High Fliers

From the beginning, Santulli was determined to protect his brand. He and his staff gave Dichter, Itzler, and Allard, a former executive at SFX and a member of the original Marquis team, a crash course on aviation. They learned about the 14 types of planes in the NetJets fleet, the economics of the business, the logistics of managing hundreds of planes with access to some 5,000 mostly smaller airports, and a flight schedule in constant flux (owners can request a plane with as little as 10 hours' notice). They shadowed Santulli and spent hours listening in on customer calls and absorbing the NetJets 24-7 culture.

Santulli also introduced them to Buffett, who hosted Marquis's early owners at a dinner and mingled with the company founders earlier this year at a poker tournament in Vegas. "Surprisingly, given how many companies he owns, he knows how many cards we've sold," says Allard.

Santulli isn't as hands-on as he was in the beginning, when he would call Marquis customers and interview them about their experience dealing with the company. Marquis has proven itself. Sure, Marquis can obviously create marketing buzz . But it can also provide the personal service that meets NetJets' high standards. It's a tricky business; because owners are spending so much, they expect a lot more than a bag of airline pretzel sticks.

That's why "Get in their lives" is Marquis's mantra. It means learning the details that matter--family members' magazine and cereal preferences, as well as food allergies. Having flowers and a card on the plane for anniversary and birthday trips, a team hat for a flight to a big game. Sales staffers and executives alike receive email alerts on their BlackBerries anytime one of their designated owners books a flight. In Itzler's case, service often includes befriending owners: having LeBron James over to his lake house to jet ski, flying with Matt Damon to play poker in Vegas.

Flying on Marquis is "definitely a luxury," says Body by Jake's Jake Steinfeld, a customer for four years. "But once you do it, you don't want to give it up. It's like the drug of all drugs."

Jake Steinfeld, the CEO of Body by Jake Global and founder of Major League Lacrosse, says Marquis has changed his life by eliminating the stress and hassle of flying. A recent four-city business trip took a day and a half on Marquis instead of the four days it would have taken on commercial airlines (which he still flies on cross-country trips). That gives him more time for his wife and four kids. "It's definitely a luxury, but once you do it, you don't want to give it up," he says. "It's like the drug of all drugs."

In fact, the only reason he would leave Marquis is to co-own a NetJets plane. Now on his eighth card in four years, he's thinking about it. But even if the company loses him, he has rewarded it fifteen-fold. That's how many friends and associates he says he has recruited into the program. "I guarantee you I'm their number-one salesman," Steinfeld says. For Santulli and Marquis's founders, he's something more: proof that they're right on course.

One Millionaire's Flight Plan

When does flying Marquis Jet, which costs $4,400 or more per hour, make financial sense? When you've crunched the numbers, says cardholder Todd Duncan, a CEO and author. Duncan, who travels at least twice a month, giving as many as 75 speeches a year, kept track of his unproductive downtime while flying commercially after September 11. With the delays caused by the new security precautions, he estimated that he was wasting 23 workdays a year. Here's how Duncan, who still travels commercial on cross-country flights, breaks it down.

Chuck Salter (csalter@fastcompany.com) is a Fast Company senior writer based in Chicago.