On March 26, 2018, in an interview with
Private Jet Card Comparisons CEO Sergey Petrossov was trumpeting new lower membership costs
while promising members in its old program would continue to enjoy the benefits they had paid for.
He told us, “We are lowering the fee of entry for new members to democratize the access point even more. Annual membership is now $4,950 plus a $3,000 initiation fee. These new members will pay more per seat than (existing) SMART members do now.The plan is to open up access to more people that fly even a few times per year versus more frequent fliers that are joining today with SMART membership for $15,000
. Existing SMART members are not affected by this and keep their old membership with better pricing and perks.”
Petrossov told us, “Sophisticated is $50,000 and has been that way for a while. We are making it more private and won’t be advertising as much to make it more exclusive. We are continuously expanding the service and features.”
According to a lawsuit filed last week in the United States District Court Southern District of Florida by Sheri Laine and Gary Seidler on March 29, 2018, they received an email from JetSmarter that this would be their “Last chance to become a founding JetSmarter member.” The company was founded in 2012. The each bought in for the SMART membership paying a combined $30,000.
They were told by joining they would still be able to get free seats for flights under three hours even as the private jet-sharing service, what until then had been a core benefit. From that point, they were hit with multiple approaches to upgrade to the SOPHISTICATED membership with offers to pay $97,500 for three years through mid-June, although they declined.