Abercrombie and Kent (updated)

While we’re fantasizing about travel, this seems to be the ultimate in fantasy travel. It’s only $160k per person, double-occupancy. You basically fly on a private Boeing 757 with only 50 seats, and all the attractions and accommodations are amazing.

$160k is a lot of money for 26 days. That comes out to ~$6k per day per person. Since the trip can take 48 guests, the total budget is $7.68 million. I could probably plan a great trip with that much money, though some things, like dinner at Kanazawa Castle may be hard to book for a nobody like me. I wonder how much profit margin they make on each trip.

There are also shorter trips on smaller private jets. It’s still not cheap; you’re looking at ~$35k for 14 days. This makes a lot of sense though. When I planned our Japan/Taiwan trip back in 2015, there was a lot of time allocated to traveling between destinations. It took us most of an entire day to get from Osaka to Taipei on Japan Airlines, and many hours to get from Tokyo Station to Shin-Osaka via the Tokaido Shinkasen. If we had chartered a private jet, then it would have been only a few hours.

This looks like an interesting itinerary. Five countries and only 5.5 hours of flight time between the different cities. You would spend four out of the 14 days transiting on a normal trip. I took a Trafalgar tour many years ago from London to Paris to Rome and we spent almost two days traveling between the cities by ferry and overnight train.

Of course none of this is possible without a kidney transplant. I don’t see a Dialysis in the Air option, though they probably could set up a hemodialysis machine inside a wide-body jet. The patient would have to do dialysis on the jet, probably while parked at an airport, but it will cost a lot for a dedicated nurse and space on the plane for the dialysis machine. Maybe it’s more feasible for peritoneal dialysis patients since all you need is someone to coordinate moving cyclers and supplies to hotel rooms from the private jet. It will be up to the patient to run their nightly dialysis program.

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OK, they are ridiculously expensive. I looked at one of their Tailor Made custom tours of Nice and Monaco. For four days, it’s ~$5k double occupancy, so about ~$10k for two people. The hotel listed in the itinerary, Hôtel La Pérouse, is only $210/night in May for an Economy room; even if you book a Deluxe room, it’s ~$750/night, breakfast included. If you go to all the places listed in the trip itinerary, the total cost of admissions is <€60. Other than the hotel breakfasts, there are no other meals included. Add local transportation, airport transfers, and the cost for a private guide for a few days, it’s still way less than $10k. I guess there’s some value in coming up with the itinerary. A friend planned her Europe trip by copying itineraries from Rick Steve’s website, or you can just use a travel agent.