[inejge]

flying first class, flying charted, leasing a jet, owning a jet

Perhaps counterintuitively, going from first class to charter/leased flights is a safety downgrade. Search for accident statistics on the NTSB site and you'll see that Part 135 flights (smaller aircraft, including business jets) have 3-4x the accident rates compared to Part 121 (large air carriers), arguably because Part 121 regulations are much more stringent. Here[1] is a very recent leased jet fatal accident, for example.

[1] https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2024/02/09/plane-...

[lazide]

You pay for flexibility in multiple ways.

Private helicopters are only slightly safer than solo parachute jumps.

[ghaff]

It's really about flexibility. First class + airport lounges is pretty comfortable. But you're still on someone else's schedule.