Originally Posted by Townshend

I've been a member of various programs and taken advantage of empty legs. Joined Jetsmarter a little over 5 years ago in February 2016 and was a member through it's eventual collapse. I subsequently joined Wheels Up and DPJ in December 2019, WU as a Connect member. Last December I renewed and upgraded my membership to the Wheels Up Core level. As WU had acquired DPJ there was some credit and negotiated rate for the Core level.

The biggest difference for myself between the Connect and Core level are the Wheels Up Core level restricts you to two members on your account and I four empty leg flights. The Core level allows you up to four members on your account and unlimited empty legs.

Since August 2019 I've taken six empty legs and had a very pleasant experience on all of them. The crew and Wheels Up staff have been professional and helpful. I have not had any cancellations though one empty leg showed up then went away as the time changed and wasn't put back on as it was too close to taking off. The WU staff was able to get us on though and we went off. With Connect membership we get one year of Inspirato Club membership. We have used the Club membership only for the Hot Nights a few months ago for a stay which is available to WU Core members as it is. However, we did get a $500 credit toward our first stay which was nice. We do plan on utilizing two other benefits with Wheels Up which are the boat ride with Barton & Gray and the up to four night stay at the Abaco Club. Additionally, they just added a benefit of a year as a Landry Select President's Club Status; we will see what this really means but we have a $100 gift card to use at least. We may also join the Wine Access program and received a free Bose portable speaker.

Some of the other benefits are meaningless for myself; Hertz Presidents Circle which I already have and prefer National anyway, Founders Card which didn't seem to offer any benefit when I had it a while back, HeliFlite benefit which isn't bad but I fly Blade anyway, and a few others. I haven't found their Concierge to be of anything significant, I've only ever found a benefit with Amex Platinum/Centurion concierge getting a table at a restaurant that was booked etc. I'd be curious to hear stories about the Concierge (subbed to Four Hundred) that were able to pull off feats not attained by what I can do with a Google search or otherwise though. Granted it was a pandemic but I've found their Events to be a weak spot to date. Thus far we had an experience with Porsche to try out the new Taycan and I attended their Art Basel party but there wasn't anything else in the over 1.5 years I've been a member. I mention this to compare against Inspirato which has excelled at events. We've done at least a dozen of them, during the pandemic they've had several really fun virtual cooking classes and just started offering in person events again.

Overall, the experience thus far has been well worth it and I recommend the membership especially to those who do not live in a highly member saturated area (LA especially it seems and perhaps NYC, where you may struggle to get an empty leg).

Like dval44, I'm happy to answer any questions for those interested in a membership or curious.