Terms of service
These terms cover use of the Aircraft Steward website and application, including the 30-day free trial and paid subscriptions. They take effect on October 16, 2026.
Who operates the service, and who these terms are with
Third Coast Aircraft, LLC d/b/a Aircraft Steward ("Aircraft Steward", "we", "us") operates the website at aircraftsteward.com and the application organizations use to schedule aircraft, keep pilot records, and, where they choose, keep books and take payment.
These terms are an agreement between Third Coast Aircraft, LLC d/b/a Aircraft Steward and the organization that starts a trial or subscribes (the "organization"). The person who starts the trial, chooses a plan, or otherwise accepts these terms does so on the organization's behalf, and confirms that they are allowed to bind it.
People the organization invites — staff, pilots, students, renters and members — use the service through the organization's account. The sections on accounts, invitations and content apply to them too.
An organization that joined by invitation and signed an agreement with us (for example, a founding agreement invoiced by hand) is also covered by that agreement. Where the two differ, the signed agreement governs.
Who may use it
An organization can start a 30-day free trial from aircraftsteward.com, or we can create the organization and invite its first administrator. An organization is a flight school, flying club, aircraft partnership, rental operator, aircraft owner, an operator that uses only the accounting module, or another operator we agree to host.
Starting a trial needs an email address that receives our sign-in link. Throwaway mail domains cannot start one. One email address starts one trial. We limit how many trials can be started from one network connection or one account in a short time, and we may refuse to start a trial.
People who fly with an organization use the service when that organization invites them. The invitation link works once and expires 14 days after it is issued. Sign-in is by a one-time email link, or by a passkey after you have enrolled one. An address that has not been invited, and that is not starting a trial from the trial link, cannot create an account from the sign-in screen.
Prices are in US dollars. Member payments are available only to an organization that can open a US account with Stripe.
The service is for organizations and the people they invite. It is not directed at children.
The 30-day free trial
A trial lasts 30 days from the moment the organization is created. No card is asked for during the trial, and nothing is charged for it.
During the trial the organization has every Standard feature and any number of aircraft, with these limits:
- 25 invitations, staff and portal invitations together, counted as they are issued. Revoking one does not give it back.
- 25 documents, and 250 MB of document files in all. Removing a document frees its place.
- 25 document readings a day.
Not included in the trial: QuickBooks Online sync, which is not offered in this release; assisted setup and move-over help; and live member payments, except as described under "Member payments through Stripe".
We email the organization's administrators a week before the trial ends, again a day or two before, and when it ends. We may extend a trial.
A plan is chosen once the trial has ended. Until then, Team → Plan says when the plan will be chosen.
When the trial ends without a plan, the organization becomes read-only. Everything can still be read and exported: reports to Excel, document downloads, and the full Books export. Nothing new can be recorded, documents are not read, and no new member payment can be taken. Administrators can still remove people, revoke invitations, change a person's role and retire aircraft, so the organization can be brought within a plan. Nothing is deleted when the trial ends.
When an administrator chooses a plan and Stripe confirms the payment, the same account continues, with everything entered during the trial.
What happens to an expired trial that never subscribes is under "Keeping and deleting an organization's data".
What the organization is responsible for
Each organization decides who may use its aircraft, which documents it requires, what it records about its people, and how it bills them. Aircraft Steward stores and shows that information so the organization can run its operation. It does not decide whether an aircraft is airworthy, whether a person is current or legal to fly, or whether a document is genuine.
The organization is responsible for the accuracy of the records it enters or approves, for sending invitation links to the right people, and for the support contact it publishes to its own people.
What Aircraft Steward provides
The service includes scheduling and reservations, dispatch and check-in, fleet and maintenance records, pilot documents, operational reports, and a billing calculation. An organization may also use Books, the accounting module, which is labelled a preview until an accountant has validated that organization's setup.
When an organization connects payments, its people can pay that organization by card or US bank account. Stripe processes the payment on the organization's own connected Stripe account, as described under "Member payments through Stripe". Aircraft Steward does not store the full card or bank account number. A question about a charge goes to the organization that made it.
Aircraft Steward does not run payroll, does not transfer money between an organization's own bank accounts, does not file taxes, and does not produce a Schedule K-1. Bank activity in Books is imported from statement files. Live bank feeds are not offered.
Plans and prices
Prices are the ones published on aircraftsteward.com under Pricing on the day a plan is chosen. On the date of these terms they are:
- Standard: $29 per aircraft per month billed annually ($348 per aircraft per year), or $35 per aircraft per month billed monthly. No minimum number of aircraft and no per-person charge. Standard is charged for each aircraft in service — every aircraft that has not been retired — and for at least one. Every aircraft counts at the full rate.
- Owner: $199 a year for one aircraft. Owner is limited to one aircraft in service; one administrator and up to two other people, as member or maintenance users, counting open invitations; no portal invitations; and the administrator alone books the aircraft. It has no shared scheduling or reservation rules for others, no Books posting (Books reports and the export still open), no member payments, no QuickBooks sync and no assisted setup. These limits are enforced by the service. An Owner organization that is larger than this (for example, because people were added while its checkout page was open) is read-only until it fits.
- EAA and AOPA member discount: $40 off the Owner plan, so $159 a year, for a current EAA or AOPA member. It is claimed at checkout with a member number and the last name on the membership, applied on trust, and checked by hand afterwards. One membership discounts one organization. We ask for it to be confirmed again once a year. If we cannot confirm it, the discount comes off from the next renewal and the organization's administrators are told why. It is never combined with founding pricing.
- Founding pricing: for the first 25 organizations, counting organizations already using Aircraft Steward, while places remain. Standard billed annually only, chosen when a trial ends (or under a founding agreement signed with us). 50% off for the first 12 months from the start of the subscription, then $348 per aircraft per year, locked until 36 months after the start, for every aircraft on the subscription. A founding place is reserved for the organization when an administrator continues to Stripe with Standard billed annually; if the trial is converted to monthly billing or to Owner instead, the place is released. A founding subscription cannot move to monthly billing during the lock; leaving Standard annual ends the founding terms. It does not combine with the EAA or AOPA discount, and it does not reduce the QuickBooks add-on. We email the administrators 60 days before the lock ends; from the renewal after it ends, the subscription is charged the published Standard annual price. A founding subscription cancelled during the lock is restarted by us on its founding terms: write to info@aircraftsteward.com.
- QuickBooks Online sync is not offered in this release. When it is, it will be priced per QuickBooks company file and sold with Standard only.
Fees a person pays an organization for flying, dues or other charges are between that person and the organization.
Prices do not include sales, use or similar taxes. Where such a tax applies, the organization is responsible for it.
Billing, renewal and changes
A plan is paid by card through Stripe's checkout page. Card details are entered on Stripe's page and never reach Aircraft Steward.
The first payment is taken when the plan is chosen. A subscription renews automatically at the end of each billing period — every year, or every month — at the price then in force, and the card on file is charged, until it is cancelled.
On Standard, the number of aircraft charged follows the aircraft in service. Adding an aircraft, or bringing one back from retirement, raises the quantity; retiring or removing one lowers it. Stripe prorates the change over the rest of the current period and adds the amount to, or credits it on, the next invoice. On annual billing the next invoice is normally the renewal. We also check the quantity against the fleet once a day.
Changing plan:
- Owner to Standard, at any time, in place. Stripe prorates the difference.
- Standard monthly to annual, or annual to monthly, at any time, from Team → Plan or Stripe's billing page. Stripe prorates the difference. A founding subscription stays annual during its lock.
- Standard to Owner, only at renewal, on request to info@aircraftsteward.com, and only if the organization fits the Owner plan.
Invoices and receipts for the subscription are in Stripe's billing page (Team → Plan → Manage billing), where an administrator also updates the card. Our own notices about the subscription go by email to the organization's administrators.
We may change prices. A price change applies to an existing subscription from its first renewal after we have given its administrators 30 days' notice by email. A price change never applies to a founding subscription during its price lock.
Overdue payments
If a card payment fails, Stripe retries it on its own schedule. The organization keeps working for 14 days from the first failed payment, and the banner says by when to update the card.
After those 14 days, or as soon as Stripe stops retrying, the organization is read-only until the overdue invoice is paid. It can write again as soon as the payment goes through. Read-only means what it means at the end of a trial: everything can be read and exported, nothing is deleted.
An organization invoiced by hand that does not pay an agreed fee after notice may be suspended (see "Suspending use").
Cancellation
An administrator cancels a card subscription in Stripe's billing page (Team → Plan → Manage billing). Cancellation takes effect at the end of the period already paid for. Until then the organization keeps working.
After that the organization is read-only, as at the end of a trial: everything can still be read and exported, and nothing is deleted when the subscription ends. Choosing a plan again continues the same account.
An organization whose agreement is invoiced by hand cancels by writing to info@aircraftsteward.com. Notice is as the signed agreement says.
What happens to the data after a cancellation is under "Keeping and deleting an organization's data".
Refunds
Payments are not refunded for part of a billing period — when a subscription is cancelled part of the way through a period, when an aircraft is retired, or when a plan is changed — except where the law requires a refund, or where we decide to make one. Unused time on a retired aircraft, or on the old plan after a change, is credited against later invoices, prorated, and not paid back.
If an organization is charged twice for the same subscription — for example, two checkout pages were both paid — we cancel the second subscription straight away and refund its payment.
Setup and move-over help
Setup help is offered to an organization on an active Standard subscription. It is not offered during a trial or on the Owner plan. Each piece of work is priced when it is opened, from the number of aircraft in service when the subscription started (for an organization invoiced by hand, that number or the number in service when the work is opened, whichever is larger).
A Stripe-billed organization is sent a Stripe invoice for setup work, payable within 30 days. It is never charged to the card on file. An organization invoiced by hand has it added to its next invoice.
One or two aircraft: the organization moves its own records at no charge, or pays one $750 fee that covers move-over help and Books opening balances. There is no separate opening-balance charge.
Three or more aircraft, billed annually: move-over help is included. It covers importing members, aircraft and rates, entering reservations by hand (the importers do not take reservations), and one 60-minute kickoff, up to 3 hours of our time in all, used within 30 days of the subscription starting. All of our time counts against the 3 hours, including time spent entering reservations. Work beyond the 3 hours or after the 30 days is paid setup.
Three or more aircraft, billed monthly: the same help, for $750. If the organization switches to annual billing within 60 days of the subscription starting, the $750 is credited to its Stripe account in full, against future invoices. If the $750 invoice is still unpaid when the switch is made, the invoice is cancelled instead of credited.
Books opening balances, three or more aircraft: $750 for up to three aircraft, plus $150 for each aircraft after the third.
QuickBooks history import: $1,500 for up to two years of history. A longer history is quoted.
A founding organization on annual billing is not charged the one-or-two-aircraft setup fee, Books opening balances or the QuickBooks history import. Its move-over help follows its fleet size, as above.
Member payments through Stripe
When an organization connects payments, its people pay it through a Stripe connected account that is the organization's own. An administrator of the organization's books asks Aircraft Steward to open the account with Stripe, in the legal name recorded for those books (or their name, if no legal name is recorded), and then completes Stripe's onboarding — the identity, business and bank details Stripe asks for — in Stripe's forms inside Aircraft Steward. There is no separate Stripe dashboard; the organization manages the account, its payouts and its disputes through those Stripe forms.
The organization agrees to Stripe's terms for that account directly with Stripe when it completes onboarding: the Stripe Connected Account Agreement, which incorporates the Stripe Services Agreement.
The organization is the merchant. Its name appears on its member's card or bank statement, the money is paid out to its bank account on Stripe's schedule, and a refund or a dispute comes out of its Stripe balance; a dispute also carries Stripe's dispute fee. Aircraft Steward is not a party to the payment between the organization and its member. A question about a charge goes to the organization.
Stripe collects its own processing fee from the organization directly. Aircraft Steward's share is a fee attached to the same payment. The combined rate is shown on the organization's Payments panel and in the Help Center ("Payments and fees"); on the date of these terms it is 3.25% + 30¢ by card, of which 0.35% is Aircraft Steward's, and 1.0% capped at $6.00 by US bank account, of which 0.2%, capped at $1.00, is Aircraft Steward's. When a payment is refunded, Aircraft Steward's fee is given back in proportion; Stripe keeps its processing fee.
Who carries losses. Every connected account Aircraft Steward opens is set up with Stripe collecting its own fees from the organization and with Stripe, not Aircraft Steward, carrying the loss liability. If the account's balance goes negative — because of refunds, disputes, fraud or anything else — the organization owes that amount to Stripe under its agreement with Stripe, and Stripe may recover it from the organization. If the organization does not pay it, Stripe, not Aircraft Steward, bears the loss under Stripe's terms. Aircraft Steward does not guarantee, cover or advance a negative balance, chargeback or fraud loss on an organization's account, and is not liable to Stripe for one. If Stripe will not grant a payment method while it carries the loss liability, the account is not created; Aircraft Steward does not take on the liability itself, or drop the payment method, to obtain it.
During a trial. Members can pay the organization online only once both of these are true: the set of books taking the payment has completed Stripe's onboarding, and Aircraft Steward has approved live payments for the organization. Until then no member payment can be taken online, in Stripe test mode or otherwise. Approval is at our discretion, and we may withdraw it; withdrawing it stops new payments and does not touch payments already taken. Once approved, the organization may take up to $10,000 of member payments in total during the trial, counted as what members are charged (including any card surcharge), by card and by bank account alike, and not reduced by a later refund. A payment that would take the total past $10,000 is refused until a plan is chosen. Payments taken during the trial are real money: they stay in the organization's books when it subscribes, and its live payments account is not closed.
After a trial ends without a plan, no new member payment can be taken. Refunds of payments already taken keep working, payments already in progress still settle, and the organization can still answer a dispute and see its payouts in Stripe's forms.
On the Owner plan there are no member payments. An organization whose plan has no member payments, or that is read-only, takes no new payment, including autopay.
Accounts and invitations
You are responsible for the email address you use and for the device you open a sign-in link on. A portal invitation has to be opened on the device you sign in from. Do not share an invitation link. If you think someone else has used yours, tell your operator and write to info@aircraftsteward.com.
Your content
Records, documents and messages an organization or its people submit stay theirs. You give Aircraft Steward permission to host, display and process that material solely to provide the service, including sending a document to a document-reading service when the organization uses extraction, and sending a payment to Stripe when the organization has connected payments. The privacy notice describes this more fully.
Keeping and deleting an organization's data
An expired trial that never subscribed is deleted 90 days after its trial ended. Until then everything in it can be read and exported. We email the organization's administrators 30 days and again 7 days before deletion. Choosing a plan before then keeps everything.
An expired trial that set up Books or connected payments, or that we have agreed to keep, is not deleted automatically: it stays read-only, and we write to its administrators before deleting it.
After a subscription is cancelled, the organization stays read-only and nothing is deleted until the organization asks us to delete it. We email its administrators before deleting it.
On request. An administrator of the organization may ask us to delete the organization by writing to info@aircraftsteward.com. We act on a request within 30 days. Export everything you want to keep first.
What we keep after deletion. Records of the organization's subscription and payments to Aircraft Steward, for as long as tax and accounting law requires. Stripe keeps its own records of the subscription and of the organization's connected account under its own terms. Deleted data can remain in our hosting provider's backups for up to 30 days.
Availability
We work to keep the service available, and we do not promise uninterrupted access. We may change or withdraw a feature. Books is offered as a preview, which means an organization should not rely on it as its system of record until its own accountant has checked the setup.
Suspending use
We may suspend access if the service is being misused, if we are required to by law, or if an agreed fee is unpaid after notice. We may refuse or end a trial that is being used to get around the one-trial-per-address rule or the trial's limits. Where we can, we will say why. Cancellation by the organization is under "Cancellation".
Limits
To the extent the law allows, Aircraft Steward is not liable for lost profits, lost flying time, or other indirect or consequential damages arising from use of the service, or for a decision about airworthiness, currency, or whether someone may fly. Nothing in these terms limits liability that the law says cannot be limited.
Disputes
Write to info@aircraftsteward.com first and tell us what happened. If we cannot sort it out, either of us may take the dispute to a court that has authority over it.
Governing law
These terms are governed by the laws of the State of Alabama.
Changes to these terms
We may update these terms. This page shows the effective date. Before a change to prices, billing, cancellation, refunds or data deletion takes effect, we email the administrators of each organization 30 days ahead. If the organization keeps using the service after the effective date, the updated terms apply.
Contact
Third Coast Aircraft, LLC d/b/a Aircraft Steward. Email info@aircraftsteward.com or call (334) 489-3406. Questions about a booking, a document or a bill go to your operator, not to this address or number.