Digital Social Hour - Flying on Private Jets, Celebrity Travel Advisor & Meeting Manny Khoshbin I Afshin Sajedi DSH #431

Episode Date: April 23, 2024

Afshin Sajedi comes to the show to talk about flying on private jets for cheap, becoming a celebrity travel advisor & meeting Manny Khoshbin APPLY TO BE ON THE PODCAST: https://forms.gle/D2cLkWfJx46pDK1MA BUSINESS INQUIRIES/SPONSORS: [e-mail] SPONSORS: Deposyt Payment Processing: https://www.deposyt.com/seankelly LISTEN ON: Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/digital-social-hour/id1676846015 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5Jn7LXarRlI8Hc0GtTn759 Sean Kelly Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/seanmikekelly/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We saw as a struggle for a lot of entrepreneurs and business owners. They travel on a private jet, domestic, for domestic flights. They struggle when they want to go coast to coast or even other country. They won't go private. What they do, they downgrade to commercial. Wherever you guys are watching this show, I would truly appreciate it if you follow or subscribe. It helps a lot with the algorithm.

It helps us get bigger and better guests and it helps us grow the team. Truly means a lot. Thank you guys for supporting. And here's the episode. All right, guys, we are back. Digital Social Hour. We're going to talk travel industry today.

We're here with Afshin Sahidi. How's it going, man? Doing great. Thank you for having me. Absolutely. Your Instagram is very interesting. You live a very cool lifestyle, so I can't wait to dive into it. How did you get involved in the luxury travel industry?

Well, I mean, I've been in travel always. It was my first career. I was working as a customer service agent at the local airport in my home country, which is Iran. So, I'm Persian. Then I moved to UK. I lived in UK for 20 years. I've been working under a lot of travel agents and tour operators and so in 2016 I started traveling in luxury myself I love the taste it's just amazing and I couldn't

leave it so yeah I thought is you know since I I mean travel so it's better to have my own company and my own mission because there was a lot going on with you know too many hands between things going wrong no one taking responsibility when you're working under a big giant travel company once you go private man it's hard to go back it's hard i um i mean flying private internationally is very expensive so i won't do that but like domestically i try to do it as much as i can because it's it's so convenient the networking's great and uh actually here it's not too expensive if you go from vegas to cali on jet suite x it's only like 200 bucks so it's not too bad you know yes yeah but i know like

coast to coast some of my friends have paid 40k for a private jet imagine how much would be if you go to dubai or london oh man be six figures i'm not at that level yeah maybe one day well that's the point yeah and that's what you right? So you figured out ways to travel private for cheaper, right? Yeah, so we make private jet experiences more accessible and affordable with group travel. So we do the entire experience. So say you want to go to Dubai from Miami or New York, what would that look like price-wise?

It would be between a group of at least 13, and the cost per person starts from 30K, 30, 30, 35,000. Wow, so you're doing half a million a flight. Yes. Dang. It would be at the fraction of the cost. Because normally it would be double that probably, right? Oh, it would be at the fraction of the cost because normally it would be double that probably right oh it would be 10 times more oh 10 times more so it would cost 5 million oh no no i mean

per person oh per person okay yeah so it'd be 150 okay well it all depends to what type of aircraft you know in an individual charters right so it it could be gulfstream bombardier or tassel so it depends to the type of aircraft the best one i've been on is a gulfstream 4 but those are getting older these days i'm sure there's much nicer ones yeah gulfstream is doing you know great as well as Bombardier. So Gulfstream, 700 and 800. 800 is the best. At the moment, 650 ER is from Gulfstream. They are a leader in the market,

one of the leaders in the market. Wow. How much are those costing right now? It depends. Usually Gulfstream is about 10 to 12.5 per hour.

Damn. That is crazy. Yeah. For long flights it's rough. The previous guest flew in from Australia. Imagine how much that one would be. Very, very expensive., it's rough. The previous guest flew in from Australia. Imagine how much that one would be. Very, very expensive. Well, that's the point. So that's why we saw as a struggle for a lot of entrepreneurs and business owners that, like you said,

they travel on a private jet, domestic, for domestic flights. But they struggle when they want to go coast to coast or even other countries, like the countries I mentioned. Yeah. So, and what happens? They won't go private. What they do, they downgrade to commercial. And that's where they feel the pain. I'll say this about commercial some domestic

commercial first class isn't even that much better than economy well tell me about it and you're paying triple the price and you get like six inches more of legroom but some of them don't even have tvs it's like wow why did i even pay for that you know what i mean exactly so i last first class i had uh from new york jfk to ford laudel and uh so as soon as we started boarding we stayed about an hour inside the aircraft and uh then they said there is a part faulty and they can't source it. And so they have to disembark the plane. And so we didn't know what to do. They said, we have options to either to go another flight or just wait. How long waiting time was, we didn't know.

And the problem was with the bags. The bags staying inside in the plane. So, I mean, they offered me a flight to Miami, but I said, no, I can't leave my bags. Yeah, for real. That happened to me at Vegas airport. We were going to Miami. Flight got delayed an hour.

Then it became two hours and it was three hours. And we're on the plane and they make an announcement saying the stabilizer is not working yeah so i google what the stabilizer was it's the wings of the plane and i'm like what the hell like i am not flying i got off the flight booked another one that flight got canceled completely so people were on that plane for four hours yes and and sometimes the inconveniences you get are also from the most luxurious commercial airlines because sometimes it's out of their control and they can't really control it so i do remember once i was on business class uh with one of the most luxurious airlines. And I was on the first row between the first class and business class.

I mean, by the way, I always upgrade my flights to business class. Being in the travel industry, so I know how to upgrade. And that's what I also teach other people. That sounds like a very valuable thing to know. Yes. And then as soon as I tried to get my seat and I wanted to put my carrier bag in overhead lockers, there was no space. There was no space at all in that section.

I had to call the cabin crew to find me space. And finally she squeezed my bag inside inside pillows wow so first world problem yeah it wasn't really convenient you know it's especially for those who pay a lot of money for for that flight i didn't pay i just upgraded using my miles but some people paid exactly 5k that flight was five thousand dollars and after 15 and a half hours when we arrived in destination someone from first class came and stood next to me and opened the overhead lockers above my head oh before you even got up yeah and i hate people that do that exactly and took his bag so he had the most spacious cabin and also the biggest overhead lockers.

I don't know how many carrier bags. Wow. Some people freak out when you land, man. It's so annoying. Yeah. They get up and, what happened to common courtesy these days? You're supposed to go in order, you know?

And, you know, sometimes, you know, you get annoying fellow travelers and sometimes last time i i flew uh from milan to jfk it was very luxury airline and the fellow traveler was not really uh didn't want even to have eye contact yeah me. It was not a great moment. And I talked to the cabin crew. I said, can you upgrade my flight to first class? I'm really not comfortable because this guy is just, I don't know. It was not a great moment.

But they said, well you know it's only two hours gone and six hours left so why do you want to spend another 39 000 miles to go to first class just you know just enjoy the flight yeah i said okay that's fine yeah so i managed to uh you know continue with my seat on business class. But yeah, you get a lot of these inconveniences. It's not necessarily for just US airlines. Yeah, I mean, pets, pets are all mine. Some people don't like pets.

Babies, those are pretty rough, especially if they're close to you. At the same time, I get it. They have to travel with their babies, so I can't be mad at them. So that's a weird one and then uh fat people so like if you're next to a fat person that can ruin the whole flight you know what i mean yeah and those probably those get to me the most because you're just literally trapped and you can't do you know what i mean but yeah that's why i fly in private you avoid most of that you don't do you know what i mean but yeah that's why flying private you avoid most of that

you don't really run into those problems i mean uh yeah it it can the inconveniences can can go on and on uh i flew from uh dubai to london and i was on business class my i had to wait an hour for my bags geez you know i don't even fly with bags honestly because i don't want to wait and i usually fly domestic i mean if i go international i'll bring bags but domestic i try to fit everything in like the one carry-on in the backpack yeah because it's not worth waiting in my opinion some people in in the u.s i've heard they stop traveling on a long haul destinations because of all these inconveniences i mean yeah it, if you think about all the time it takes, because you have to show up two hours early.

Three hours. You have to drive there. Yes. And you have to get off, get your bags. It's a whole day affair. I know. It's pretty wild. And it's kind of stressful too.

And the airport environment is really negative. Yes. Like you just feel like shit when you're in there. You made the point. I've been traveling to at least 50 countries and at least two three times every country so every time now i i'm going to the commercial airport i'm stressed you know for real it's stressful like because if you've missed a flight that those thoughts come in your head

like oh man i gotta be here like two three hours early like i'm not doing that again. So when it comes to, you are a celebrity travel advisor, right? I mean, I try to be, so it's a do, be, have. I am working to get into the celebrities. I do have a few clients, but I'm working hard to be in that space more. Yeah.

What does it take to penetrate that space? Because do most of these guys already have a travel advisor? That's true, but this is something that we have curated at the moment for Formula One. You cannot find somewhere else everyone trying to offer charters seats flight cards flight hours but none of our uh competitors they have curated tailor-made experiences for formula one right so our goal is to make them accessible and help luxury sustainability. Yeah, I saw on your Instagram you were at a bunch of Formula One events. So what is your goal with Formula One?

Are you just catering to high-end clients? Not specifically. So our goal is to help everyone who would like to upgrade their travel standard from business and first class to private. Also, those who have never been on a private jet, we would like to help them. Because the program we have, the club we have, it's very affordable. It's very accessible. Also, those who constantly fly in private, they can also come with us

and we save them a lot of money. As I said before, it's at the fraction of the cost. So how does the club work? Is it a membership? Yes, so they join as a member. We have a very interesting and attractive offer at the moment.

It's called Legacy Offer. It's for three years for the price of one. It includes plus one. Nice. Because we can't take just random people on our experiences, so we need to go through a lot of checks. You've got to vet them. Yeah, exactly.

Yeah. And where are most of the routes leaving from now, or is it worldwide? At the moment, we are based in Miami, but we are promoting and marketing this product from seven departure points. So from Miami, New York, LA, Dubai, London, Monaco, and Madrid. Nice. Do you remember JetS yes i was a member of that and i caught a lot of good good legs on those what do you still fly on empty legs these days uh well yeah i mean i find

because i travel a lot uh you know if there is a empty leg i grab it i like them the problem is getting back but i guess you deal with that later. Yes. But it is pretty crazy. I caught some empty legs from Teterboro, New Jersey to Miami on G4s for pretty cheap. Yes. Super cheap. Yeah, that's the problem with empty leg. I mean, in all our experiences, we have a comparison chart.

So we have mentioned an estimated of a charter of the most luxury heavy jet and an estimate of an empty leg and the cost for our experiences smart yeah so they can they can compare and see oh wow you know what's the value will offer that jets 100 is making yeah that's super cool yeah my friend out here i'll connect you with him he just sends me a list of empty legs leaving vegas every week and sometimes it goes to cabo mexico and like cool places san diego yeah are you interested in coming on the digital social hour podcast as a guest we'll click the application link below in the description of this video we are always looking for cool stories, cool entrepreneurs to talk to you about business

and life. Click the application link below and here's the episode guys. And it's so tempting, but just getting back, it's like, oh, I don't want to deal with that. I give you an example. So a charter to Brazil can be like around 180,000, from 150,000 to 250,000. It depends on the aircraft. An empty leg, it could be around 100,000 to 128,000 dollars.

So our experiences for Brazil, it's multi-centers. So we fly them out in private from Miami or other six destinations I mean the prices I'm giving you is more be suitable for them for from US because if it's from Dubai it would be a lot more so from US from the three departure. So we fly them to Sao Paulo for the F1. So they stay there for four nights in a luxury hotel, luxury transfer, and three round trip transfer to the race. And then we fly them to Rio. They stay there for three nights in a luxury hotel. So it includes the hotel? Everything.

Wow. And then fly them to the departure point, like Miami. So the entire experience starts from $35,000. Okay. Yeah, I definitely see the value. It's more expensive than empty legs, but you're getting a whole experience

and on top of that the networking because you said there's 12 other people. That to me makes sense. I would buy something like that as a consumer. Because our goal is not just make private jet experiences more accessible and affordable. We are creating a space in the sky for networking so they can walk and talk and have a drink and dine and collaborate with each other. So that's why we trademarked the business, the world's leading private jet networking club.

I love that. I met some great people on JetSmarter but their business model failed because it was too cheap I think. I met one of the executives uh during one event in miami oh yeah yeah he came forward and we had a chat wow was this before they got acquired or oh it was the last year oh last year yeah because they got acquired right yeah and i think they were because i was only paying 15k a year i was getting on so many jets. It didn't make any sense. You know what I mean?

It was so weird. What's your favorite airline, commercial airline? I know we've been talking bad about it, but do you have a favorite? Oh, yeah, I do. My favorite commercial airline is Emirates. I've heard good things. I haven't been on it yet. I always use Emirates for my long haul destinations

because their number one reason is they've been in the industry long enough and their smallest aircraft is 777. Wow, so they only go big. So you got leg room on there. Oh yes, it's all flatbed in the sky wow and they have showers too right that's only on a380 a380 okay i've seen a couple of my friends fly on those and take a video of the shower yes but the flatbeds man those are a game changer i've only been on one

flight that had a flatbed and it was probably the best flight of my life. It was to Asia and I just fell asleep the whole time. Once I remember, I flew first class from Manchester to Dubai and I was the only passenger on first class. Wow. So I had three cabin crews looking after me. No way. It was like three fine dinings, you know, breakfast, lunch, dinner, and everything. It was perfect perfect that's so cool some people live in airport lounges and i was in my pajamas no but yeah some people live in those lounges because uh some of them have showers some of them have beds the ones in asia

and europe i've heard and um airlines had to i think they had to make a change or something where you needed to show a flight ticket yes because some people would just walk in there i love uh amex lounges do you go what's your favorite lounge um and you mean uh non-american non-airlines yeah um well yeah i use amex centurion yeah i use the dragon uh what's the name uh something dragons i haven't heard of that one yeah which city had the best airport lounge in your opinion you mean non-airlines again no you could do airlines well emirates oh so they have one in dubai oh no i would i have to say here uh in doha doha Qatar Airways Qatar has the best lounge wow yeah sounds baller yeah yeah i was gonna say uh my favorite airlines would be emirates Qatar Airways Singapore Airlines

these three would be my favorite airlines i gotta step it step it up, man, because I'd be on United and it's not cutting it for me anymore, man. I'm 6'4", 5'. I'm too tall. I know. Singapore Airlines now competing with Emirates and other airlines. They've been one of the best as well in the market. They are doing one of the best, suite the cabin for first class nice yeah this is a huge

project they they're building in england they're rushing the order as well wow that's cool that's exciting is it true when you're booking a flight online you're supposed to use incognito mode and it's cheaper if you do that? I have heard of it. And sometimes, yes, because there are a lot of technologies, they try to, you know, trace and track. Yeah, yeah. I sometimes I would do that. Yes. I, you know, usually I have two phones and I search for two different phones oh that's smart and you've seen a price difference yes wow I gotta start doing that I just do it on regular because I don't like signing in and stuff so I like just already being signed in but and sometimes when you uh choose the location and it changes the prices

really yes yeah so if you change where you're booking it from, like your IP address to a cheaper country or city. I mean, there are some published fare and promotions. So it all depends. Yeah, I'm surprised it's even legal because I feel like if you're just booking a flight, it should be the same price as everyone else. You know what I mean?

Yeah. I mean? Yeah. I mean, some online websites for flights, they are crazy. Yeah. Have you heard of, what is it, SkipLagged or something? No. Oh, okay. It's some weird travel hack. But with the hotels, are you doing anything there to get good deals as well?

Yeah, so that's one of our expertise in hotel industry because my company in UK, Holiday Luxury, we have been working hard and closely with the most luxurious hotels, resorts, and private islands. I personally have stayed and experienced these hotels to make sure they are right and fit for our clients. Wow. And we deal with the sales and marketing department,

sometimes GM, so we don't deal with reservation. Sometimes it goes wrong when you deal with reservations. Yeah, yeah. It goes wrong, so that's why I'm not not comfortable that's one of my biggest pet peeves when you make a reservation you show up early and then they don't see you till like 30 minutes after it yes that that gets to me for sure yeah i don't like that but it's it's handy when you know a gm at a restaurant for sure vegas is all about relationships too we we have connections you know uh all over the world because we are part of a few uh companies that they do events uh they call b2b events

between buyers and sellers so hotels they participate as sellers and we go as buyers. And we meet them in person. Sometimes, you know, we go on experience just in order to remember each other and before doing business with each other. So it's a very great idea that, you know, these companies, they do. And when we build relationships and we talk about how we do business and how we would like to send a request and how our clients would like to be treated.

So yeah, it makes a lot of difference. Nice. I saw on your Instagram, you had a photo with Manny Koshpin. Yes. What was it like meeting him? I signed up for one of his programs in 2022. And then I went to one of his seminars in his new...

New $500 mansion? What were some things you learned from him? Any takeaways? Yes. Well, he's an expert in commercial real estate. So what I learned from him was always, you know, follow shouldn't be like one tenant. So if you're buying real estate, it should be multi-tenant. It should be triple net because you don't want to be in charge of a lot of repair and cost and maintenance, right? So triple net is the best.

And multi-tenants and the occupancy should be more than 70% and less than 100% because you want some meat on the bone. And locations is very important and also due diligence, all the numbers. So it should be the numbers, the accounts should be reviewed, the demographics within three miles, five miles, the household incomes.

These are the facts should be considered. Right. So you're taking some of your investment money from airlines into real estate right now? Well, yeah, real estate is part of my... I do real estate. I have a few properties in the UK, in Dubai. And I haven't invested here in the US yet

because I'm new. I moved to the US in September 2022. From the UK, right? Yes, so I'm still learning. Yeah. And it's tough at the moment, so I keep looking for deals. Interest rate, man.

Well, yes, exactly. And in florida it's is hard is is hard to find a great deal because the cap rate is very low right do you like the uk or the us better i i love us nice yeah the reason i moved you you from uk was better one of the most reason uh i i left uk i can't stay in cold weather anymore too cold man it rains there a lot right oh yes yeah miami's a big change i'm sure you're i love i love miami weather yeah i love is you know some people complain about humidity but you know i i was born in humidity from iran you said right yes how long were you in iran for uh well I moved uh when I was uh 27 wow so a lot a lot of time yes yeah what's it like over there I've never heard anything about it so I

don't know what well it's a great country but uh at the moment a lot of things going on uh so uh yeah not safe well uh I mean it's safe, but it just all depends. Things can go wrong. I mean, things can go wrong in anywhere, but it's more, you know, it depends if you are Americans, so that might be tricky. But still people travel and they don't have any problem. It just depends.

Yeah. You're in a good space because everyone's going to travel, you know what I mean, no matter what. You've got to get places. So I feel like your industry might even be recession-proof. Yes. Because you're catering to the top 1%, which is always going to be there no matter if we're in a recession or not.

Yes, yeah. So as i said before our goal is to make a difference in terms of sustainability because there is a big difference if you organize a trip for a group of 13 when i say 13 because because jets like Gulfstream, their minimum seat is 13, so the minimum and maximum, that's the best space you can get. So that's the difference. If you travel as a group in one jet or you charter a few jets or a mix of private and commercial.

So it helps the sustainability and carbon footprint and cost. You know, in terms of environment, the community around the airport, it makes a big difference. Nice. Win-wins all over the board. Well, man, it's been fun. Where can people find you, find your companies and learn more about this? Well, we are on social media. Our website is jets100.com.

We have Instagram as instagram.com jets100. My Instagram is oneafshin. And we are on Facebook, LinkedIn, all over the places. Cool, we'll link it in the video. Thanks so much for coming on, man. Thank you very much for having me.

Yeah, thanks for watching, guys, as always. And we will see you tomorrow.