Asian Nannies. Yumm.
Something tells me not to google this at work…
You mean pick out some new kids or just pick up the old ones from their trip?
For domestic flights, you just have to show the pilot some ID (drivers license.) International flights, it will depend on the country in particular (somewhat.) Flying Seattle->Los Cabos, we fly straight through to Cabo, and then at the mini-terminal we hand a guy our passports, he gives us the hairy eyeball, and then waves us through. It still only takes about 10 minutes. Flying back to the US, we have to land after crossing the border, so we usually touch down around San Diego, and then a customs official boards the plain, pets our dog, checks our passports/gives the hairy eyeball, and then let’s us go. This takes about 3 minutes, not including landing/taking off time.
I’ve not taken the jet to Canada, but we flew the water planes out of Seattle to Vancouver a few times and the experience was similar to going to Cabo. We would arrive in Vancouver, and then there was a small building to go into and check in with a customs agent.
Well, if you want to get to China without commercial, you can always go by boat. My parents also own a 68’ Nordhavn which is capable of Pacific crossings (though you need either a few friends or a crew to help you.) Nordhavns are the smallest boats that can make a trip that length, so it means you can do it with a minimal crew (if you prefer privacy), but if you want to blow all your money and don’t care about privacy you could go for a larger yacht and a full crew.
I’m stunned. So no on-board baggage is ever scanned? If you fly from LA to New York, you’re completely on your own, security-wise? How big are these planes? I mean, if one of them crashed into a strategic location, would it make a sizeable dent? (Incidentally, very sorry for the hijack. I’ll leave it alone after this post.)
I can tell you for a fact that Oprah owns her own private jet. I can also tell you that with your 60 mil, you too could own a jet just like her’s but you wouldn’t have enough left over for more that a couple of trips to China.
I had considered starting an “Ask the Business Jet Engineer” thread, but my company is very sensitive about sharing information about our planes. I probably wouldn’t be able to answer most of the questions that would be asked - not that I don’t know the answers, just that I’m not going to risk my job over it.
Nope not-scanned. But then again, I don’t think Flight Options needs to worry that you’re going to try and highjack your own plane. 
The planes (that I’ve been on) are probably about the length of two and a half large SUVs nose to nose.
And most assuredly they would make a good dent, given that they’re jet powered chunks of metal. Kamikaze pilots were in smaller prop-planes and certainly did perfectly enough damage. Though I don’t know that the suckers would have the mass to take out a scyscraper. But I don’t think you really need to worry about that; overall it’s cheaper and easier to purchase a renta-van and load it with dynamite. You’ll get more boom.
My boss is rich. Very, very, extremely rich.
He either flies first class for everything except perhaps a flight lasting 40 minutes or less (mainly because FC is usually not offered on such short hops as that), or he charters a private jet. Often a Lear 35; sometimes a G4. (He used to have a fractional but financially it makes more sense to do a jet card. He buys blocks of $100,000 at a time, which last him a couple or three months.) He doesn’t really care what it costs because his comfort is more important. It’s much easier to get in/out of the flight, and you can often land much closer to your destination in a small uncrowded airport, and the charter companies and fractional ownership companies are MUCH more accommodating to the passengers than any regular airline would be. They’ll do anything you want, get anything you want, arrange anything you want. For international, he usually flies commercial because the kind of plane you’d need to get to Europe is possible to charter but he doesn’t want to pay it even though he could, and you have to pay for the return trip to the U.S. too, or the waiting time for plane and crew while you’re in Europe. But it’s certainly possible to charter/jet card a 747 and have one person aboard.
He looked into buying his own G4 but it’s $30 million for the plane and about $40,000 a month in maintenance fees and pilot salaries. Not worth it unless you fly 500,000 miles a year.
When his kids fly with him on commercial airlines, they get a coach seat. No free rides, so to speak.
If anyone’s looking, I highly recommend Jets International (www.jets.com) - the best company we’ve worked with so far. Flight Options was pretty good too, but Jets Intl. is better. Also, on a fractional, you pay a monthly fee whether you fly one hour or not; with a jet card you only pay for actual hours flown. It makes more sense to do a card. (Although I think Jets Intl. offers both; not sure.)
My advice is to invest all of the $60M and live from the interest. At 5% annual percentage you should have about $3M a year to live on the rest of your life. Be wise and invest! You can probably do much better than 5% though. Be sure to diversify your investments though. (If you win the jackpot.) :rolleyes:
I figured the planes were much bigger than that. As far as hijacking goes, I was thinking of a bad person impersonating Sage Rat…
What about boats? Do the wealthy bother travelling anywhere by boat (as opposed to just having fun on a boat)? Are there extremely exclusive boat lines that will get you somewhere fast – obviously not as fast as a jet – but in extreme style and comfort? How fast can a boat get you across the Atlantic?
There must be wealthy people who are afraid to fly.
Thing is, $60 million is not enough money for a private jet. That is, you could buy a private jet, but then you’ve got to maintain it, keep it staffed, and on and on. So you could probably do it, but only if you’re willing to blow the most of it on a private jet with very little left over for anything else.
You can live a lavish lifestyle for the rest of your life on $60 million, but only for certain definitions of “lavish”. You’re rich, but you’re not super-rich. You aren’t going to be able to afford the trappings of the super-rich unless you’re willing to burn through all that money in a year or two. This is how the MC Hammers end up bankrupt despite making millions of dollars. He made millions but spent multi-millions, and then the millions stopped coming.
I already answered this one a bit. My parents crossed the Atlantic in their Nordhavn and it took a few weeks to accomplish. If you don’t want to own your own boat, you could probably arrange a vacation through Abercrombie & Kent or such. We went on a cruise with them through Indonesia, and then later a trip through China. These are set vacations though, rather than just being simply moving someone from point A to point B.
I assume, given that A&K are probably doing it, that there’s a way to charter large ships, but I don’t personally know what companies do that.
When I was the nanny to the president of a Fortune 100 company, the family flew on a corporate Gulfstream. The week before the trip, the trip coordinator would fax over a menu with several options, or you could just tell her what you wanted. I ate whatever was ordered for the adults, but I packed a picnic for the boys (then 6, 4, and 1), because all they wanted was PB&J sandwiches or similar, nothing fancy, suspicious, or “yucky”. Then I’d go to the movie store and rent a couple tapes for the kids (this was back in the days of VCRs). The plane left when we arrived: Out of the cars (chauffered, natch) and onto the plane, fifteen minutes or so for the luggage to be stored and we were in the air. The boys would watch movies or play games or read, then maybe take a nap, and then we’d be touching down. It’s truly the only way to fly – if you can afford it. 
The corporate flight staff was amazing. Once while chatting with the steward, I happened to mention that, for snacks, I had a weakness for Cool Ranch Doritos. There was a bag of them on board every flight we took thereafter. And I was just the nanny.
Indeed you are, on a private airplane.
I have a friend who flies for Citation Shares (a jet fractional-ownership outfit) and one who flies for NetJets (another). Both report that the time-consuming security measures mandatory for scheduled flights are the single best thing for their businesses. For some reason, people find “Show up 10 minutes before you wish to depart” more appealing than “Show up two hours ahead of your flight (which may well depart substantially later than scheduled) and prepare to submit to various forms of intrusive inspection.”
I must see the head of my order. He is both mundane and pointless. Would a mod please move this thread to a more suitable venue?
Hey, I forgot about boats. If you’re traveling in that sort of style, who cares if it takes a week or two?
When my band was playing the Sun Princess, the crown prince of Saudia Arabia, with wife, children, and entourage, rented the entire top deck. He, of course, is in the “super rich” category, but I bet a whole private deck costs less than a freakin’ plane!
Any cruise line experts here? What would the big cabins cost to China & back?
Hey, now we’re talkin’. I checked on Princess, and you can get a “suite” from Vancouver to Beijing for $8000. Heck, that’s peanuts. It takes 22 days, but that’s with a lot of sightseeing stops in Alaska. I’ll bet with some searching you could find something more direct. Super.
Reserve a deck of a cruise ship? Heck, just get your own mega yacht:
Brief hijack - Can someone please explain how a $181m jackpot ends up at $60m? I understand tax obviously (although that sucks, no tax here yipee!) but what’s this cash value thing?
Actually, are foreigners allowed to play the powerball? If so, would we have to pay US taxes on winnings?