Popular Gift Idea for Men – Flight in a Military Aircraft

A perfect gift experience for aviation-loving men and adrenalin seekers

Back in 2004 when we started organizing flights in military fighter aircraft we expected that our average customer will be young, male and affluent. As we started our marketing efforts in Switzerland, we thought young bankers or engineers with a steep career after their studies at ETH, HSG or another Swiss University or their MBA will contact us. And once our military aircraft flights are well-known within these networks of successful talents by word of mouth, our sales will explode. Well, this was not completely wrong, but another segment turned out to be far more important: The nice and generous girlfriend a and wife looking for the perfect gift for men.

This gift idea for men that can’t be wrong. It’s the dream of a lifetime.

Most of these nice women contacting us to find the perfect gift for their husband or boyfriend the have a similar story to tell. Some examples:

• “My boyfriend always loves these airshows. It’s his dream of a lifetime to fly in one of these fighter jets. I’m so happy that I can actually buy a gift voucher to present to him.”
• “My husband turns 40 next month. He failed to become a fighter pilot as he wears glasses. Can he fly with glasses or lenses with you guys? I want him to get this experience and be a fighter pilot for a day.”
• “We will marry next year and I want a gift for my fiancee that he’ll never forget. I think a flight in a fast fighter aircraft is so amazing, I’m sure he’ll love it so much”.

The funny thing is: Most of these women don’t even know it’s actually possible to buy jet flights as an experience gift! They just search for that in the internet and find us. And they as well as their husbands are really surprised that we can organize a jet flight for them without problem. And the feedback we get from these women is just brilliant. It’s just

A gift idea not only for the affluent, not only for men, not only for special events

Now as we pointed out, this huge customer segment was a bit a surprise to us. After we realized the importance of the gift experience market we partnered with big companies specialized in gift experiences: Jochen Schweizer and mydays in Germany, Smartbox and Italy in France, Golden Moments in UK and many more. The product range they offer to their customers is very diverse: Erotic photo shooting, hotel stay, sport car driving, candle light dinner, paintball, bungee jump or quad tour.

They were very happy to add us as their top product which is important to get attention and media feedback and there fore an excellent marketing tool for them. And it’s a perfect way to give the customers the message: With us, everything is possible, we are not limited to ordinary gifts. We on the other side profit from their marketing power and increased reach. For these companies it is worth to advertise, as the chance customers looking for a gift finally buy a lower-priced gift experience like a parachute jump, a helicopter or sightseeing flight, or a flying lesson in a small Cessna plane. So we both profit from each other even tough they do not sell so many of our jet flights.

As we dived a bit deeper in this gift experience market we found a few more interesting things:

• Jet flights are not limited to the affluent. Many customers really have to safe for the gift and it is for a special event: Wedding gift, 30th, 40th, 50th, 60th and even 70th birthday gift, golden wedding gift, engagement gift etc. Customers often safe together with family and friends and decide to give something unique together instead of giving more small gifts.
• We also have a lot of business customers who give our flights when an employee retires, as key employee incentive, sales incentive or key account gift. Some of them did huge events with us, with countless customers. Even though budgets have been shrinking during the crisis we have still many such corporate customers.
• We also have many women who get a jet flight experience as a gift. We think here often the boyfriend or husband often just gives what he personally thinks is very cool. But the feedback we get is incredible, obviously there are a lot of crazy women around! And by the way we also have many many female customers who buy a flight for themselves.
• Another surprising fact is that – despite the first point – we also have many customers who just give the flights for more “ordinary” events: As Christmas gift, ordinary birthday gift or just because they feel like being nice or found us by chance.
• Even the most expensive Edge of Space flights are given as a gift.

More articles and Ressources

• The MiG-29 flight, a rather expensive gift idea in a supersonic fighter aircraft
• The L-39 flight in Florida, a highly popular experience gift among our US customers. It’s the lowest priced flight and therefor affordable for many
• The L-39 Flight in Los Angeles is also bought often as gift experience
• The new L-39 offer in Houston is now ready
• Want to learn more about fast aircraft? An article about the fastest planes in the world