For $100,000, see the world from a richly detailed private jet

NEW YORK -- When Abercrombie & Kent launched super-luxurious private-jet tours two years ago, executives were pretty sure there was demand for the trips, even though they cost more than $50,000 a person.

What they miscalculated, perhaps, was just how strong the demand would be. Aimed at the Champagne-and-caviar set, the globe-circling adventures on a specially configured Boeing 757 were a huge hit, prompting the company this year to take the concept to a new level.

This week, Abercrombie & Kent unveiled a new 757, boasting that it is the most intimate and ritzy in the business. Configured to hold only 52 passengers, down from 88 on Abercrombie's last jet, the jet will cost from $85,000 to $100,000 a person per trip.

"Many of our clients said they would gladly pay double to have a more intimate experience," says Scott Wiseman, managing director of Illinois-based Abercrombie & Kent, chatting during a reception for travel agents on the plane earlier this week at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport.

Each of the seats on the aircraft, which Abercrombie will lease seasonally from Icelandair, is a wide, extended-recline cradle seat, the kind found in first-class cabins on traditional carriers. The distance between seats, or pitch as it's known in the industry, is a generous 60 inches. The jet also has a rear lounge that consists of four seating areas, each with oversized beige seats and a teak table, where passengers can sip a drink or have a full dinner while zipping from Marrakech to Timbuktu.

More than a dozen crew and staffers will accompany each tour, including four tour guides, a dedicated baggage handler and five flight attendants — which is a ratio of more than one staffer to every eight guests, Wiseman says.

A typical trip by private jet lasts about three weeks and includes hops between a half-dozen or more of the world's most famous destinations, from Africa's Serengeti to Peru's Machu Picchu.

While it is only now being unveiled in the USA, the new jet has been in service for several months and has completed three sold-out tours. The last trip, which ended Tuesday, was a 21-day jaunt around Africa that Wiseman says had a 20-person waiting list.