The Jet Merchants offers OneFlight cardholders recovery path via 'Fly Forward' programme

The Jet Merchants, a Houston-based advisory firm, has offered OneFlight International jet card holders a recovery path through what it calls a 'Fly Forward' programme, according to Private Jet Card Comparisons.

OneFlight paused flights earlier this month, leaving as much as $300 million in prepaid jet card flights at risk. The Jet Merchants' offer came via email to OneFlight cardholders as a marketing agreement with the now-paused broker.

Jet Merchants Founder and CEO Luis Garcia confirmed the offer to Private Jet Card Comparisons. He said he had reached out to OneFlight last week "seeking to see if there was a way we could assist clients, particularly those with upcoming flights." Garcia added that "We had already come up with the architecture of the program before reaching out."

Per the email received by multiple OneFlight jet card holders, The Jet Merchants stated: "The Jet Merchants is an independent private aviation advisory firm and is not affiliated with OneFlight International. OneFlight does not sponsor, endorse, or guarantee The Jet Merchants or its services."

The Jet Merchants and its programmes

The Jet Merchants was founded in 2024 by Garcia, a longtime private aviation sales executive. It operates as an advisory service for private flyers and is a sister company to Game Day Private Jets, which Garcia also founded. Game Day focuses on crowdsourcing and shared private jet flights to sporting events and has signed agreements with several major university alumni associations. In June, it launched an NIL jet card.

The two companies currently have seven full-time employees, according to Garcia.

The Jet Merchants offers several programmes. Its Private Client charter and advisory service entails a $15,000 annual engagement with a 5% trip service fee. It also offers a refundable deposit programme starting at $125,000. Customers pay a 15% fixed management fee, or $18,750, and then book flights at wholesale prices with no markup. Flights are sourced using dynamic pricing.

Garcia says the programme is designed to attract flyers with fixed-rate jet cards who want to arbitrage those flights, using their jet cards when the guaranteed pricing beats the market. He stated: "We are not about the lowest price. Our clients want value." Garcia also cited financial security as a selling point of the offering.

It is unclear from available reporting what specific terms The Jet Merchants' 'Fly Forward' offer provides to OneFlight cardholders, or how it differs from the recovery options already presented by other parties to impacted customers.