Top 8 Travel Hacks To Feel Like You’re Flying Private In Coach Class

I’ve been flying a lot recently, after a nearly two-year hiatus during the pandemic.

It's mostly been brutal by choice: predominantly middle seat, back of the cabin tickets since I’m flying for a start-up business and there's not a lot of extra gravy to burn.

The discomfort was fine at first. But it's more recently taken a turn towards envy: the last flight I boarded, all I could think about was how to steal a blanket and the lamb dinner from first class while convincing myself how much more productive I’d be at work if I were flying private right now.

Private jet flying over the clouds

Ironically, my own first time flying private was actually a disappointment.

The seats weren't any better than "extended" coach class, no one served champagne and Chateaubriand on real china, and the wifi didn't work. I deplaned wishing I’d been flying JetBlue in Mint.

My experience, of course, was an anomaly.

The primary reality of flying anywhere in a private jet—regardless of the plane, itinerary, or who's sitting next to you—is that everything generally does go off perfectly, including not having to clear security and ground transportation dropping you off and picking you up from the runway.

Private aviation also comes with other perks, like pilots who wait on you instead of the other way around, catered cuisine and top shelf drinks, Italian leather interiors, exclusive lounges, and flying out of small city, one-runway FBOs ("fixed base operators") instead of sprawling giga-ports like LAX, JFK, Atlanta, or Houston.

No lines. No waits. No security.

The other immutable reality of flying private is that most of us will never be able to afford it. An off-peak, cross-country flight on a Gulfstream will run you around $90,000, no matter how many people you invite on board with you. Most people would prefer to send their kids to college for a few years for that amount.

But that doesn't mean that the rest of us can't enjoy some of the perks of flying private for the price of an economy class ticket—if you know how to work the system a little and you’re willing to spend some extra money every year.

Forthwith, here are the top 8 travel hacks to make your next economy flight feel like you’re (almost) flying on a private jet without shelling out the money to do so:

Digital kiosks and biometric screening have revolutionized airport security to make it almost as ... [+] efficient as an FBO

1. Get TSA PreCheck and CLEAR — If you ask anyone who's ever flown on a private jet, they’ll all tell you that the best part about it is the frictionless of it all. No lines. No waits. No security.

Two U.S. domestic aviation security programs—TSA PreCheck and CLEAR—offer a similarly frictionless, fast-tracked security experience when you’re "flying public" through most of America's main commercial airports.

CLEAR is a privately-run, vetted traveler program that allows passengers to verify their identities at touchless, biometric (a.k.a. optical and facial data) security kiosks through a dedicated CLEAR lane instead of waiting in line for a TSA representative to check your boarding pass and photo ID. After the screening, a CLEAR Ambassador also escorts you directly to the front of the body and luggage scanning line.

If you are enrolled in TSA PreCheck as well and have a "Trusted Traveler" number on your boarding pass, you also don't have to go through the shakedown of taking your computer out of your bag or take off your jacket, belt, or shoes. Viola! You’re on the other side.

CLEAR membership will run you $189 per year and TSA PreCheck membership costs $85 for five years. But you’ll make that money back in the first two hours you’ll save on your next flight while everyone else is still waiting in line.

Long immigration lines can add hours to a trip. Enroll in Global Entry to avoid them

2. Get Global Entry — For anyone who travels abroad with any frequency, Global Entry is a Department of Homeland Security pre-clearance program that makes you feel like a diplomat or an A-list celebrity. It's the CLEAR of flying internationally. But better.

With Global Entry, you can bypass the passport line altogether and waltz back onto American soil after you land back in the U.S. from most foreign countries through a U.S. Customs and Border Protection Service biometric, digital kiosk at Immigration. This replaces the hours of potential wait time standing in line to get cleared in by an agent depending on when you arrive and how many other flights land concurrently with yours.

To be eligible for Global Entry, an applicant must be a U.S. citizen or permanent resident, undergo a background check and fingerprinting, have no criminal convictions or prior customs violations, and be interviewed at a U.S. Customs and Border Protection office at participating airports.

Global Entry is valid for five years and costs $100 to apply. It can also be used at participating airports in Canada, Abu Dhabi, Aruba, and the Bahamas.

Why not? Set the tone

3. Take An Uber Black To (And From) The Airport — One rarely mentioned aspect of flying private is that the people who do so generally don't drive to the airport, park in an economy lot, and take a shuttle bus to the terminal.

Private jet passengers more frequently pull up to a locked gate at the FBO, show a photo ID to the security guard, and get whisked onto the tarmac in a tinted-window SUV. The same thing happens in reverse when they land.

So, if you’re flying public and live within 45 minutes of the airport, splurge the extra $20 - $35 on an Uber Black to the terminal—which in most cities will be a Mercedes, Tesla, or a Cadillac Escalade with a 5-star driver who's likely circling less than a minute away so there's no waiting. Do the same thing when you land. According to several surveys, passengers’ two most stressful times while traveling are arriving at the airport on time and getting to where they’re going safely and quickly once they land. So take a page from the flying private playbook, and "get there" in style.

The best private airport clubs rival some of the world's nicest hotels

4. Join An Airport Club Program — When I first got my American Express Platinum card, I realized that the only benefit that I really got out of the hefty annual fee other than free roadside assistance was access to Amex's Centurion Lounge network at dozens of airports across the U.S. Centurion Lounge membership also enrolled me in Priority Pass, which has their own independent partnerships with thousands of other airport clubs worldwide.

The upshot is that 90% of the time when I’m traveling anywhere, in any country, in any fare class I can get myself and up to 2 guests into an Amex or Priority Pass lounge. On the other side of the curtain, there are club-like seating areas, catered buffets, open bars, quiet reading rooms, and hotel-level bathrooms all with expansive views of planes taking off.

Without an American Express or other credit card affiliation, an independent Prestige-level Priority Pass can also be purchased for $469/year, which entitles the member to unlimited visits to all of Priority Pass's lounges globally for 12 months.

Once you get a taste for the airport club lounge life, you’ll always arrive early.

You'll blaze through everything from CLEAR, to TSA PreCheck, to boarding at the gate seamlessly by ... [+] checking in online on your phone early and having a mobile boarding delivered to your Apple Wallet or saved to a file

5. Check-In Online And Get A Mobile Boarding Pass — Long gone are the days of the printed boarding pass, waiting in line at the departure desk, checking in with an agent, tying a baggage tag around your suitcase, and wistfully watching it disappear into the distance on the conveyor belt.

No matter what airline you’re flying, download their app to your phone, open it up, set up an account, and check in through the app the day before you depart. The entire process will take you 10 minutes at home the first time you do it. Yet, having your boarding pass already pre-loaded onto your phone when you pull up in your Uber Black to the terminal and head directly to the CLEAR line through security will make you feel like your at your own personal FBO when it comes to seamlessly getting to your private lounge by the gate. No lines. No waits.

No. No. No. No.

6. Never Check Your Bags (Unless You Have To) — Hands-down most frequent travelers agree that the easiest and most guaranteed way to make any trip feel longer and more annoying is checking your bags. That usually means another 45 minutes for the belt to start moving on the other end as well as the possibility that your bags will get lost.

So unless you’ve got a four-week, seven-city itinerary through South America to pack for, try to fit everything you need into one carry-on suitcase and keep everything with you at all times. The essence of flying private is savoring every minute, never waiting, and never worrying. With Global Entry, TSA PreCheck, and CLEAR, you can minimize every bottleneck through security while carrying all of your luggage on will eliminate baggage waits altogether. Away, Rimowa, and Roam all make great four-wheel, roller suitcases.

Waiting to board . . . Last

7. Upgrade To Priority Boarding — Everything in economy class these days comes with a fee. Seat selection. Checked baggage. Wifi. Lunch. Plus taxes, fees, and so on. Nothing is sacred.

All that said, if you want to feel like you’re flying private, or at minimum first class, it's worth paying the extra $20 for priority boarding in Groups 1 or 2. Priority Boarding guarantees that there will always be space for your carry-on bag. It also gets you seated first while everyone else spends the next 30 minutes standing around in the aisle before the boarding doors are closed. If you book a seat towards the front of the plane, priority boarding also means you’ll be one of the first passengers to deplane since your carry on will be right above you.

Who needs to fly private when you can have this?

8. Get A First-Class Upgrade At The Last Minute — The past few times I’ve flown domestically or internationally, I’ve been offered the opportunity to upgrade from economy to first-class when I check-in early online for a fraction of what it would have cost to purchase a first-class ticket in the first place.

For example, on a recent flight from Miami to Newark, I converted a $330 one-way economy ticket in the back of the plane into a first class, third row flight home for an additional $42. If I’d purchased a flight-class ticket upfront it could have cost over $800. In this instance, the money turned out to be well spent: we spent almost two hours delayed on the tarmac before taking off waiting out a line of thunderstorms

So, always look for ways to upgrade to first-class from economy at the last minute. It never hurts just to ask also, especially if you are a frequent flyer. If there's a first-class seat still available when you board, there's a good chance it could have your name all over it.