dordal

Hmm, that's interesting. Wonder what sort of discount they're offering. A little worrisome though... I wouldn't hesitate to purchase a year right now, but two or three with all the changes they do makes me cautious.

In other news, a fantastic service recovery yesterday on BFI-OAK. XO cancelled the flight about 7 hours out, and JS managed to find another charter for us in about two hours. Stressful that it cancelled, but they came through. My unrecovered cancellation rate on empties has gone from 40% in 2016 to 6% (!) in 2017...

freq.flyer

According to a friend of mine working in the private aviation business, Jetsmarter is desperately trying to raise money at a crazy valuation. Their bank account is almost empty and that's the reason why they are charging shuttles / reducing empty legs. They could be out of business in the following months if they don't raise money from somewhere. Of course it's just a rumor but I won't be surprised if it's true.

I've also noticed many bugs in the last Jetsmarter update, this update is not stable.

dordal

I'm sticking by my prediction that without raising more money they've got through Winter 2018. Hopefully they can raise more, but I'm not sure how feasible that is... member growth seems to have stagnated, at least in net numbers. I think they're signing up a lot of people still but a number of people are leaving. Reference wingnut, four posts up.

They need to focus on building a profitable business, which I think is probably empty legs (assuming they can get those for cheap) and short-haul shuttles. Sure its sexy to say you're connecting the world from LA to New York to London to Dubai, but the business case isn't there. Saving people time on the LA<->SF or BOS<->NYC or NYC<->MIA is a viable business, and my back-of-the-envelope math says it should work. So does the success of companies like SurfAir.

I wouldn't read too much into the rumors from other people in the biz. Like most other similar startups, all the entrenched people want them to fail, because it threatens their core business. I've been hearing that the bank account is almost empty since just about day one. Maybe it's true this time, but hard to see how they could have burned through $105MM since December 2016, when they last raised money.

OptionsCLE

I don't understand how other people get this treatment. I've been on no less than 10 empty legs which have been re-routed or had mechanical problems leading to cancellations, most of the times after I've accepted the invoice and received a confirmation (at which point they would have charged me had I been the one to cancel). All I get is a poorly worded form note through the app stating something to the effect of "unfortunately my flight was not confirmed by the operator." By their contractual definition, the flight had indeed been confirmed, but subsequently canceled. All they've done is thrown in some flight credits to offset the cash cost of airline tickets etc...certainly not chartered another plane for me at their cost.

Townshend

iOS or Android app? I haven't had any issues with iOS.

I've heard they're broke or going broke for the entire time they've been in operation.

I haven't noticed any DPJ empties lately and the London<>Dubai route seems to be no more though

Sykes

When's the last time you had a cancellation after confirmation? There seems to have been a policy change a month or two ago (perhaps longer, but certainly sometime this year). My understanding is that they still won't arrange alternate transportation because of mechanical issues (because they're issues "outside their control"), but they will do it if the carrier has a schedule change that redirects the empty leg (which is super-common with XOJet).

Personally I've had two alternate charters because of an XOJet schedule change in the last few months.

T-15.01

United, American, Delta - I think they all were bankrupt, but they all still seem to be afloat enough to drag people up and down their aisles..... so I'm not sure a bank account being big or small is hugely relevant, especially in this industry. If the same plane has an uneventful takeoff AND landing, it's a successful business if I'm a passenger on board, and last I checked, JetSmarter are still delivering to that end! :-)

As for DPJ - that contract ended in April I believe. DPJ no more.

freq.flyer

iOS app.. It's crazy how deals are now exceptional, they've deleted DPJ, Air Hamburg (Which provided at least 150 seats per week in Europe). Now they've simply removed them, without any notice or explanation and they're not replacing them..

They've also killed the Paris - Geneva and Paris-Milan shuttles (return flights too). I really don't understand..

So more members for less flights. At the end it's no secret, they want to reduce the perks to save money. But in this case I won't renew my membership as well. Of course it's cool to hang out in private jets, but Jetsmarter is not reliable at all and I don't think that it's gonna be better again anytime soon..

helvetic

Nothing Silicon Valley about it… they're based in Florida and are sleazy as hell. TBH, I find it has much more of the Florida glitzy sleaze vs. the SV smug sleaze.

ensnare

My renewal is up next month and I just got an offer from JetSmarter to pay 2 or 3 years in advanced for their Sophisticated membership at a discount.

1-year: 0% discount, $50,000 / year ($20,000 flight credit)
2-year: 20% discount, $40,000 / year, or $80,000 total ($40,000 credit)
3-year: 35% discount, $32,500 / year, or $97,500 total ($60,000 credit)

freq.flyer

Can you use this flight credit to charter a whole jet ??

millions

Yes.

millions

I was looking at shuttles to NYC, and noticed the heli-transfer fee is now $250 each way.

It would really be great if they just moved these flights to Teterboro.

Hossy

From ATL, it appears that they are changing the NYC shuttle starting next month to:This is all to say that they may revert or change back the month after that, but for someone like myself who is considering membership right now, it does seem worthwhile, despite a lack of consistency or communication.

Also, to confirm, the Heli-transfers both ways from Teterboro are $150 vs $250 in/out of White Plains (not avail to SIMPLE members).

rob777

I think that they've deleted all Air Hamburg empty legs flights, haven't seen a flight in weeks ! (XLS+, CJ2, CJ3, Phenom 300, King Air 200 and months ago Legacy's 650 and 600)....

So now in Europe we only have SFD (empty flights only to/from Stuttgart) and mustang planes...

I really hope that it's just temporary..