In 2026, private jet charter is still selling a luxury product with a checkout experience that feels like buying a house with extra steps. Greg Johnson, President and CEO of Tuvoli, describes the exact friction customers hate: sign a PDF, then send a credit card, then get wire instructions, then follow up again and again. By the time the process is done, the customer is thinking, “This is harder than it should be.”

That friction is not just annoying. It hits close rates.

Greg’s point is simple: charter cannot modernize sales until the transaction flow is fixed first. Tuvoli started by focusing on digital checkout because it creates immediate, measurable business impact. Their model is also built around alignment: they monetize through transactions, meaning they do better when operators and brokers book more trips.

Why the old workflow is a real risk

Greg calls out something most teams try not to think about: many companies still collect card details in ways that are unsafe and outdated, like emails, texts, or “sticky note” workflows. Aside from looking bad to high-value clients, it increases exposure to data security problems. PCI standards are strict about how card data is handled, and the risk goes up fast when sensitive details live in inboxes or forwarded threads.

On the contract side, charter still leans heavily on PDFs. The fix is not complicated: use proper eSignature workflows. E-signatures are legally recognized in the US under the ESIGN Act and UETA, and platforms like DocuSign are broadly used for secure signing flows.

What “good” looks like in Greg’s framework

From the transcript, Tuvoli’s checkout-first approach has three practical outcomes:

1. Fewer steps for the customer

   Reduce the back-and-forth loop. Less friction means fewer drop-offs.

2. Cleaner payment status visibility

   “Paid” is not binary in charter. Do you have a card on file? An authorization? A wire pending? A short-paid wire because of fees? Greg highlights how often operators discover these issues too late, because payment tracking is still done in spreadsheets. That is fragile by design.

3. A more professional brand signal

   If you want someone to trust you with passports, dates of birth, and high-dollar travel plans, the workflow has to match the product. Greg’s view is that modernization is not a “nice to have.” It’s part of protecting reputation while improving revenue outcomes.

The real takeaway

Tuvoli’s thesis is that charter sales cannot scale on messy, manual checkout. Fixing the payment and contract flow is the foundation that makes everything else possible, including better analytics, better automation, and better conversion.

If your team is still doing “PDF + email + wire follow-up,” Greg would tell you the same thing he told Dan Harris: you’re losing deals to friction, not just price.

Listen to the Greg’s interview here: https://flyironbird.com/private_jet_podcast/whats-broken-in-private-jet-charter

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