Paris by scheduled flight, it took five. I had 17 waking
hours to explore Paris for a total journey time of six hours.

There are even greater time savings for those living in less accessible area.
For example, Jeffersons cut a 10-hour journey down to just two and a half hours
when they flew a party of four direct from Londonderry to St Moritz. Within
30 minutes the friends were on the slopes. The flexibility of the service also
means that, when problems do arise, quick solutions can be found. One couple
arrived at Luton airport to take a 9.30 flight to Lisbon only to find the airport
fogbound. Jeffersons was able to divert their private jet to Stansted, ferry
the couple there and have them airborne just one hour 25 minutes later – and
three hours before the fog lifted at Luton.

Prices start at £2,668 per person, based on a party of four staying two nights
in Paris’s first boutique hotel the Montalembert, in the heart of fashionable
St Germain. This includes return flights in a Citation CJ1, champagne and hamper
en route, limousine transfers, accommodation in junior suites and breakfast.
But beware: prices escalate if the aircraft isn’t full. For example, two passengers
taking the same trip would pay £4,580 each.

Jeffersons claims to have elevated the short break to an art form and it’s difficult
to disagree. Reluctant weekend traveller though I am, it has found a convert.

The price may be daunting, but certain one worth paying for a very special occasion.

Financial Times – How To Spend It, May 2003

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You don’t have to be a billionaire to fly in a private jet: Mark Hodson tests
the new ‘low-cost’ option

What is your idea of luxury travel? For most people, it means an upgrade to
business class or a private transfer to their hotel. But if you’re seriously,
seven-figure rich, it means only one thing: a private jet.

But how much does this cost? Ten thousand? Fifty thousand? Actually, rather
less. A new tour operator, Jeffersons, is offering a selection of two-night
breaks around Europe, travelling by private jet and staying in luxury hotel
suites, from £2,495 per person. Clearly, that’s not cheap, but — perhaps for
the first time — it is within the grasp of many.

So, what do you get for your money? Robin Fawcett, the managing director of
Jeffersons, says it’s not just about the flight itself. “One of the great luxuries
of private jet travel is having a choice of 70 small airports around the country,”
he says. “You can take off and return at the times that suit you, and you don’t
have to endure the delays and inconveniences of busy airports. There is no check-in,
and you don’t need to worry if you’re a bit late. You turn up and your aircraft
is waiting for you.”

But is it worth the money? Well, there’s only one way to find out. So it was
that on a crisp January morning, I was whisked by limousine from my home in
south London and down the M3 to Farnborough airport. At the perimeter fence,
my driver flashed an ID badge to a security guard and we were waved through
to the tiny terminal building where I was greeted by Fawcett. Outside on the
asphalt, our aircraft gleamed in the bright winter sunshine.

There were no further security checks, no queues and no other flights waiting
to take off. Jeffersons asks passengers for their passport details before they
travel, so they can be pre-cleared through immigration.  We were flying in a sleek, seven-seater Citation Ultra, which is just 49ft long, but has a cruising speed of 430mph and a maximum cruising altitude of 45,000ft. The interior was finished in soft grey leather with a polished-wood trim. There was a chilled-drinks cabinet
(de rigueur) and a very small lavatory at the back, more suited to svelte young
things than industrial fat cats.

Takeoff was effortless: we curled over the frosted fields of Hampshire and rose
quickly and smoothly above the clouds shrouding the Channel. It was surprisingly
quiet: not at all like being bumped around in the back of a small prop plane,
more like being in the first-class cabin of a jetliner. It was also quick. We
barely had time to polish off the Bolly before we were beginning our descent
into the little airport of Le Bourget, on the northern outskirts of Paris.

Arrival was even more seamless than departure. We came to a stop beside a small
hangar, where a Mercedes limousine was waiting. The aircraft steps were lowered,
the car pulled up, our bags were loaded and we walked half-a-dozen steps before
sinking into another plush leather interior.

Of course, there is no point in travelling in such luxury if you aren’t
staying somewhere equally posh, so Jeffersons has filled its brochure with a
selection of Europe’s finest hotels. Some are rather predictable — the Cipriani,
in Venice, say, or the Grand-Hôtel du Cap-Ferrat, on the French Riviera — but
there are some more intriguing alternatives, such as the 13th-century Château
de Bagnols, near Lyons, and the Mas de Torrent, a farmhouse in the hills of
Catalonia. The brochure also features some fashionable bolt holes, including
Blakes, in Amsterdam, and Pershing Hall, in Paris, where I stayed.

Mark Hodson, The Sunday Times 2nd February 2003

http://www.markhodson.net/

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It’s not just where they stay that matters to six-star customers: how they get
there is just as important. Concorde is seen as rather five-star these days
— for a higher plane of luxury, one simply must take a private jet.

Jeffersons (0870 850 8181, www.jeffersons.com) offers short breaks on Lear or
Citation jets to some of the best hotels in Europe. The cheapest two-night break
costs £2,495pp, based on four sharing, at the Montalembert, Paris. Be sure to
wave to the low-costers as they trot across the tarmac.

THE SUNDAY TIMES, 8th December 2002

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Chartering a private jet for business travel offers freedom

It's a great idea. Private jet charter is a booming market on both sides of
the Atlantic for business travel. Savvy companies have found that they can save
money …save time and have the opportunity to take trips they could not take otherwise and to run to their own schedule.

There are about 600 airports in Europe where a private jet can land. Only about
170 are served by the major scheduled carriers. So why not offer short-break
vacation packages, incorporating private jet flights, limo transfers and accommodations at the finest hotels, the ultimate seamless vacations for those "high-end" travelers who have almost everything - except time?

Jeffersons Private Jet Holidays (www.jeffersons.com), a new tour operator in
London, published its first brochure of short vacations in October, offering
a choice of the four-seat Cessna Citation CJ1, the larger Citation Excel with
stand-up cabin and the eight-seat Bombardier Learjet 45 and 32 luxury hotels
in eight countries…

You don't have to be a millionaire (though it helps) to aspire to the glossy
magazine lifestyle. The limo waiting at the steps of the private jet, the chauffeur
hefting designer suitcases and a gaggle of beautiful people exchanging bright,
confident smiles.

Prices start at £2,852 ($4,450) a person for a party of four with a Citation CJ1, from Biggin Hill-London or Oxford to Le Bourget near Paris, staying in junior suites at the Bristol in Paris. … you are picked up at home and driven to the airport at both ends with private check-ins and your own timetable and enjoy champagne and a picnic hamper on the way. No hassle, no crowds, no stress. What price do you put on that? Especially when it comes to a special occasion.

Mike Bevens, sales and marketing director at Jeffersons… says: "Robin Fawcett, our managing director, had the idea while waiting with his family at Luton Airport for a delayed EasyJet flight to Barcelona. He saw a private jet about to take off, and thought, 'If I can combine that with a traditional travel package … .'

The brochure is really meant to whet the appetite, Bevens says. Not many people
buy a ready-made package off the page. He says the company has had bookings
for couples who want him to put together special packages, or who join up with
friends to form a group, especially for a golf break.

Roger Collis, International Herald Tribune, Friday, December 6, 2002

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Cash-rich, time-poor holiday-makers can now take short breaks at luxury European
hotels with return flights by private jet and transfers by limousine or helicopter
as part of the package.

A new company called Jeffersons is the first British operator to offer such
trips. A limousine will pick you up from your home or office and whisk you to
the nearest private jet airport. Alternatively, you can make the transfer by
Helicopter. Once aboard a Learjet… you help yourself to chilled
Champagne and a gourmet hamper. On arrival, a limousine takes you to your hotel.

Managing Director Robin Fawcett came up with the idea a year ago. “I was flying
with EasyJet to Barcelona and realised there was a gap in the market for the
complete opposite of what the low-cost airlines do,” he said. “Our programme
is for people who want to spend their hard-earned money on eliminating queues,
avoiding stress and enjoying full-on comforts.”

Jeffersons’ first brochure offers a choice of 30 luxury hotels in eight European
countries within one or two hours’ flying time from the UK. If your favourite retreat isn’t featured, a package can be tailor-made to suit.

Is it worth the cost? Every penny, say private-jet enthusiasts. A late check-in
means you can pitch up five minutes before your selected take-off time. Nor
does it matter if you are 15 minutes late. There are no check-in formalities because the company arranges clearance with immigration and customs, and you can fly to an airport closer to your destination than those used by commercial airlines.

As for the swank factor, that is way off the scale".

SUNDAY TELEGRAPH, 27th October 2002

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