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Charter flights on the cheap, or at least the cheaper

The Web site, Virgin Charter, has launched for those wealthy folk looking for a last-minute deal on a charter flight.

These are really expensive. I pulled up an offer for last-minute travel from Santiago, Chile, to West Palm Beach, leaving Wednesday or Thursday for the bargain-basement price of $4,717.11. Pocket change, right? I’m thinking of an impromptu shopping trip on Worth Avenue.

The Web site allows the buyer to bid on the fare, using a web button titled “make an offer,” so maybe the fare can whittled down to $4,000, so someone can avoid dipping into their trust fund.

Virgin Charter is aimed at filling empty seats on charter flights, and Richard Branson, owner of Virgin Atlantic, thought it was such a great idea, he bought it and financed improvements to the site, the TechCrunch.com blog says.

Branson wanted to call it Empty Legs. I like that name better but you can’t get much bounce back to the original “Virgin” brand with it.

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