At first, the ease is anxiety inducing. What do you mean I need to arrive at the airport only 20 minutes before takeoff?
My frequent-flier brain trained itself long ago to make quick multistep airport arrival calculations: Subtract 15 minutes from the takeoff time for when the gate closes, then another 30 minutes or more for security, and another 20 minutes if I’m checking a bag. If I’m taking a cab from Manhattan to any New York area airport, that’s another two hours to account for traffic, road closures, tunnel backups, bridge closures…you get it.
But today I’m not flying out of LaGuardia. I’m flying with JSX, a pay-per-seat charter operator, from its hangar in Westchester County, New York, to Opa Locka Executive Airport in Miami. By flying out of crowdless private terminals like these, which are typically reserved for jet owners, JSX is able to expedite every step of the preflight process.
Stripped of my normal preflight routine and carefully calculated travel mantras, I’m unsure what to do with myself. Surely, JSX doesn’t actually mean for me to arrive 20 minutes before takeoff? I double-check its emails and then check in on the app—which requires only a single click—and a pop-up window confirms that it does, in fact, really mean 20 minutes.
Somehow I am still convinced that I will miss this flight and also that I have worn the wrong attire for a (semi) private jet. But as last night’s margaritas make their way through my system, I am grateful for the extra two hours of sleep this flight has afforded me.
To distract myself during the hour-long train ride from Manhattan, I play around on the JSX app. While this lifestyle isn’t cheap, it’s not as expensive as I thought it would be. One-way tickets can be as cheap as $249, depending on route and season. I spot some one-way fares between Westchester and Miami as low as $519.
With 20 destinations in the US (plus Cabo San Lucas in Mexico), most JSX flights operate in the Western US. Some connect to major hubs like Denver, Los Angeles, Austin, Dallas, and Houston. Others fly to smaller cities that aren’t frequently served by major airlines, like Lajitas, Texas; Taos, New Mexico; and Carlsbad, California. From Westchester, JSX flies nonstop seasonal routes to such Florida destinations as Naples (daily flights five days a week), West Palm Beach (daily flights seven days a week), and Boca Raton (daily flights five days a week).
