Traveller’s Benefit
First Black-Owned Luxury Travel and Airport Lounge Pass Set to Launch in May By Nasha Smith
A
new app is making layovers a lot more luxurious. On May 4th, 2021, FLY LYFE (https://myflylyfe.com) will launch the world’s first Black-owned Social Travel Network and Lounge Pass. The new mobile app will provide access to over 400 lounges globally. FLY LYFE originally started out as a private jet charter broker company “FLY OMY JET” in 2016, primarily handling celebrity flights. But the company’s CEO and founder, Allen Forrest, saw an opportunity for expansion. “My vision was always to have a major platform not just for private aviation bookings, but also to be able to get into the commercial space and to try to approach it in a different type of way,” Forrest told Travel Noire. “We realized that there are a lot of people out there that want the private experience, but a lot of them can’t afford the private experience price tag. So when we started, we were servicing celebrities, businessmen, athletes, etc. But we saw a market that we could approach.” Forrest also noticed that there were no dedicated spaces for his clientele to interact with each other outside the private flights or a platform to provide curated information on luxury travel. He wants to also make these resources accessible to the Black travel community. “I’ve seen an uptick in a lot of Black travel over the last year and especially during the pandemic. There has been an exceptional amount of Black travel that we would like to tap into and let them know that as they’re traveling there are some luxurious lounges they may not know about, even if they don’t have an American Express Platinum Card or a priority pass to get into them. That’s where we want to step in and fill that void.”
Membership is tiered and ranges from $19.95 to $149.95 per month with initiation fees. Members are eligible for the best deals on shared private jets, events, villas, hotels, and other amenities. The plan is also to provide access to an extensive database of social networking contacts and hotspots. “We have curated cities from all around the world. I’ve been building this catalog for the last five years,” explained Forrest. “So any city that you go to, as soon as you hit the FLY LYFE network, it’s going to tell you all the hottest locations that you need to be at but not like Yelp that just gives you reviews. This is going to be the actual place where Leonardo DiCaprio is hanging out or Jay-Z is frequently here. It makes it just a little easier when you’re traveling. You don’t have to spend four or five hours a day trying to figure out ‘what should I do tonight? Or where should I go?’ It just automatically does it for you.” For more information, visit FLY LYFE ((https:// myflylyfe.com). www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/africa/ articles/african-islands-never-heard-of/
65 | ABA Publications | Africa TRAVEL | May 2021
