JetSmarter Offers New, More Attainable Membership

JetSmarter, the private jet membership club, has come out with a new offer to entice different customers into the business. Now offering family plans which can reduce the cost of membership to up to four users, it may be time to consider the service… though their marketing is getting pretty desperate and may suggest that this is not their final offer. 

If you are considering booking travel or signing up for a new credit card please click here. Both support LiveAndLetsFly.com.

If you haven’t followed us on Facebook or Instagram, add us today.

New Program

There are two new options for those outside of core JetSmarter (AKA Shuttle cities). The two options are Individual and Family Plans, here are the differences in cost:

Individual Plan:

• Book unlimited seats on existing flights
  for around the price of commercial

• Create on-demand shared
  & private flights

• 24/7 Concierge

• Exclusive member benefits & unparalleled
  networking opportunities in the sky

• $3,000 Initiation

• $4,950 Annual membership

Family Plan (Up to Four Users)

• Book unlimited seats on existing flights
  for around the price of commercial

• Create on-demand shared
  & private flights

• 24/7 Concierge

• Exclusive member benefits & unparalleled
  networking opportunities in the sky

• $3,000 Initiation

• $9,950 Annual membership

Old Program

While the pricing seems to change almost monthly (or at least there are offers so frequent that it makes the price ambiguous) the standard pricing appears to be as follows:

• $2,500 Initiation Fee (one-time)
• $15,000 Annually (recurring, cancel any time)

For that fee, members have access to Shuttle flights (New York to San Francisco/Los Angeles, DC, Las Vegas and South Florida, LA to South Florida) with Florida-New York flights the most easily secured, chartered flights, empty legs and shared charter flights. Shared chartered flights allow you to secure your chartered flight but open it to others who may want to share the cost by buying a seat, in essence, you are paying for the whole jet and earning a discount per seat they sell, while chartered secures the entire plane and you can choose your guests. Empty legs are free for most routes for the first (sometimes the second) guest, additional seats are $150-850 depending on the segment length.

“Family Plan”

While the $3,000 initiation is clearly a junk fee, if it can be averaged out over four people, it makes more sense. My question is what counts as family? My wife and I don’t share a last name but are certainly family. Some of my friends I would consider part of the family, though the law wouldn’t. Their last names don’t match mine either.

Let’s stop beating around the bush.

If I want to split a family membership with three buddies, it looks like I can do that – nothing in the terms and conditions (which they can change at any time) preclude a customer by adding non-family members to the plan. That brings down the cost from $17,000 per person (traditional membership) to $3237.50 as long as the customer doesn’t live in one of their core markets. That’s far more reasonable, especially considering that the initiation fee is a one-off so next year the cost should be even less.

Why?

JetSmarter’s PR department would probably offer a message about “offering a more dynamic approach” or placing membership “within reach” of more customers. Personally, I think that’s probably a lot of hot air. I signed up for a JetSmarter account (no cost, just use of the app) to take advantage of some of their open legs which used to be a lot more common and less expensive from my home airport of Pittsburgh. That has changed as has my travel style. I would love to jet off on a day’s notice or less to some new destination for the thrill of it, but it’s the getting home part that I can’t put to chance. Costs have gone up while availability for destinations I want to fly to are scarce (who’s up for a Pittsburgh-Columbus flight?) and with OneJet from Pittsburgh, my options and experience are probably better.

JetSmarter has a traditional phone sales approach to moving seats, anyone who gave their phone number when they signed up for an account will get a quarterly phone call until they buy or die. Looking on the bright side, at least they don’t call once a month. I have outlined my concerns for a $15,000 membership with a $2,500 signup cost – it’s not worth it for my city. If you live in New York and want to take the weekend shuttles for free that they offer to south Florida or DC – it could be worth it. I don’t want to get into the math of a first class seat (comparable product) to Florida and determine just how many weekends one would need to take advantage of this to make it worthwhile, I don’t live in New York or Florida so it really doesn’t matter to me. For non-shuttle flights you get a great deal on the empty leg seats, but we return to the first problem of living outside of those tier one cities – the routes are too scarce to be applicable. Then I have to add in the additional per seat cost which is comparable to a roundtrip in coach and is not included in the membership.

Clearly, JetSmarter has realized that if they want to grow their business they are going to need to add something that makes sense if you never get a free shuttle flight from your home airport. The lowered fee makes sense given the limited use case and excluded the use of their Shuttle flights which you can’t use anyway.

They also are likely having money trouble. I’m not a CEO (yet), nor a millionaire (yet) and I tend to fly on private jets when the cost is affordable like with OneJet. In fact, this is the only time I have flown a private (sized) jet and as OneJet is a commercial service with other passengers, it’s never truly private. But I would have to guess that the kind of customers that book private jet charters don’t do it because they get a phone call from a JetSmarter telemarketer (no matter how professional they may be). It seems like a desperate attempt.

They also have fluctuated the membership price so often and use scare sales tactics like “Last Chance Before Membership Initiation Fees Increase” then continue to offer discounts that return the initiation price to at or below what it was before. While they are a private company, I can only imagine that margins are razor thin or they are losing money. They don’t actually own and fly the jets (that would make them an airline) but instead they just contract the services on your behalf. As Richard Branson famously said, “If you want to be a Millionaire, start with a billion dollars and launch a new airline.” The challenge is tall enough as it is, but with this specialty model and their used-car sales tactics for a premium market – it feels pretty desperate.

Should You Do It?

This is a tough call. If you can split a membership with your friends or “family” then the cost comes down to as little as $3237.50/person. That could be worth it if you have a big trip planned where you’d need to charter a jet, or you think you might have the flexibility to jump on some open legs.

If you live in a city like Philadelphia, Baltimore, or West Palm Beach and can easily get to core cities like New York, Washington DC, and Fort Lauderdale then it could work out really well. If my family of three lived in New York and we had a friend that would want to buy the fourth membership of the package – it would still be a struggle to get enough value out of it. But if we had a home in South Florida as well, I could see this as a bargain for the right client. The criteria for whom this is a good deal is getting pretty specific, however.

My real concern is that the company is in financial trouble or at least not on even footing. If a client commits to this new annual plan and four weeks from now they shut their doors, that customer is likely holding the bag (or most of it anyway if you put it on your AMEX). If you bought the equivalent first class tickets on mainline carriers it would be less likely to impact your travel and your finances. You would also buy those tickets piecemeal instead of all at once. My concern comes mostly from what appear to be some desperation moves and that makes me less likely to trust them with my money and hope I can get it back through flights from them.

What do you think? Does this plan entice you to try out a package? Would you split one with family and friends?

Get Daily Updates

Join our mailing list for a daily summary of posts! We never sell your info.

SUBSCRIBE!

You have Successfully Subscribed!