If you're heading for that big continent in the southern half of the Western Hemisphere with a cabin full of high-worth individuals, you might first want to read Pablo Penalva's “Top Five Things to Know Before Flying to South America.”

“One thing both we as crew as well as our passengers did for this trip was register with the U.S. Department of State in the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program, or STEP,” Capt. Bob Lazear, who flies for retailer Costco, told BCA about his flight department's preflight planning for a spring 2013 flight to Colombia to visit coffee plantations.

When Blain Stanley, international operations director at Aircare FACTS Training, begins a class on cabin emergency training for flight crews, he asks the pilots — many of whom have described their passengers as “Type A's” — if they think their charges would be assets or liabilities during an emergency. According to Stanley, the nearly universal answer is the latter.