Just as they want a return on their investment and philanthropy, rich people now want a return on their leisure time. “When they travel or socialize, there has to be some redeeming business value,” Mr. Friedman said. “They want a transaction, even from their social calendar.”

The calendar is a closed loop of access because the rich want to be seen, he said, but only by one another. With outrage over inequality driving more wealth underground, flashy spending and public hedonism have become less fashionable in very wealthy circles. Yet the competition for status among newly minted billionaires has never been stronger.

“They can be a schizophrenic group,” Mr. Friedman said. “They want to be private and they don’t want to be public targets. But they want a community. These selective events over the course of the year give them that community of like-minded people, without having to deal with the public.”

Granted, some of the superrich attend only one or two events on the calendar. And the circuit has offshoots depending on interests. Art collectors will be heavy on the art fairs and auctions but may attend little else. The equestrian crowd flocks to the Kentucky Derby in the spring and the Keeneland yearling auction in September; media titans go to the Allen & Company conference in Sun Valley in July, while fashion devotees go to Fashion Week in New York and the couture shows in Paris. The foodies head to the Aspen Food & Wine Classic in June and to Italy in white-truffle season.

As Asia creates vast new wealth, events like the Hong Kong wine auctions and Art Stage Singapore will become bigger offshoots of the circuit. Yet for now, many of the superrich from China and other emerging markets are joining their fellow elites at events in Europe and the United States.

Major entertainment and sporting events are crucial dates for the rich. NetJets says the Super Bowl was one of its biggest flight events in the last year; 250 of its jets descended on Phoenix for the game, and weeks later, 250 to 300 of them departed for the Masters Golf Tournament in Augusta, Ga. So many private jets arrived in Las Vegas last month for the Floyd Mayweather-Manny Pacquiao fight that some were redirected to nearby airports.

NetJets’ other big events are the Cannes Film Festival, with over 200 flights, and Art Basel, with 200 to 250 flights. Each spring, more than 100 NetJets planes head to Warren Buffett’s annual Berkshire Hathaway shareholders’ meeting, known as the “Woodstock for Capitalists,” in Omaha. (NetJets is owned by Berkshire.)