dordal

Yeah, I think this is probably part of the logic. They need ~30% of the SIMPLE Members to retain membership at the SMART level in order to maintain the same revenue, which is I guess why they're doing it. I doubt they'll get that though... I know I'm not a candidate at $15K.

I do think it's a little short-sighted -- SIMPLE members can fill out empties, and that's basically all profit for them. The only other theory I can come up with is that the empty program is going to go away (given how many operators have decided not to renew), and that would gut the value of SIMPLE, so they're killing it.

I hope this is all not true, though.... I still haven't heard any official communication from JS on it (only stuff on here), so I'm keeping fingers crossed that this is just a rumor, nothing more.

On the plus side, the million mile members are ... finally... starting to roll off, so empties (at least here in the Bay Area) don't book in < 1min. I wish they'd never run that promo though; it really diluted the value of the membership all summer.

Marco159

For me and a thousand others it was probably one of the best deals

PbodyPhoto

The flip side of that is us trial members got jetsmarter fully funded. Without us you wouldn't be flying anywhere by the end of the year.

It was also probably their best thought out promo and from what I'm hearing amongst trial members a lot are joining up as paid members. I know I am.

dordal

OK, fair point. I won't complain too much....

Are you? You're the first I've heard of; everyone I've talked to so far is either on the fence or a no.

You joining at SMART or SIMPLE level?

PbodyPhoto

I am certainly joining up. I know 4 others who are certainly joining up and a handful of others who are on the fence. I am on the fence as to which level I will join up at, most likely Simple unless the rep gives me a bit of a deal on a Smart membership.

freq.flyer

Just noticed that empty legs are no longer disappearing from the flight deals when the flight is full. Probably because they're reducing the flight deals, they can't have an empty deal section...

invalyd

I was a trial member and won't be joining. During my trial I found the shuttle experience left a lot to be desired (overly packed planes) and about 90% of JetDeals from the Bay Area were headed to arbitrary locations that I had no interest in visiting.

millions

Ostensibly, it's to allow people to join the waitlist for full flights. Of course, advance passenger cancellations are rare, and based on this company's history, I'm more inclined to subscribe to your assessment of motivation.

More annoying to me is the nonsensical inclusion of "shared charters" on the deals page. Like most, I am never ever going to purchase one of these, and it serves no purpose other than to make deals in which I might actually be interested harder to find. They could very easily add a separate page for these flights.

invalyd

Not sure if this has been discussed, but my rep just told me Simple membership is being discontinued as of Oct 1, only Smart memberships will be available.

Nicoolio

It certainly seems like it is going away - The updated brochure they said me didn't include Simple.

dval44

Any indication if this is because empties are going away, or because it's not a good deal for jetsmarter?

I want buy one, but if XOJet pulls out, then empties are 100% worthless.

PbodyPhoto

I actually like the fact that empties stay in the app when they are full, it allowance me to see and waitlist on things I missed rather than just assuming there was no deals that day.

PbodyPhoto

I would say Simple is going away because it's really way too good of a deal. Hopefully XOJet doesn't leave, I have heard lots of rumors to the effect but no one knows the source of the rumor or has any facts to back it up?

freq.flyer

It's a way for them to fill the deal category.. Instead of showing more new flights, they show the olds ones as well so it shows content to new customers..

As I told you before, flights deals are slowly going away.. Mixed between shared charters and sold deals.

I agree that shared charters should be in another category. Flights deals and shared charters are absolutely not similar.

millions

As I said, I'm reluctant to ascribe altruistic motivation to these guys, but as a data point, I put myself on the waitlist for one of these flights yesterday, got a notification that seats had become available a few hours later, and he flight was confirmed.