Townshend

That's a fair point. Looking at scheduled shuttles Chicago-NYC it's only ~$250 a seat. Which means for me with my Smart membership that would be 8 round-trips until I break even.

However, I notice that the create your own shuttles charge much more. For example, next Sunday it looks like that's $2k for a seat whereas it was free under my Smart membership

PbodyPhoto

BusinessFlyer45

After research: I feel like Jetsmarter takes the "private" out of "private aviation" if I must share a plane jetBlue Mint from NY-LA is the way to go. Its a great lie flat seat and the service is very good. It also helps to have a larger lavatory on the plane that isn't so close to my lie flat. I would also find it very uncomfortable if I was sitting across from someone I didn't know on a so called "private flight" (not private at all) for them to disappear for 10 minutes in the Lavatory and then have to look at them when they sit back down for the remainder of the flight. (Vice Versa). After review this jetsmarter is like booking a limo for your wedding day and sharing the limo with another couple

dval44

Sykes

Yeah. One thing that I'll note is that when you consider the time saved as a total percentage of the trip, there are diminishing returns as the trip length increases. An hour saved on a transcon is far less impactful than an hour saved on an hour flight from SF to LA (in my opinion). Unfortunately for JetSmarter and Surf Air, I think that JetSuiteX has taken a lot of wind out of their West Coast sails since, for $250/flight anyone can have the experience of arriving at the airport 30 minutes before the flight when traveling between SF, LA, and Vegas.

millions

As someone who has taken several transcons over the past couple of years, I'd say he's quite right. Yes, when everything (specifically traffic, and the aircraft departing on time) works out perfectly, you can show up at the FBO and have wheels up within 30 minutes.

But:

• When you're flying into NY, welcome to HPN where you either have to pay several hundred more dollars for a helicopter, or if not (and when the weather frequently requires), please enjoy a ~2 hour, expensive drive into the city.
• When you're flying from NYC (or even LA), you're not going to chance arriving 30 minutes before wheels up, because if you're late because of traffic, you're going to cough up a $3,000-$4,000 penalty fee. Not to mention that if you are leaving from HPN, you're going to have to leave the city a couple of hours early just to get there.
• Even the GIV will have you playing footsie with the person sitting across from you; there are no lie flat seats; you may be on the 3-person couch that does not recline and you may share with another person. All of this for a multi-thousand dollar yearly fee, and around $1,000 each way.

It is actually a Keyser Söze-worthy trick that people continue to be convinced this is worth it.

millions

BusinessFlyer45

I think you are misunderstanding my point. Just to be clear, I fly private and use FBO’s (SheltAir, Signature and such) when I need to for business or if I want to treat my family. (3 -7 times per year)

My point is that after my review there is no reason for unnecessary spending for a membership to share a “private jet” OR “Not Private Jet” on a transcon flight when an hour on each end really doesn’t matter much.

Lets face it, flying LA – NY you lose the whole day no matter what with the time change. Flying Commercial or Private. The membership cost does not constitute losing a whole day. Plus a beer in the terminal is nice prior to take off.

On the other side NY-LA, you gain a whole day anyway flying private or commercial.

Not to sure how you justify a membership that really doesn’t change OR affect my travel habits in a positive manner. In other words it doesn’t significantly help me enough to be justified.

However, if I wanted the novelty of telling my partners in LA that I flew on a shared private jet to impress them then maybe it constitutes it, but I know their response would be “why are you drinking beer from a champagne glass”

So either way you look at it you are still paying more to share a flight.

Sykes

Sadly, not for new members. With the new membership plan, JetSuiteX flights are the same price for JetSmarter members as they are directly from JSX. (There may occasionally be differences, but they are largely the same.) Buying from JetSmarter gets you a slightly more convenient booking process at the cost of punitive cancellation fees and no seat assignments. (I suppose you could harass JSX directly to get a seat assignment, but JetSmarter specifically tells you not to do that.)

millions

Yes, this is laughable. As you note, in many instances it will be cheaper to book two seats as a new (cheaper) member than it would be for those of us who've paid multiples in membership fees, and have been around for years. And the more seats you need to purchase, the more you are getting screwed. It also appears new members get the same access terms to empty legs as those paying for the more expensive memberships. At least this is all happening just in time for me not to renew.

Nicoolio

Can you walk me through how JetSmarter can make money -- are you saying you pay $3900 to $7900 per hour for three seats or per flight - if it's the latter, it seems impossible for them to make any money unless it was a one hour trip. Am i missing something?

millions

You really want to see the middle finger? Take a gander at their shuttle cancellation policies (under Public Charter Agreements):

That means, for example, a SMART member (paying from $7500 - $12000 a year?) would pay a cancellation fee of $1000 for cancelling a KingAir to Las Vegas 71 hours out, while a new member would get refunded half of what he paid (typically around $350, only $710 for the GIV on Thursday. So, SMART Member = $1,000. New member = $175.

For transcons, it really gets fun. A new member who on Monday cancels his seat on next Wednesday's GIV from LA to NY would get refunded half of his purchase price of $1,640, for a cancellation fee of $820. For a SMART member, first he'd pay his surcharge for the flight of $1,095. Then, he'd be charged a cancellation fee of the full fare of an extra seat, $3,900. For a total cancellation cost of $4,995.

BusinessFlyer45

Fellas, this doesn't sound very SMART to me. It sounds like smoke and mirrors to me.

krazieman

Wow.. good find millions. That is totally bogus. Being in Dallas, at least they're finally helping us out with some new Houston to Austin routes, but the times are terrible for Austin. Houston is actually pretty good. I can leave in the morning, go to a meeting, then catch the 5pm back so I don't have to stay in that craphole of a city.

xolinlevh

How have you found the other routes to be, out of Dallas? I am pondering moving there and so would want to take advantage of the Dallas -> NY/LA routes.