Empty legs are one of the few ways to charter out of San Francisco below the usual cost, and they suit a particular kind of traveler.
What an empty leg is
When an aircraft flies a one-way charter, it often has to reposition afterward, either back to its home base or on to pick up the next booking. That repositioning flight has no passengers on it. Selling those seats recovers cost for the operator, so the price to you can be well below a standard charter.
Not every owner allows an empty leg to be sold, which is part of why they can be hard to find. They are also not the same thing as a one-way charter: a one-way booking is usually priced closer to a round trip, because the aircraft still has to get home.
The catch
An empty leg exists only because an aircraft already needs to be somewhere. The route, the date, the departure time and the aircraft are all fixed by that original trip, not by you. If the booking that created it moves or cancels, the empty leg moves or disappears with it.
So they work well if your dates are flexible and your destination is negotiable, and badly if you need to be in a specific place at a specific hour.
Where they show up in this market
Busy two-way corridors generate the most, and out of the Bay Area that means Southern California and Las Vegas above all, with Seattle, Scottsdale and Aspen behind them. Traffic in both directions is what creates repositioning, so those routes are worth asking about.
How to find one
Tell your advisor the route you want, the widest date range you can accept, and how much flexibility you have on departure time. We will tell you what is available. If nothing fits, we will quote the trip properly rather than making you wait for something that may not appear.
Call +1-888-987-5387.