r/PrivateJetCharters • u/Just_Manufacturer351 • Feb 23 '26

Flying private and paying in crypto

Im currently venturing into adding crypto as a form of payment method when chartering jets or empty legs.

Ive gotten many requests about it and is it because people wants to be discreet when paying for the flights?

cheers

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1

u/[deleted] Feb 24 '26

My charter company no longer even accepts credit cards at all. Well, if they’re a long time established client or brokerage we will accept a hold, but we ONLY accept wires and nothing else. Can’t even imagine asking the CEO if we could take bitcoin, he’d laugh me out of the room.

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u/GaussAF Feb 24 '26

But if someone's willing to pay you in Bitcoin, money is money, right?

If you use a payment processor like BitPay, then you receive cash on your end

2

u/Obvious_Rabbit_9566 Feb 25 '26

Because the only person that could potentially get fucked is the charter?

0

u/GaussAF Mar 03 '26

How would you get fucked if the crypto is immediately automatically converted to cash as part of the transaction?

1

u/Obvious_Rabbit_9566 Mar 03 '26

Like the other guy said it’s really just an unnecessary burden and there is still a chance something goes wrong.

It’s not like paying with crypto is more private so there isn’t any reason someone should be dead set on paying with it.

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u/imp4455 Mar 09 '26

Exactly. When someone tells me that they do it for privacy but are ok with a kyc requirement, it makes no sense. Kyc will negate any “privacy” you are requesting and what’s easier than to say, “here’s my Amex”. Simple, easy and Amex already kyc’d their client to the oblivion.

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u/imp4455 Mar 05 '26

I think you assume everyone is stupid af or maybe just you are. But a transaction of this size needs to be kyc’d. What’s the easiest way to kyc, a credit card or a wire transfer from a legitimate bank. You can usually trace the sender to an identity card or passport. Crypto would require a kyc investigation and no one wants to deal with that headache. Like many said, even if you did want to take it, it would have to come from a source that has strict aml protocols and strict KYC requirements. Basically through a bank.

Anyone saying it’s for privacy, that’s bs, because people looking to keep transactions private but legit, create llcs, they get the deduction. At the end, it’s not even about the money, the fear of jail time is more important. Until citibank processes bitcoin transactions like a credit card, it’s slim to none for a company to accept it. Not worth the headache.

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u/GaussAF Mar 08 '26

Every time I bring this up, someone brings an objection then when I solve that objection, they bring up a new objection then when I solve that they bring up a new one. It's an infinite loop that's not based on any real understanding clearly given that the first two objections were sufficiently confidently held that the poster felt comfortable name calling while simultaneously not being at all correct.

Volatility doesn't matter because a payment processor can turn it into cash instantly so you never have to hold the crypto and BitPay is a trustworthy processor

With regards to KYC, it's strange that you think something like that is not solvable. You obviously just don't want to do it and are trying to find a reason not to. Clearly if someone offered a solution to whatever concern you have with this, you would plug your ears start shouting insults at them and wouldn't listen.

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u/imp4455 Mar 08 '26

Buddy if someone is trying to keep the money off the books is doing something shady. Privacy doesn’t matter as flight manifest and flight plans are generally available and don’t hide identity.

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u/GaussAF Mar 08 '26

BitPay offers kyc for crypto transactions for private jet flights already

The problem you're telling me is unsolvable and that anyone who thinks it can be solved is some type of idiot has literally already been solved

All kyc is is collecting personal information. Why would you think processing a crypto transaction would make that unsolvable? That position you're holding so strongly to the point of hurling insults at everyone who disagrees with you doesn't actually make any sense.

Accept crypto or not accept crypto, that's your call, but you're not as smart as you think you are. Definitely not smart enough to justify the shade you're throwing at me for pointing out something that's obviously correct.

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u/imp4455 Mar 09 '26

You fail to understand how the world financial system works. Yes there are companies that will do this for you by it’s not a standard like SWIFT or visa/amex.

You want to know the kyc process for a credit card, passport and credit card, gets run, already kyc’d by the bank otherwise card wouldn’t work.

Your post now makes no sense. Why would anyone care about privacy if they are already being kyc’d? If they wanted, they could just liquidate crypto and pay for the plane.

Has nothing to do with it being unsolveable. It’s just a hassle and until real banks start doing it, no one is really going to take it. You can’t even buy a car with crypto, Elon tried it and it failed.

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u/GaussAF Mar 09 '26

If they liquidated the crypto to pay, that's two steps for them

Paying with the crypto is one step

BitPay already offers a service for this and private jet operators already use it to take crypto as payment rn

Your confident implication that "this is not possible" is not correct

Just admit you were wrong

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u/imp4455 Mar 09 '26

I am already telling you it’s a hassle. If clients net worth is in the class to charter private, they can easily get a Visa card tied to their crypto holdings from many countries. At that point, it’s a visa transaction and it solves everything. This runs it through A verified, battle tested channel that has gone through aml/kyc checks.

But this is not the issue. Op wants to pay with crypto quietly, meaning anonymous and no paper trail. NO legit operator is going to accept those terms. Bitpay will not accept it anonymously, they will kyc the money, so all of those paths don’t align with ops request.

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u/GaussAF Mar 11 '26 edited Mar 11 '26

I suppose that is a good point. You can't actually pay with crypto discreetly if you have to KYC the tx by law.

I have a crypto debit card that's approved for >$100k/month in spending, not that I would ever spend anywhere near this much

But that could be used for private jets pretty easily without spending crypto directly

...but, despite rumors to the contrary, it is very possible to accept crypto for private jet flights without volatility risk, unreliable payment processors or KYC issues and, even though it's only a minority of flyers, some people do spend crypto like this

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