Bitcoin boom sees newly wealthy splurging on luxury travel
High end private jet and cruise companies accepting payment in cryptocurrency to tap into growth market
A growing number of private jet and ultra-luxury cruise operators are taking cryptocurrency payments amid booming demand from travellers made rich by soaring bitcoin prices.
“Tremendous” demand from young, wealthy customers has prompted Flexjet-owned FXAIR to accept crypto payments, Flexjet chair Kenn Ricci told the Financial Times.
FXAIR charges about $80,000 for a trip from Farnborough airport, near London, to New York City.
Ricci said Flexjet has had a “significant” rise in bookings in recent months from “young entrepreneurs in the bitcoin space [who] fly farther and want larger planes. We save them time . . . And time is the most precious luxury.”
Bitcoin hit a record high of $124,000 in recent weeks, boosted by US President Donald Trump’s support for the sector and vow to make America the world’s “crypto capital”.
Congress also passed landmark legislation, while Trump has appointed crypto-friendly regulators and backed several digital asset businesses.
As well as token prices, shares in companies such as exchange Coinbase and stablecoin operator Circle have reached record highs.
“Those who are seeing the value of their bitcoin grow rapidly are spending it on private jets or luxury hotels or luxury cruises,” said Paul Charles, chief executive of luxury travel consultancy PC Agency.
“There is a younger generation that’s grown up that is desperate to travel, to not be stuck with the humdrum and the usual.”
Luxury cruise company Virgin Voyages’ $120,000 annual pass can now be bought with crypto payments.
Meanwhile SeaDream Yacht Club, which operates two super-luxury yachts with a crew-to-guest ratio of almost 1:1, started accepting bitcoin payments shortly after Trump began his second term.
For some of the newly wealthy, luxury “is not about butlers with white gloves and golden mirrors, it is about freedom of choice”, said one person close to the yacht company. “If you want to pay in crypto we want to let you do that.”
Boutique hotel groups including US-based The Kessler Collection and Hong Kong-founded The Pavilions Hotels and Resorts also accept tokens including dogecoin, litecoin and ethereum.
Deep-pocketed young entrepreneurs have sparked a boom in the global luxury travel market.
People aged 30 to 40 spent $28bn on luxury travel in 2023, and are projected to spend $54bn in 2028, according to a McKinsey analysis.
Nick Fazioli, head of commercial aerospace and aviation at investment bank Jefferies, said the “younger crowds” do not want to “sip champagne and eat caviar”.
Bitcoin and tech entrepreneurs have “infinite resources, infinite money, infinite kinds of ambitions”. “The most important thing that is in short supply for them is time,” he said.
Private jets mean travellers “can be in three cities in one day and still come back to see your family at night”, Fazioli said. “Once you’ve got used to private travel it’s really hard to go back.”