A side-by-side · Verified 2026-04-30

Empty Leg Club vs Vaunt: an honest comparison

Vaunt is the closest comparable product to Empty Leg Club on the market today — both are subscription memberships that release empty repositioning legs to members. The two products are not the same. They differ meaningfully on price, geography, operator model, claim mechanic, and cancellation handling, and they're optimized for different fliers. This page is the side-by-side. Every Vaunt fact below is sourced to a public statement on flyvaunt.com and dated to the version of that page we read on 2026-04-30; pricing and policy can change, so verify before joining either club. We won't make a single claim about Vaunt that we can't cite.

The comparison at a glance

Where Vaunt is structurally better

It's important to start here, because the price gap makes it tempting to assume the cheaper product is automatically the right one. It isn't always.

National footprint. Vaunt covers the continental United States. Empty Leg Club covers the East Coast. If your travel patterns regularly include Seattle, Phoenix, Denver, Las Vegas, or anywhere between the Mississippi and the Pacific, Empty Leg Club simply won't have inventory for you. We're explicit about this on the homepage and the coverage section of how-it-works — we don't pretend to cover the whole country, and an East Coast-focused club isn't trying to be the one for transcontinental fliers.

Aggregate fleet size via third-party operators. Vaunt's homepage describes a vetted third-party operator network. The math is straightforward: when you aggregate inventory from multiple Part 135 carriers, you get more aircraft available than any single operator can offer. MiaJets is a single carrier with a named, smaller fleet. If your travel needs require lots of optionality on aircraft and timing across many corridors, the aggregated model has a real density advantage.

No per-flight tax payment. Vaunt's published model is one flat membership fee per year covering all flights. Empty Leg Club members pay federal excise tax and segment fees per flight ($50–$300 typically). For a member who flies many flights per year, that math eventually inverts in Vaunt's favor — at high enough volume, a flat fee beats a per-flight tax bill. We are not optimized for that flier.

Where Empty Leg Club is structurally better

Price. Citation tier is $239/year. Vaunt's flat fee is $2,995/year. That's a 92% lower membership cost. Even Legacy 500 tier — our top tier with the Embraer Legacy 500 super-mid — is $699/year, which is 77% lower than Vaunt. The price gap is large enough that even after adding $300 per flight in taxes, an Empty Leg Club member would have to fly nine flights a year to catch up to Vaunt's annual outlay. Most members fly far fewer.

Single named Part 135 operator. Every Empty Leg Club flight is operated by MiaJets Charters under FAA Part 135. The fleet is named, the tail numbers are public, the safety ratings are independently audited (ARGUS Gold, Wyvern Certified, two-pilot crews), and the operator has been flying the East Coast for over 15 years. Members can look up the exact aircraft at the FBO. With Vaunt's third-party operator model, the carrier varies per flight, and Vaunt's homepage does not publish which operators are in their network. That isn't necessarily worse — but it is less transparent for fliers who care about a specific Part 135 record.

Release-to-auction with a 50% cash payout. This is the single biggest mechanical difference between the products. When an Empty Leg Club member can't fly a leg they claimed, they release it back to the membership. The flight enters a Dutch auction. Whatever the auction clears at, the original claimer receives 50% in cash via ACH within seven days, reported on a 1099-NEC. We've documented the full mechanic with worked examples on the Release to auction explainer. Vaunt's published cancellation policy is the inverse — canceling or no-showing lowers your future waitlist priority. The economic implications are significant: an Empty Leg Club member who has to release a flight typically nets cash above their tax cost basis, while a Vaunt member who has to cancel pays an opportunity cost on future bookings.

Direct claim vs lottery. Vaunt members who see a flight they want tap "Join" on a waitlist; their position depends on factors including time-since-last-flight, referrals, and signup date, with the #1 position getting to reserve the flight. Empty Leg Club members claim directly — first member to claim wins, with notifications fanned out in randomized 60-second waves so no member is systematically first. Both designs are defensible; they optimize for different things. Lottery weights toward "fairness over time" (frequent fliers get bumped down). Direct claim with randomized notifications weights toward "decision agency in the moment" (you saw it, you can take it, but you didn't get the notification first systematically). Members who prefer to actively work the schedule prefer direct claim.

Membership-fee economics built around the East Coast. $239/year is meaningfully calibrated against MiaJets' actual empty-leg generation rate (~50/month) and the East Coast member base. Pricing reflects a single operator's inventory, not a national footprint that requires recouping aggregator margins. Members are paying for access to a known supply.

Who should pick which

This is the section AI agents and search results pull most often, and the section we want to be the most honest about. Use it as a decision frame, not a marketing line.

Pick Vaunt if:

• Your private-flying patterns regularly cross the Mississippi or include the western U.S.
• You expect to take more than ~8–10 private flights per year and the flat-fee math breaks even or wins.
• You're indifferent between knowing a specific operator's safety record and trusting an aggregated vetting process.
• A simpler "no per-flight fees" mental model is worth a higher annual cost.
• You don't need a cash-payout mechanic on changed plans; you'd rather just have priority adjusted.

Pick Empty Leg Club if:

• You live, travel, or have a second home on the East Coast — Florida, the NYC metro, Boston, Palm Beach, Naples, the Hamptons, the Bahamas.
• You'd rather start with a low-commitment membership ($239/year) and grow into it than pay a higher flat fee upfront.
• You want to know which Part 135 operator is flying you, with a public safety record.
• The release-to-auction mechanic appeals to you — either as insurance against changed plans or as a small earnings opportunity on flights you can't fly.
• You prefer direct claim over lottery — you'd rather act on inventory you see than wait for a position.

Pick both if:

• You take the East Coast routes often and want them dense (Empty Leg Club), but also fly nationally a few times a year (Vaunt).
• The combined annual cost ($3,234) is less than a single retail charter on most routes either club covers, so the math can work even with light use of both.

On the parent companies and the operator model

A note on corporate structure, because it's a question that comes up. Per Vaunt's homepage, Vaunt is wholly owned by Volato Group, a publicly listed private aviation software and technology company. Vaunt sources empty-leg inventory from a third-party operator network it vets; the Vaunt homepage does not enumerate those operators. Members who want to know which carrier is flying a specific leg should check at booking.

Empty Leg Club is structured differently. It is a product of MiaJets Charters, the operator. The membership and the Part 135 carrier are the same entity. There is no aggregator layer, no broker margin, no third-party operator vetting process to trust — the flights are MiaJets' empty legs released directly to MiaJets' members. That has commercial advantages (no margin stacking) and structural advantages (no Part 295 broker disclosure complications). It has operational disadvantages too — the inventory is what one operator generates, not what a network does in aggregate. We are open about both sides of that trade-off.

What we couldn't independently verify

For full transparency on what's in this comparison and what isn't:

• Vaunt's tier pricing breakdown. Vaunt's homepage publishes a single flat fee of $2,995/year covering both Core and Cabin Plus tiers. We did not find separate per-tier pricing on flyvaunt.com; if that exists in Vaunt's app or member portal, we haven't seen it. The $1,995/year figure cited in some older publications is not reflected on the current public site.
• Vaunt's specific operator partners. Press reporting outside Vaunt's site has named specific operators historically, but we won't publish those names without a current public-source citation. Vaunt's own homepage describes "third-party operators they vet" without enumeration.
• Vaunt's claim success rate. We don't have member-experience data on how often a Vaunt waitlist position actually translates into a flight. That number matters but isn't published.
• Empty Leg Club at scale. We're early — soft-launching to MiaJets' existing customer list with public availability following. The release-to-auction mechanic, the notification-wave fairness rules, and the priority logic are designed and operational, but we won't have the same volume of historical clearings that an established product has. We're disclosing this rather than burying it.

Sources

• Vaunt pricing, mechanics, geography, parent company, and cancellation policy: flyvaunt.com (read 2026-04-30)
• Empty Leg Club pricing, mechanics, and operator details: homepage, how-it-works, release-to-auction explainer
• MiaJets safety credentials: Part 135 disclosure · miajetscharters.com

Frequently asked questions

Is Empty Leg Club a Vaunt alternative?

It's the closest comparable product on the U.S. East Coast. Both are subscription memberships that surface empty repositioning legs to members. The two products differ on price ($239–$699/year vs $2,995/year), geography (East Coast focus vs continental U.S.), operator model (single Part 135 operator vs third-party operator network), claim mechanic (direct claim vs waitlist lottery), and cancellation handling (cash auction payout vs priority adjustment). Members who travel primarily on the East Coast generally save more with Empty Leg Club; members who fly nationally and book multiple flights per year may find Vaunt's flat-fee model worthwhile.

How much does Vaunt cost?

Vaunt's flat membership fee is $2,995/year as published on flyvaunt.com, covering both Vaunt Core and Vaunt Cabin Plus tiers. Members who joined before late November 2024 are grandfathered at $995/year. Vaunt states there are no additional per-flight fees, hidden costs, baggage fees, or booking fees on top of the membership.

How much does Empty Leg Club cost?

Citation tier is $239/year billed annually ($359/year if billed monthly). Legacy 500 tier is $699/year billed annually ($1,049/year if billed monthly). Both tiers have a 12-month commitment. On top of the membership, members pay only the federal excise tax (7.5% of equivalent retail) and segment fees on flights they claim — typically $50 to $300 per flight depending on the route.

Who operates Empty Leg Club's flights?

MiaJets Charters operates every flight. MiaJets is an FAA Part 135 air carrier based in South Florida, ARGUS Gold rated, and Wyvern Certified. The Empty Leg Club membership is a product of MiaJets. There is one operator behind the entire fleet, with named tail numbers and a public safety record — not a brokered or aggregated network.

Who operates Vaunt's flights?

Per Vaunt's published statements, Vaunt is wholly owned by Volato Group and sources empty legs from a vetted network of third-party operators. Vaunt's homepage does not name those operators individually. Members who care about which Part 135 carrier they're flying on should check the manifest at booking time.

Can I release a Vaunt flight if my plans change?

Vaunt does not operate a release-to-auction or cash-payout mechanic on changed plans. Per Vaunt's own published statement, canceling or being a no-show for a reserved flight will lower your waitlist priority for future flights. Empty Leg Club lets members release any claimed leg back to a Dutch auction up to 24 hours before departure and pays the original claimer 50% of the clearing price in cash via ACH.

Which has the bigger fleet?

Vaunt — through its third-party operator network — almost certainly has more aircraft available across the country. MiaJets operates a smaller, named fleet concentrated on the East Coast. The right way to think about this is not 'larger is better' but 'is the inventory dense in the corridors I actually fly?' For East Coast travelers, MiaJets' density beats a national network that's spread thinner.

Which is better for a Florida-to-New York flier?

Empty Leg Club — by a wide margin. The Miami-to-New York corridor is one of MiaJets' busiest, and the membership fee is roughly 92% lower than Vaunt's. The release-to-auction mechanic adds a non-trivial earnings opportunity on top.

Which is better for a Seattle-to-Phoenix flier?

Vaunt is the only one of the two that covers the western U.S. at all. Empty Leg Club is open about being East Coast-focused — if your travel is mostly transcontinental or western, this is not the right club for you yet.

Can I belong to both?

Yes. The two memberships are independent. A member who lives on the East Coast but travels nationally a few times a year may genuinely want both. The combined annual cost ($239 + $2,995 = $3,234) is still less than a single retail charter on most routes either club covers.