PARK CITY, Utah — Game Day Private Jets and Waypoint Network today announced a strategic partnership designed to create a more complete premium travel experience for college fans, alumni, donors and corporate supporters.
The collaboration brings together Game Day Private Jets' membership-based private travel platform with Waypoint Network's global lodging platform, giving travelers greater flexibility in how they get to the game, where they stay and how they build the overall experience around college sports.
From same-day Game Day Jet Shuttles and individual private charters to custom overnight and multi-day trips, Game Day provides fans, families, alumni, donors and businesses with multiple ways to travel based on their schedules, group size and preferences. Through the Waypoint partnership, travelers can now pair those private aviation options with hotels, resorts and premium vacation rentals — creating a more seamless travel ecosystem while helping participating schools benefit from the travel spending already taking place around their communities.
"Since we launched our global travel portals just over a year ago, alumni and fans have been able to book lodging for gameday trips, family vacations and anniversaries while giving back to their teams," said Matt Sanders, CEO and co-founder of Waypoint Network. "In that year we've also heard loud and clear from college and conference leaders that the donors and corporations who give so much to their programs deserve an exceptional experience when they travel to see the teams they love. Bringing the flights and stays together is a natural fit."
The planned integration will allow fans to begin their trip through either company. Travelers booking through Game Day will be able to access accommodations through the Waypoint platform, with qualifying lodging activity attributed to participating schools. Fans beginning through a school-branded Waypoint portal, such as mountaineer.travel, will be able to select a hotel, resort or premium vacation rental and connect with Game Day to explore private aviation options for their trip.
"Game Day's team has applied more than 20 years of aviation experience to thoughtfully build a platform specifically for fans," Sanders added. "We share their commitment to making the entire trip worthy of the occasion. Game Day is an ideal partner, has great market momentum and makes sure the sky isn't the limit for fans."
"College sports travel isn't one-size-fits-all, and that's exactly why we built Game Day around optionality," said Luis Garcia, Founder and CEO of Game Day Private Jets. "One weekend that may mean two seats on a same-day Game Day Jet Shuttle. The next could be a private aircraft for a family, donor group or company staying several nights. But for our school partners, the bigger opportunity is how all of that travel activity can work together. Our REVUP College Athletics Revenue Generating Platform is designed to help schools create new revenue opportunities from the private aviation travel already taking place within their fan, donor and alumni communities. Waypoint fits naturally into that model by allowing participating schools to essentially double down on that opportunity — generating value from both the private travel in the air and the lodging on the ground. Together, we can offer supporters a more complete travel experience while creating an entirely new revenue channel for college athletics."
The companies will work together to introduce the offering to schools and conferences, combining private aviation, lodging and school-focused travel activation into a more comprehensive model designed around team schedules, major events and supporter communities. For participating athletics programs, the partnership creates an opportunity to capture more value from travel spending already occurring among their fans, donors, alumni and corporate partners.
About Waypoint Network
Waypoint Network connects fan loyalty with travel and commerce through school-branded booking platforms and its proprietary Fan Atlas™ intelligence and engagement platform. Its offerings include everyday travel, premium fan experiences and corporate incentive travel with the intent to convert some of the billions spent by alumni and fans to their school, and provide 50% of net proceeds to athletics.
Waypoint is actively assembling value-added partners like Game Day in the travel space to deliver value to fans and to the schools they serve.
Learn more at waypointnetwork.ai.
About Game Day Private Jets
Game Day Private Jets is a membership-based private travel platform built around college athletics and the way fans, alumni, donors, families and businesses travel today. Members have access to multiple private aviation options, including individual private charters, shared flight opportunities, by-the-seat Game Day Jet Shuttles and custom travel experiences designed around college sports and other major events.
Through partnerships with schools, athletics organizations and complementary travel providers such as Waypoint Network, Game Day is building a more connected travel ecosystem that makes premium fan travel easier while creating new opportunities to support college athletics and the communities its members care about.
Learn more at flygameday.com.