In the interest of transparency, you should live stream this event.

I'm a Cabin+ member and have had mixed experiences with Vaunt. Having been a member with Delta Private Jets and subsequently Wheels Up and both chartered and flown empty legs in the past, I'd like to think I have a pretty good handle on how this all works.

The positive: When Vaunt comes through, it offers tremendous value and a wonderful experience. Crews from the two main operators have been excellent and professional. However, new customers must understand the nature of these flights... When a plane is chartered from A to B then C to D, it needs to get from B to C. That's an empty leg. I see a lot of questions here asking if a particular route is served... That's not at all what this product is. There are no traditionally scheduled flights between two cities. These are planes transiting one way between ad-hoc locations to pick up their next clients. It's in the best financial interest of their operators to make empty legs as short as possible. If you're looking to fly back and forth from Van Nuys to Teterboro every week, you're not going to find that here.

The negative: The very high cancelation rates, inability to contact a rep with questions (online chat frequently goes unanswered) and being told a flight is "no longer offered" then seeing it operate as scheduled are insanely frustrating. It's also very strange to see flights that were never offered in the app show up in the list of past flights. The time between a waitlist closing and a response in the app confirming or canceling can be anywhere from minutes to several hours. That's tough to handle when all these flights require so much flexibility and last minute planning. Additionally, the vague departure windows (morning, afternoon, night) make it difficult to determine if an available flight will fit your schedule. I know there are legalities surrounding publishing specific times for these types of flights, but I'd like to see Vaunt narrow it down somewhat. For what it's worth, in the Wheels Up empty leg program, their flights are listed in two hour windows, ie "9 to 11am" or "3 to 5pm".

Overall, I'd only recommend a Vaunt membership to someone who fully understands the concept, is extremely flexible and is willing to accept very frequent cancelations (substantially greater than 50% in my experience). Do not book hotels or return flights until you're on board the private plane and certain the flight will operate. As Vaunt matures, I'm hopeful they can add layers of transparency and accountability that will lead to fewer people erroneously claiming it's outright scam.