What happens to your money if a private jet charter is cancelled?

A charter deposit is not held under any federal rule. Most people assume a rule decides what happens to it. For an on-demand private jet charter, the agreement you sign decides what happens to the money, and the federal rules sit underneath it in three narrow places.

Lombardi Jet Services is a broker, so the rules below apply to our own business. This page sets out what those rules require, what two published agreements say, and what to read in yours before you pay.

The short version

• No federal rule sets a deposit or a cancellation fee. 14 CFR Part 295, the broker rules, says nothing about how much you pay up front, when, or how it is held.
• On-demand charter has no escrow. Public charters sold by the seat must back payments with a bond or a bank depository account under 14 CFR 380.34. A whole-aircraft charter has no equivalent.
• If the flight cannot be performed, a broker must refund. 14 CFR 295.26 requires prompt refunds, within 20 days of a complete request for cash and check payments.
• A missed disclosure gives you a way out. Under 295.24(c), if a broker does not tell you something it must within a reasonable time, you may cancel for a full refund.
• A consumer credit card adds dispute rights. The Fair Credit Billing Act covers services “not delivered” as agreed, if you write to the card issuer within 60 days.

Does a federal rule set charter deposits or cancellation fees?

No. Part 295 requires disclosures and refunds, but it contains no rule on the size of a deposit, the payment date, a cancellation schedule or how a broker holds client money. Those are terms of the contract.

The contrast with public charters shows what is missing. A public charter operator selling seats must either furnish a security agreement “in an amount for not less than the charter price for the air transportation”, or pay participants’ money into an account at a bank insured by the FDIC, which may release the charter price to the airline no earlier than 60 days before departure (14 CFR 380.34). An air taxi operator flying a public charter must post the same kind of security or take no payment until the charter has been completed (14 CFR 298.38).

None of that applies when you charter the whole aircraft. Before the flight, your payment is protected by the terms of the agreement, by the company holding it, and by how you paid.

What happens if you cancel?

You pay what the agreement’s cancellation schedule says. Federal rules set no schedule and no cap. Two published agreements show the shape these terms take; both were read on November 5, 2026.

Stratos Jet Charters, a broker, publishes standard terms (the document is undated). Cancelling within 48 hours of a domestic departure, or 72 hours of an international one, means “being charged for the quoted price for the trip” if it cannot cancel its own commitment to the operator. Earlier cancellations carry “a 10% Cancellation fee”. Its terms state that “ALL ONE-WAY CHARTER RESERVATIONS ARE NON-CANCELLABLE AND NON-REFUNDABLE AT TIME OF BOOKING”, and that “Any change by you in the Itinerary or Aircraft may be considered as a cancellation.”

Aero sells charters for USAC Airways 695 LLC as the air charter operator. Its terms, last revised January 6, 2025, charge 50% of the quoted amount for a round trip cancelled between 72 and 48 hours before departure and the full amount inside 48 hours, no-shows included. A one-way is charged in full “from the time of booking”. Inside its defined holiday periods the schedule starts earlier: 10% more than 14 days out, 25% inside 14 days, the full amount inside 7 days.

Two points carry across both. A one-way is often non-refundable from the moment it is booked, because the operator has committed an aircraft that will end up out of position; one-way charters and empty legs explains the repositioning cost. And a change of plan can count as a cancellation, so read the change clause as closely as the cancellation clause.

What happens if the operator cancels or cannot fly?

Through a broker, you are owed a prompt refund. 14 CFR 295.26 reads:

Air charter brokers must make prompt refunds of all monies paid for charter air transportation when such transportation cannot be performed or when such refunds are otherwise due, as required by 14 CFR 374.3 and 12 CFR part 226 for credit card purchases, and within 20 days after receiving a complete refund request for cash and check purchases.

Two things in that sentence matter. The clock for cash and check starts with a “complete refund request”, so put the request in writing with the booking details. And the rule protects the money, not the trip: nothing in it requires anyone to find you another aircraft. When the plane breaks covers how a replacement is arranged.

If you booked directly with the operator, the position is different. Part 298, which governs air taxi operators, has disclosure duties in 298.80 but no counterpart to the 20-day refund rule. The agreement decides, and card payments fall under 14 CFR 374.3, which makes an air carrier’s breach of the Truth in Lending Act and Regulation Z a violation the Department of Transportation enforces.

Both published agreements above refund when the flight is not flown for reasons outside your control. Stratos states that you “will not be charged for any flight cancelled by STRATOS for any reason” or for a portion cancelled “as a result of mechanical difficulties”. Aero states that if it cannot arrange an alternative, “all funds will be returned to the Client”.

When can you cancel for a full refund?

When a broker misses a required disclosure. Under 14 CFR 295.24(a), before you contract a broker must give you the operator’s corporate name, the capacity the broker is acting in, and whether it holds liability insurance covering you; on request, it must also give the total cost and the third-party fees you will pay directly. If any of that is unknown or changes, 295.24(b) requires it “within a reasonable time”.

If it does not arrive in time, 295.24(c) requires the broker to offer “the opportunity to cancel the contract for charter air transportation, including any services in connection with such contract, and receive a full refund”. Once the trip has begun, 295.24(f) gives the same right for the portion not yet flown. Air taxi operators selling direct carry the same duty under 298.80(c).

Separately, 14 CFR 295.50(b)(8) makes it an unfair practice to represent that a flight “has been arranged without a binding commitment” from the carrier.

What does paying by credit card add?

A federal dispute right. The Fair Credit Billing Act, 15 U.S.C. 1666, defines a billing error to include “goods or services not accepted by the obligor or his designee or not delivered to the obligor or his designee in accordance with the agreement made at the time of a transaction.”

Regulation Z sets the procedure in 12 CFR 1026.13:

1. Write to the card issuer at the billing-error address, no later than 60 days after it sent the first statement showing the charge.
2. The issuer acknowledges within 30 days and resolves the dispute within two complete billing cycles, and in no case later than 90 days.
3. You need not pay the disputed amount while it is open, and the issuer may not report it as delinquent.

A second right, 12 CFR 1026.12(c), lets a cardholder assert claims against the issuer when the seller will not resolve a dispute, for a purchase over $50 made in the cardholder’s state or within 100 miles of the cardholder’s address, after a good-faith attempt to settle it with the seller.

Three limits apply. These rules cover consumer credit, and 12 CFR 1026.3(a) exempts credit “primarily for a business, commercial or agricultural purpose”, so a company trip on a company card may fall outside them. A wire transfer is not credit. And 295.26 still cites 12 CFR part 226, the older home of Regulation Z; 14 CFR 374.3(b) names the current one, part 1026.

What should the charter agreement say?

Read for these clauses before you pay. Each has the rule behind it, or says plainly that no rule exists.

1. The operator’s corporate name, and that it holds operational control. Required before you contract, 295.24(a)(1).
2. The capacity the broker acts in. Required, 295.24(a)(2). As a principal, an indirect air carrier “separately contracts with direct air carriers” (295.5(g)), so your contract and your refund claim are with the broker.
3. The total price and the fees you pay directly. On request, 295.24(a)(4) and (5).
4. The aircraft type, and the registration if known. Misrepresenting the type of aircraft is an unfair practice, 295.50(b)(2).
5. How much is due, when, how, and to whom. No federal rule. Part 295 is silent on deposits, so the agreement is the only place this is fixed.
6. Your cancellation schedule. No federal rule. Look for the time windows, the percentage in each, the treatment of one-ways and peak dates, and whether a change counts as a cancellation.
7. What happens if the flight cannot be performed. A broker owes a prompt refund of all monies paid for the transportation, 295.26. The clause should say the refund includes any broker fee.
8. The refund method and deadline. 20 days after a complete request for cash and check, 295.26; card rules for cards.
9. Substitution of the aircraft or operator. A change must be disclosed within a reasonable time, with a right to cancel for a full refund if it is not, 295.24(b) and (c).
10. Weather and events outside anyone’s control. No federal rule. Read who bears the cost when the flight is cancelled for weather.
11. The broker’s liability insurance. Its existence or absence, and its limits, 295.24(a)(6).

If a clause is missing, ask for it in writing before the payment leaves your account. How to spot a charter scam covers the payment fraud that targets this moment.

What Jake does

Lombardi Jet Services is a broker. Jake names the operator and the aircraft in the quote, deals with the certificate holder, and prices each trip on its own, with no memberships, no jet cards and no deposits to join anything.

If you want a quote with the payment, cancellation and refund terms set out next to the price, call +1 (862) 485-3510 or request a quote and say so in the notes.