Fuel cards

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michael.g.miller
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Fuel cards

Post by michael.g.miller »

I'm looking at getting a DA42-NG. Very excited about having a modern diesel powerplant. But one thing has me curious.. I know very few people pay "retail" for JET-A, but what is the real price? What fuel cards do y'all use?

Also wondering.. what do y'all do for late night fuel stops? With AvGas self-serve pumps, it was easy to land at a quiet municipal airport and grab gas at midnight.. but what about JET-A? Do the fuel cards make it cheap enough you just go to 24h FBOs? Is there a contingent of airports with 24h self-serve JET-A?
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chili4way
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Re: Fuel cards

Post by chili4way »

I signed up for the Phillips 66 and Corporate Aircraft Association fuel programs. The Phillips one is free, with no minimum purchase commitment. You do have to go through a sign-up process and include a credit card that is used for direct billing. You have to pay attention to some of the location-specific pricing. In some cases, in addition to volume-based pricing, there is a minimum fee that makes paying retail the better option when you're not filling up a thirsty turbine aircraft.

The CAA program offers a free six-month trial period. After that, it's $500/year, so your net savings will depend on the amount of flying you do and where you do your flying. It also offers savings or waivers on other fees at their participating FBOs. If you have a preference for flying into larger airports (as many do because of the larger facilities, MX options, and meal/lodging choices), the savings can be substantial. They can also be quite good at smaller airports. Once you have your plane, I'd encourage you to sign up for their free trial period.

If you are a high-level ForeFlight subscriber, have a JetFuelX account, and associate your account with your discount programs, the discounted fuel prices can show up on your map. This is remarkably handy for fuel stop planning.

Specific pricing is confidential under the terms of the participation contracts.

There are a larger number of airports with self-serve Jet-A than I expected in rural areas (independent of the fuel discount programs). I suspect this is because the turbine ag-planes provide the demand. As always, do your homework and call ahead to be sure you don't show up off-hours and have an unpleasant surprise.
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Colin
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Re: Fuel cards

Post by Colin »

Yes, fuel cards are the thing. I wrote a blog entry about it, because it was pretty surprising when I first got my plane. There has never been a year that I didn't save the $500 fee for the CAA membership.
Colin Summers, PP Multi-Engine IFR, ~3,000hrs
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Re: Fuel cards

Post by neema »

Our home base has punitive retail jet A prices. They give something like $.50 off for tenants, but CAA is less than half the cost. We usually cover the CAA membership in a few weeks.

This year, I'm going to try giving Everest and Colt/World Fuel a shot. Definitely seems catered to big iron. We'll see how it goes
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Re: Fuel cards

Post by Boatguy »

My home airport gives tenants a discount, currently about $3.75, and for round trips within CA I usually don't need to buy fuel.

My experience is that Charlies and large Delta's (e.g., KSMO) run the fuel price scam (i.e., bloat the price, then provide a discount to card holders). Smaller Delta's (e.g., KSQL) and non-towered have reasonable prices.

So I think it depends on where you're flying. If you plan to fly to a lot of Charlies then you need a card to avoid being fleeced.
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Re: Fuel cards

Post by dmloftus »

chili4way wrote: Sun Jan 03, 2021 5:41 pm I signed up for the Phillips 66 and Corporate Aircraft Association fuel programs. The Phillips one is free, with no minimum purchase commitment.
I was flying an Angel Flight mission a few days ago and ran into another Angel Flight pilot in the FBO. He clued me into the $1 per gallon rebate for Angel Flight missions from the Phillips 66 Aviation Card. Some FBO's will give Angel Flight pilots a discount but many won't. Regardless, Phillips 66 will give you the $1 / gallon for just charging your gas to their card and sending in a simple rebate form. It's great that they support such a great cause.
They support quite a few Compassion Flight agencies listed here:

https://www.phillips66aviation.com/cred ... te-program
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