The Van Nuys Airport, in Los Angeles, is much less glamorous than it’s low-key cool. It’s extra Rat Pack than BTS. It exudes an air of luxurious by way of its uncrowded, unique grounds. The small, regional airport, about 20 miles north of the world-renowned Los Angeles International Airport, is the proper setting for Aero’s non-public jet flights.
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I arrived on the Van Nuys Airport and parked steps away from the airport’s entrance. Within minutes I used to be ready within the airline’s lounge and checked in for my 9:30 a.m. flight to Aspen, Colorado. There had been no metallic detectors or conveyor belts in sight.
Flying has misplaced its enchantment as a result of consolation and comfort have been squeezed from the expertise. Yet, when the time got here and I walked out of the airport doorways throughout the tarmac and approached the black jet with yellow-and-red shade accents, it felt like flying may discover its approach again to being enjoyable and simple once more.
Aero is a brand new airline providing semiprivate flights with all first-class seats for leisure journey. The firm is utilizing the promise of exclusivity, akin to non-public terminals and devoted concierge workers, to set itself aside in an business through which merely the promise of somebody not slamming their seat again into your face could be sufficient to command prospects’ consideration.
Here, nevertheless, Aero is aiming for the celebs. Even earlier than wheels up, I used to be bought on flying semiprivately. Traveling this manner jogged my memory that nothing on this world is ever too good to be true—it merely comes at a financial price. In this case, a one-way ticket from Los Angeles to Aspen presently retails for $1,250.
I’ll allow you to resolve whether or not that value is outrageous or an unbelievable worth. This is solely a have a look at what it is like to use Aero for air journey.
Goodbye Los Angeles
After strolling within the entrance door and discovering a padded chair to sit down, Aero personnel came to visit and started my examine in. This course of included an ID examine and weighing my two luggage with a handheld scale, all finished in a relaxed method.
Part of what makes Aero completely different is its hands-on strategy. The sense you get as a passenger is that its workers is worried in regards to the particulars, so you do not have to be. That was on show earlier than the morning’s flight even boarded. The climate in Aspen introduced an air stress situation for touchdown. The airplane’s captain visited every of us to clarify the state of affairs one-on-one. She let everybody know that the flight could be flying into Rifle, Colorado, and that we then could be bused to the Aspen/Pitkin County Airport, about 50 minutes away, to be related with our rides.
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Regardless of the slight detour, boarding proceeded at once. When flying industrial, the one time you are requested to stroll throughout the tarmac and stroll up a set of stairs to board a airplane is when one thing has gone terribly unsuitable. I’ve finished it a number of instances, and every occasion first included an emergency bus experience and trekking by way of elements of the airport that passengers had been by no means meant to see. Harrowing is one phrase for it.
In distinction, boarding this Aero flight on the tarmac was nothing in need of pleasant. A leisurely stroll to the 16-seat airplane was capped off with a jaunt up 5 or 6 stairs.
The slim entryway of the airplane opens right into a comfortably sized cabin. The seats are wearing grey leather-based, matched by a light-weight grey cloth alongside the partitions. Orange lights bounce off the ceiling to give the in any other case impartial inside a full of life character. There aren’t any TVs and even Wi-Fi on the airplane. The lack of screens is not a difficulty, however the lack of web feels noticeable.
While the airplane is small, it isn’t claustrophobic. It feels roomy and comfy. The solely time its dimension reveals is should you hit a patch of turbulence, when shaking is felt greater than it could in a big airliner.
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It solely takes about an hour and a half to make it from the coast of California to the mountains of Colorado. When flying is that this snug, you need it to final so long as potential. It didn’t. The airplane left on time and arrived in accordance to the up to date plan. As quickly because the flight got here to a relaxation, there have been no metallic sounds of seat belt buckles being ripped off. No one popped up to go away as in the event that they had been within the remaining stage of The Amazing Race. It was calm and leisurely.
Features and Price
Aero’s marketed options and value:
- One-way ticket from Los Angeles to Aspen, Colorado: $1,250
- Maximum capability: 16 passengers
- Dedicated concierge workers
- Private airport lounge
- Jet sanitation course of earlier than and after every flight
- First-class, leather-based seats
- Three items of baggage, plus carry-on, totally free
The Stay and Return Flight
The primary draw of flying with Aero is, after all, the flight. It’s not all the corporate does, nevertheless. Encompassed in its promise of distinctive journey experiences is partnering with inns and different lodging, akin to getting a automotive or driver as wanted. The locations are restricted in the mean time, however the firm signifies that it plans to journey to extra locations, together with Napa Valley, as quickly as spring and summer time 2021.
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Aero assisted me in having the ability to keep on the W Aspen. The resort is spectacular. It’s Marriott’s funkier of the 2 properties it has inside blocks of one another in Aspen. Like different W inns, it incorporates native design components all through, usually adequately subtle to miss. Here, for instance, a topographical map of Aspen is woven into the carpet.
As spectacular because the resort is, together with its available-to-own residences, its location is the showstopper. It’s about 50 steps to Aspen Mountain for snowboarding. The mountain even has a ski-off space to put you proper on the resort entrance once you’re completed for the day, or simply need lunch.
When it was time to head again to Los Angeles, the Aspen airport was solely a 10-minute drive from the resort. The primary industrial terminal was acquainted in scope, with ticket counters and metallic detectors, however on a really miniature degree. Unfortunately, it did not have any indicators for Aero. Even an airport greeter on the curbside drop-off was not aware of the airline. Flying on a jet, from a personal space, does include the added complexity of needing to know precisely the place to go. Eventually, a brief stroll and shuttle experience later, I situated the correct spot to depart. It was not a terminal as a lot because it was only a hangar on the far finish of the airport.
There was no lounge, until you depend a shuttle bus that was referred to as a “mobile lounge.” Despite the shortage of constructing, the 2 Aero workers on the hangar door had been useful and accommodating. The check-in course of was the identical as in L.A. and solely took a number of moments.
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The airplane experience was as good again to California because it was out to Colorado. This time, nevertheless, all 16 seats had been stuffed. The crowd was a mixture of {couples}, households with youngsters, and some flying solo. Drinks and snacks had been plentiful on the way in which dwelling. The lack of accessible airplane Wi-Fi was, once more, the one barely disappointing side. A couple of minutes after touchdown, checked luggage had been returned, and the journey was over.
Should You Fly Aero?
If Aero sounds within the realm of “Uber for planes,” you are not far off. Aero was began by Garrett Camp, an Uber co-founder. So, whereas jetting off on a semiprivate flight would possibly sound absurd to some folks right now, it wasn’t too a few years in the past that utilizing an app to summon a stranger to your home and get of their automotive was equally as unusual.
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For now, the self-imposed restricted locations that come from ramping up a service like Aero’s leaves it too removed from those that might want to use it. For those that presently reside in Southern California or close to Aspen, nevertheless, it is fairly the deal with. It even makes flying industrial first-class appear a bit barbaric.
The value will make Aero a little bit of a nonstarter for some. Anyone who’s financially in a position to think about it, nevertheless, ought to simply do it. The expertise took a lot of the friction out of getting from one state to one other.
The operating joke amongst Tesla house owners that additionally applies to different premium electrical vehicles: You should not drive one until you are prepared to put in an order. Pressing your foot in opposition to the accelerator and producing prompt, silent pace is addicting. It’s a letdown to get again in your gasoline automotive and head dwelling from a take a look at drive. Aero is similar.
It’s not that you simply should not fly Aero, even as soon as, should you get the prospect. But when you do, bear in mind that you could be be spending further time redoing your trip price range to work out how one can make Aero slot in each time.
Book at Aero.
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