Charters are absolutely a mixed bag. They can be some of your most memorable rotations or major gotchas.

The plus sides are definitely about the unusual duration and location of layovers, the atmosphere of the passengers in the back and the food can be amazing. 72 hours in PHX in January for a NCAA booster club to the winning team was a great overnight and easiest 5 day domestic trip I’ve ever had. Flying winning teams to from a championship is fun, we also do very rewarding missions as others have mentioned. NBA charters are much more health food conscious now, still taste great for the most part, I personally found out coconut water wasn’t for me and would never have tried it but for the charter.

Down sides are type/time of flights and not having normal ops screws up normal rhythm that becomes a LOE level threat management quickly, notable mention of dark FBO ramps making for a lot of “trusting” your wingwalker who is not looking at your wing. Non NBA 757 charters also carry the caveat of you are generally flying the system spare airplane around so never trust the ferry flight on a charter trip. Originally scheduled to DTW, took off from SoCal once after a military charter with enough fuel to make AUS/ ATL/ MCO depending on whichever part they couldn’t replace. Landed in AUS to replace a plane with lightning strike damage.