Originally Posted by
harley9
Wow, thanks so much for the answers Sykes. You're more helpful than my jetsmarter rep : ) A few follow ups if you don't mind. I think I'm getting ready to pull the trigger.
1) Are the member initiated shuttles free as well? Only the ones under 3 hours I assume?
I'm happy to help! While I don't know for sure for Simple members, as a Smart member the member-initiated shuttles look like any other shuttle and are free. The only difference is that someone has paid $$$ up-front to start the shuttle. I do know that Simple members can't actually create member-initiated shuttles, but I'd be surprised if they can't join them once they're created.
Originally Posted by
harley9
2) For the short hauls, it seems like they tend to use turboprops. Are these comfortable/desirable?
3) On full flights, does it ever feel cramped, or no matter what, it's still always better than flying commercial?
These questions are pretty closely related, and it's a bit of a mixed bag. I don't mind the turboprops, but I also fly a 6-seat Cessna around in my free time. All of the planes can start to feel a tad bit cramped when they're completely full. The turboprops have plenty of seat width, but leg room is a bit constrained. On the King Airs, all of the seats are pairs of seats that face one-another, so you have to negotiate angling your legs with the person across from you. The Pilatus has some seats in the back that don't face each other; leg room isn't great there, but they can be angled into the aisle after takeoff for extra space.
The jets tend to be quite a bit more comfortable. In many cases the seats still face each other so you have to do the same negotiation, but there's a lot more space to work with. On heavies, the worst seats tend to be when there is a table that seats four people like is pictured at the bottom of the image
here. Then you're negotiating leg room and elbow room.
Having said that, on the whole even the worst seats are still more comfortable than many airline seats. Something that is super-relevant is that, even in a less-optimal seat, you're actually in that seat far less time than you are on a commercial flight. You don't go out to the plane until the flight is ready to depart, and only 8 or 12 people have to get seated, so you're not sitting in your seat for 45 minutes waiting for 150 other people to cram the kitchen sink into an overhead bin. You basically sit down, they close the door, and you're departing within 5 minutes.
Originally Posted by
harley9
4) What kind of deals have you guys heard of being negotiated. My current rep is offering an extra 3 months on the 12 month for $5k simple plan. I'm wondering if I can get something better.
That seems like a pretty good deal to me, but it's been a while since I signed up so I'm not hearing much about deals they're offering.