Onboard The Four Seasons’ New Private Jet

on May 29, 2015 at 9:08 am

Presented By Wingz – Scheduled Airport Rides

Here’s what you get for an $119,000 round-the-world ticket.

It might be true that money can’t buy happiness, but it sure as hell can buy a lifestyle that will at least make you feel like you’re happy. Travel is proven to bring happiness to a person, and what’s better than traveling in style? With private jet charter flights, you and your friends can travel to the best places with luxury and spacious flights. What’s more, you can have that happiness with the price of $119,000 for this 16-day trip to 7-9 celebrated cities (depending on package) spanning 5 different continents on the Four Seasons private jet with 52 other passengers. What a trip!

Luckily, before you make your reservations, BloombergBusiness snuck aboard at Paris’s Le Bourget airport to get a first look at “the multimillion-dollar conversion” — said Bloomberg — and why it’s worth paying a 6-digit number.

The Plane

It’s a reconfigured Boeing 757-200ER leased by TCS World Travel, a luxury tour operator, from TAG Aviation and operated under the Four Seasons company as an entree to extravagant group excursion.

The interior that can carry 300 people has been retrofitted to serve only 52 passengers, in a 2-by-2 configuration. Each seat stretches 6.5 feet, with ample aisle and legroom, and offers 78 inches of semi-private personal space. A new LED lighting system creates an elegant, warm mood in shades of violet white and soft blues. “To meet the service and design standards of the Four Seasons, we have done significantly more work,” said TCS, President Shelley Cline.

The Experience

Four Seasons has been in the luxury hotel & hospitality industry for decades with more than 95 hotels in 39 countries. And now they want to bring their famous service standards up to the 35,000 feet.

At minimum, there are 21 hotel-trained crew and staff on board each Four Seasons flight, including three pilots, two engineers, a “journey manager”, a concierge and an executive chef. A physician and a photographer will also come along in these adventurous itineraries.

With a 16-day trip around the world, the journey is well-planned to avoid long hauls. Flight times range from 3.5 hours to 8 hours. All accommodation, meals, drinks, ground transportation, and even custom excursions are inclusive.

The Food

The standard of cuisine is Michelin-star level, with Four Seasons chefs at each hotel, providing local ingredients cooked fresh in the air in aviation-code steam ovens. “I have to do something cool for this level of luxury — which is really all about choice,” said Executive Chef Kerry Sear. “I had a guy who just preferred Coors Light, even though we serve these lovely wines. So we stocked the plane for him, and we had a few. Why not, if it makes him happy.”

On the upscale à la carte menu, there are Petrossian caviar and Dom Pérignon champagne at any time, but surprise dishes rotate to give you great moments. Fresh lobster salad with macadamia nuts when you’re in Hawaii, or Tulip Ice-cream is on board waiting to greet you from Holland.

The Seats

Don’t forget this is a luxury private jet, so they will even take good care of your sleep as well. The seats are made from white leather, designed by Iacobucci, a favorite Italian craftsman also found aboard Lear, Gulfstream and Cathay Pacific jets; the seats slide smoothly and quietly from sitting upright to lying flat at a touch of a button. Tray tables are topped in dark shellacked wood, with a roomy surface that can easily handle a heavy laptop or a formally set, three-course meal.

Flying with Four Seasons is a choice to meet, socialize, and share adventures with new people, especially when you happen to have an A-380 bar/lounge. “We didn’t sleep much on the flights, because we were always having too much fun drinking champagne and giving our neighbors nicknames,” said passenger Davidson, an interior designer from Calgary.

The Loot

Bvlgary toiletry kit, cashmere blankets, Bose noise-canceling headphones, and a custom-made leather travel journal by Moleskine with matching ballpoint pen, they are all here to serve you. Each guest also receives an iPad Air 2 in advance of the trip, on which you can preload music and movies to entertain yourself. They’re all for you to keep.

Room for Improvement

Due to the size of the aircraft, the four bathrooms on board are coach-class tiny, but it does match with your standard, of course. As bright and clean, those bathrooms are custom-designed, and suffused with Bvlgari green tea air freshener. Also, paper towels instead of cloth.

“We’re obsessed with space and giving our guests as much as possible. Even the most luxurious private jet has only so much room to work with,” explained Dana Kalczak, Four Seasons’ Vice President for Design.