VIP Guide Miami

Luxuring on a Jet Plane
Pampered at 30,000 feet? Why not?

Think back to the day when travel meant living in the lap of luxury: ballrooms in ocean liners, silver plates in elegant dining cars. These days traveling – and in the modern age that means flying – is more synonymous with aggravation. While security lines grow longer, service and leg room shrink. And let’s not talk about that bad air, bad food, and what can seem like an entirely wasted day.

Enter Blue Star Jets, one company determined to bring back the pampered way to fly. This firm’s motto, “Any Jet, Any Time, Any Place,” with access to that jet within four hours, is of course a real selling point, as timely travel is almost priceless.

But extras such as the Air Salon add that luxurious touch. What’s an Air Salon? Well that’s when flying becomes fun.

Long before you take your seat, the catering begins. A consultant will have worked out a flight plan and jet to your liking, and the limousine will be on the way to pick you up. But wait, you will also have talked to “pampering” specialists, meaning, that by the time you climb aboard, healthy meals and a beautification spa await. These experts include a topnotch plastic surgeon, a celebrity nutritionist, and stylist. In particular, they concentrate on anti-aging techniques and menus, because everyone knows flying seems to take years off of your life.

So while flying from Boca Raton to San Francisco, you can get a massage, haircut, or Botox injection, and indulge in such delicacies as crab bundles with avocado-ginger sauce, shrimp marinara with garlic asparagus, and spiced turkey kebabs with curried slaw with fruit and pistachios.

The aim is to keep you calm, hydrated, healthy and happy when you land (4-and 5-star hotel accommodations will also be arranged if needed).

Air Salon and Blue Star are the brainchild of Todd Rome, president and Ricky Sitomer, CEO – who named their company after the fictional airline in their favorite movie, Wall Street. According to the owners, Blue Star is “essentially a brokerage firm that purchases free space from other private jet companies, and offers the flights to clients at a discounted rate.” They have access to 4,000 jets and helicopters at anytime.

And while this luxury can sound prohibitively expensive, it doesn’t have to be. Ten people “hiring” out a jet can mean a price per individual not much more than a first-class flight, with no long lines in an airport and no stopovers– time can also be money. And just like stores that sell gift certificates, you can also buy a travel card, starting at $50,000 and going up to a million, to use towards whatever travel you want.

So who uses such private-jet services? Traditionally, the super wealthy and sports and Hollywood celebrities as a mark of status, kept their own private planes. But the cost of maintenance and staff, especially if travel is not weekly, has become excessive even for those with money, and increasingly companies like Blue Star are being used for personal and family travel as much as for CEO business meetings. Add to this the spa treatments and haute-cuisine, and in the future, this will be the only way to fly.