JetSmarter has given private jet travel higher visibility with its celebrity led marketing, including Kim Kardashian and even promoting flights where its members can fly alongside the likes of Jamie Foxx if that type of thing excites you. The model of an upfront initiation and membership fee provides access to empty legs and shuttles. 

In some cases, depending on your membership level, which can range up to over $40,000 per year, empty legs and shuttles are free. In other cases, you pay surcharges or get varying amounts of seats on an empty leg. Certain longer shuttles require surcharges, and frequency of shuttles varies.

Still, a full year membership can cost less than one typical private jet charter, meaning although you are sharing the plane and going on somebody else’s schedule you still get the advantage of bypassing passengers terminals, using FBOs instead.

Of course, empty legs are by definition an unstable product, created to fly a private jet to or from where it is hauling a fully paid flight. What it means is if that other flight changes, your flight can be canceled within hours of your scheduled departure. Some view it as a fair trade for the cheap access. Others complain about JetSmarter’s seemingly constantly changing rules and offers and high-pressure sales tactics.

Flyertalk, a forum dedicated mostly to exhanging experiences and views about hotel, airline and rental car frequent user programs now has a thread dedicated to Jetsmarter that has garnered over 1,100 posts in just over a year. To jump in, click here.

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