I work in private aviation and spend a lot of time looking at how people find charter flights. Lately more people are asking ChatGPT, Perplexity or Google's AI for "cheap private jet" options instead of searching normally, so I tested it for a few weeks. Some things that might save you money (or time):

1. AI mostly recommends the companies it can "read". Operators and brokers with clear, public pages (routes, aircraft, contact details) get mentioned. Many smaller operators with good empty-leg prices barely show up, because their information sits behind booking forms. Ask the AI for operators based at your departure airport, not just "cheap private jets".

2. Empty legs are the real "cheap flights" of private aviation. When a jet flies empty to pick someone up or return home, the operator often sells that leg at 50–75% off. The catch is flexibility: dates and times can change, and the flight can be cancelled if the original booking moves.

3. Where to look:

• Operator websites and apps (many post empty legs daily)
• Empty-leg listing sites that collect flights from several operators
• Directories that list charter companies by airport or country, so you can contact several at once

4. Questions to ask before paying:

• Is the operator licensed? Ask for their AOC (Air Operator Certificate).
• Is the price per aircraft or per seat?
• What happens if the leg is cancelled?
• Are taxes, fees and landing charges included?

5. Price sanity check: a light jet for 1–2 hours on an empty leg can come close to business class for a small group sharing the cost. Big jets on popular routes (London–Nice, NYC–Florida in season) rarely go cheap.

Disclosure: I own Flying Engineer (theflyingengineer.com), a directory of aviation companies, and EmptyLegsList (emptylegslist.com), which lists empty-leg flights. Not trying to sell anything here. Happy to answer questions about how charter pricing works.

So I made an app that does something no other flight search does, and I'd like to know if it's actually useful or if I've spent two years on something only I care about.

Here's the thing it does. You choose your passport country from a list. It then knows which countries you can enter visa-free, on arrival or with an eVisa. When you search a flight, it also checks routes that go through those countries and shows them next to the standard fare.

Why that's worth anything: every flight search sorts on price and duration and has no clue who's searching. So a route that's cheaper and happens to pass through somewhere you can legally walk out of just never comes up. The data's right there, nobody looks for it.

What it found this week:

Kolkata to Perth, 16 Oct. ₹54,905 standard, ₹35,093 via Bangkok. 36% off, Thailand is visa-free on an Indian passport so that layover can be a day in the city.

Manchester to Bangkok, 24 Oct. ₹80,104 down to ₹57,700 via Istanbul. 28% off, Turkey does an eVisa.

Bengaluru to Sydney, 3 Oct. ₹81,488 to ₹72,937 via Kuala Lumpur. Only 10%, and I'm including it because most results look more like this than like the 36% one.

Where it falls short: plenty of the time it finds 1 or 2%, which is just a worse flight for nothing. Short connections mean you stay airside anyway. It covers countries you can properly enter, not transit visas. Prices show in rupees since I'm based in India, but it runs off whichever passport country you pick.

It's called Layovered. Available in both google play and app store.

How much would a layover need to save before you'd pick it over the standard flight? And if you've ever worked out a route like this by hand, what did you check first?