Five-Star Service

Jet Linx is the first private aviation company to launch a landmark partnership with Forbes Travel Guide, taking service to new heights.

“This partnership is a game changer for private aviation and will create a necessary benchmark for the industry,” said Filip Boyen, CEO of Forbes Travel Guide (FTG). “Our 60-plus years of expertise with standards, inspections and training lends itself not just to hospitality, but to every industry that wants to cultivate an excellent service culture, so we are excited to support Jet Linx in its path to even greater success.”

“Our industry has extensive regulatory and operational standards for companies to comply with, but it has never set a customer service standard — until now,” said Jet Linx President and CEO Jamie Walker. “Our groundbreaking partnership with Forbes Travel Guide will transform the private jet travel industry and set an unrivaled standard of service excellence for our clients; the same service excellence they’ve come to expect from the finest Five-Star hotels, restaurants and spas around the world.”

The collaboration marks the first time that FTG has worked with a private aviation company to promote service excellence on a holistic level. For the partnership’s first phase, FTG will comprehensively assess and train all Client Services team members in Jet Linx’s 18 Base terminal locations, including its National Operations Center in Omaha, Nebraska, both with regard to pre-flight and post-flight standards. All Jet Linx flight crews also will undergo this process, but with FTG’s customized inflight standards. Both companies will work together to craft unique, proprietary standards.

And to ensure that every team member embraces and consistently upholds FTG’s standards of service excellence, Jet Linx will have FTG reevaluate and retrain all client services and flight personnel on an ongoing basis.

This deep commitment to service excellence prompted FTG to name Jet Linx as the first Exclusive Official Private Aviation Company of Forbes Travel Guide. The honor means Jet Linx joins FTG’s Brand Officials, an invitation-only group that represents the top service and amenity providers for different segments of the hospitality industry. The Brand Officials program spotlights companies that FTG deems as notable and worthy of endorsement.

“We are a company that is dedicated to luxury travel, from the most outstanding hotels in the world, to fine-dining restaurants, to over-the top spas, so it’s a natural fit that we would team up with the best of the best in private aviation,” said Jeff Wielgopolan, FTG’s Senior Vice President of Learning & Development. “Forbes Travel Guide has a global reputation for rating the world’s elite, extraordinary properties, so in partnering with a private aviation company, we really wanted to find one that stood out in terms of product and in service.” According to Wielgopolan, this partnership will set Jet Linx apart from other private aviation providers because the group will be exposed to a global expectation of service. “Forbes Travel Guide standards really focus on how a guest, member or flyer feels. Our standards are based on emotional intelligence, professionalism and consistency,” he said. “The training will identify how the simplest of actions make the guest feel and how to lead to greater impact.”

While Jet Linx already adopts a customer-focused model, Wielgopolan says that FTG will further instill a particular service culture mindset. “Our training program is not prescriptive—there’s no workbook, no cookie-cutter set of standards that we apply to all industries. Guests are looking for experiences, and those should be unique and most importantly, consistent. Consistency drives not only guest satisfaction, but also trust. We teach staff a specific way of thinking: how to think like a luxury guest. To pay attention to the details. To anticipate and think one step ahead of every want and need. To be friendly, warm and considerate. To be professional at all times yet approachable and engaging.”