gooseman13

Yep, I've seen that too. Honestly, it makes sense. $144 to fly from Austin to Dallas a couple weekends ago seemed to not be worth their effort to coordinate the flight for me.

My big concern is how things just change willy-nilly. Particularly with the expiration of the credits without warning. If they do things like that now, what's to say they won't change the terms of the program after I sign up and give them $12,000?

oenophilist

As I understand it, they are changing things for non-members. This doesn't surprise me either because their business model is based on memberships.

Just looking at the transcontinental flights, it looks like they are not all full. At least the NYC-SFO flights. Some are barely booked.

backdoc

They just started that route.

The first NYC-SFO shuttle flight is this Thursday 3/17 and is sold out. The return SFO-NYC on Friday 3/18 has 4/12 seats remaining. I'm pretty sure that those 4 remaining seats on Friday will be gone.

mattack4000

Prices have gone up, by I think double. I think I am out of this right now unless they offer something good. As I said, I would be willing to do a membership with just the jet deals and not the shuttle service for a lower price

expatOWflyer

It appears to be a hell of a deal. As I have a relatively flexible schedule, I can make use of their deals both in the US; from coast to coast and LA to Las Vegas , and in Europe. If I can travel coast to coast 1-2x RT per week on certain days of the week, it is a steal.

gold23

I'm in the same boat. I have no use for the shuttles. If they offered a hybrid membership where I could utilize their jet deals (don't even need them for free...just the pricing they were until this past week) I would likely join.

mattack4000

The same flight I took for "$210" a few weeks ago is like $700 something now. I don't know if it goes straight to profit or if the promo is gone after a larger influx of membership?

The thing is that I get emails from them offering $2000-$3000 flight credit, they are essentially useless now.

nux

Would that be in addition to all your last minute F travel that has made you BA GGL?

Townshend

I've been a member for about a month and a half now and have flown six times; 5 shuttles and 1 deal (which was operated by Delta). Overall, I am enjoying the experience. As I live in Chicago and frequent NYC (all shuttles have been to/from KHPN, I'll likely use the KVNY and KFLL shuttles next month when they start) the helicopter transport is a great benefit.

The shuttles were all Bombardier Challenger 850 and the deal was on a Cessna CJ2. Their customer service is decent although could use some polishing. There were a few times where I've requested something and either don't get a response or I have to follow back up. The crews that work the flights have been exceptional. Four out of six flights I've been with at least one other person I was not acquainted with and thus far everyone I've flown with has been great. As far as demographics on my flights: mostly male, maybe late 20s to 50s, varying backgrounds. All very professional and friendly people. If you want to be left alone not a problem, if you want to mingle go for it. No one seemed to mind either way.

Regarding the flight credit disappearing, it sounds like they finally fixed the glitch in their system. All flight credits I've seen had the fine print of "get $xxxx as credit when you become a member!" I found that entering a code when I wasn't a member still gave me credit.

As far as wifi is concerned, it is not great. It's enough to get e-mails through and basic browsing. Since these are not owned by JS I doubt there is much they can do. I'll grab a Speedtest report on the next shuttle I take, here is a report from the Delta Private flight I took however. Also a snap I grabbed at KHPN

SFO777

Thanks oenophilist for starting this thread.

I've been a member for a more than a year, fortunately at the original price, and am very pleased. I've taken 8 "entire plane only" flights and one HPN-VNY G-IV shuttle. Although I'm not happy with the new shared concept, the new affiliations have brought a lot more inventory into the mix.

I've renewed for another year (fortunately grandfathered at the old rate) and will likely get a 2nd membership for Mrs. SFO (I'll get a referral fee). This will enable us pretty much "buy out the plane" for light and midsize repo flights. The second membership will get us two shuttle seats at no extra cost.

gooseman13

The email I received six weeks ago said the following: "No strings attached, simply download the JetSmarter app, register and use your invite code FLY1000 for $1,000 of flight credit."

To me, that doesn't set an expectation of membership. Also, I have no problem of there being an expiration date associated with the credit, just that the date isn't shared with customers and only discovered when the credit is no longer available.

To be clear, I managed to get two completely free flights in with my credit, so I'm more than happy. I just am very reticent to invest $12,000 in a membership with a company that lacks some transparency when it deals with customers.

Townshend

SFO777, book out a flight as long as you have guests. My understanding is even though you get 2-5 seats free on Jet Deals you have to actually use those seats otherwise you are charged a no show fee.

Townshend

In that case you should be entitled to the full $1k credit.

The specific code I was referring to was SOCIAL which offered $3k credit which in the e-mail stated I needed to be a member to utilize even though it credited to my account when I wasn't a member.

SFO777

My understanding is that the no show fee only applies if nobody in your party shows. I've had other guests on a Rez who had to cancel and I was not charged when it was just me flying..


Update: Confirmed with my JetSmarter rep, as long as the member is on board, there is no "no show" fee if any others in your party do not show.

Townshend

Great to hear, thank you!