DLH441

I've read Jetsmarter reviews on yelp, I fount this one quite true :

" They .... on existing members while promising the world to new members. Once they get your money they change the rules and take the perks away. They also did not honor the renewal and grandfathered price or guarantee."

https://www.yelp.com/biz/jetsmarter-fort-lauderdale

OptionsCLE

Does anyone know if the member must travel on Jetdeals, or could I just put other people on when they ask for names/DOBs?

Common sense would say that the member has to be on the flight, but the fact that they message and ask for a name when I only reserve one seat suggests that I could send any name I want.

SFO777

You or your spouse must travel.

T-15.01

Never heard that ones spouse can do it, unless the spouse is a member.

if you're a smart (or legacy) member, you have to fly with your nominated guests.

In the case of sophisticated members, they can nominate someone for the deal, and not be present.

SFO777

Don't know about new memberships, but with the original membership, your spouse could fly on your membership without you.

millions

I notice they've reduced the price of the NY-LON shuttles to $1,760. Getting warmer, but value's still not there for me.

Edit: looks like the cost is now variable. Based on anticipated load, or rising price as the plane fills? We've got ourselves a regular commercial airline in the works.

OptionsCLE

Without any of the regulation / consumer protections to which we're entitled on the real commercial airlines...

millions

I notice this route is no longer in service. No surprise they didn't send an email about tha. When did it happen? Always seemed like to me a pretty wasteful route.

dval44

I would recommend that anyone considering JetSmarter watch this video that they themselves put out. To me, it captures the culture of the company and what they are going for.

It's not necessarily bad, it's just a style that not everyone has or aspires to. The video doesn't really appeal to my personal taste, but it does exemplify my experience of the company.

DLH441

Just checked their membership conditions : So basically they can do whatever they want, even shut down the app for a month or more, and members can't say anything..

T-15.01

yep, this has been widely posted on here, before. So too, can Google, MSFT (Skype, LinkedIn, Hotmail etc), uber, facebook, snapchat, change their terms and conditions, whenever they want. As can all the commercial airlines, as well. There's obviously guidelines and federal requirements, but if JS want to start charging $3k a seat to London from NYC or reduce it to $1k (with token usage), as they seem to have done this week (reduced it), that's no different to Delta changing their seat prices or doing something on the flight to reduce load factor etc. It certainly doesn't give a lot of confidence when you've paid $15k or $47.5k (Sophisticated) for an annual membership of something that may not actually even be there for the whole annual term, let alone offer you what you thought you were subscribing to. Kinda like joining a gym for a year, and them removing the treadmills after a month just cause they can. Buyer beware, for sure.

dordal

I just passed the six month mark in my membership. Been keeping track of stats, and here are some interesting numbers. This is an 'access' membership ( empty legs only ) based in the Bay Area.

So far, I've taken 14 JS flights. All of the flights were great -- super nice crews, very comfortable, etc.

I’ve wanted to take a further 10 flights, but they’ve been cancelled ( that only includes flights I wanted to take that I couldn't, not flights where I changed my mind and cancelled myself.). So that means my completion percentage is 14/24, or 58%.

Most popular operator is XO ( 8 flights ) followed by DPJ ( 4 flights ) and JetEdge ( 2 flights ).

In terms of cancellations, XO ( 6 / 14 cancelled = 42% ) and DPJ ( 3 / 7 cancelled = 42% ) are tied. JetLinx had one cancellation; I’ve never flown them. I've flown JetEdge twice and both flights went.

Looking at it from the perspective of quarters (3 month periods), since I signed up on July 8, 2016:

Q1 had the most flights taken, with 12 attempts and 8 flown.
Q2 had the worst record by far, with 8 attempts and 3 flown.
Q3 has started off well, with 4 attempts and 3 flown. And we’re only nine days into the quarter, since my six month mark on Jan 8.

If the H1 stats holds for H2, by the time membership is up I’ll have flown 22 JS flights for a net cost of $181/each, excluding initiation fee. Crazy value, although the ~18 times I will have had to plan for a flight ( contact friends, etc. ) and then have it cancelled definitely dampens the enthusiasm a bit.

helvetic

Just activated my 3-month trial membership; and considering going for the $4k/yr "access" plan at the end of the trial.

One key differentiator would be the ability to bring in a guest. The paid (post-trial) membership allows for one guest, I believe. Has that been reliable for y'all?

dordal

Yeah this works just fine. Done it lots of times.

Big4Flyer

Thanks for sharing your experiences. I'm curious what the average load has been like for your empty legs and how much personal space you had. I'm also curious what the most common destinations are that you've been able to take advantage from the Bay Area.