What Jet Smarter's new by-the-seat private jet pricing structure means to you

By Doug Gollan, June 24, 2018

XO Embraer Gulfstream Gulfstream G IV SP Embraer Phenom 300

Earlier this month JetSmarter allowed non-members to start booking flights. We’ve analyzed dozens of upcoming flights so you can see the price of these shared private jet flights

Earlier this month Private Jet Card Comparisons was first to report on JetSmarter’s move to allow non-members to book seats on its scheduled private jet flights. It also began allowing non-members to start their own shared charter flights. Needless to say, the move has raised the ire of non-members who were paying $7,950 ($4,950 annual fee plus $3,000 initiation charge) or more to join. JetSmarter’s CEO Sergey Petrossov told us that non-members would pay significantly higher prices than members. He said the idea was to generate trial, and then by making the difference significant, encourage newcomers to sign for membership.

At the same time, members who bought under terms that ended earlier this year which provided for free flights under three hours are complaining that there is lower availability to use their tokens – the no-cost currency for free flights – meaning they are now faced with paying for flights. If one wonders if the NetFlix model of paying one price and flying as much as you want or can works, the original model for JetSmarter, one needs only look as far as Surf Air’s troubles that came to light last weekend. While it has yet to be determined if JetSmarter’s model of charging for each flight will be profitable for the company, we decided to take a look at how the JetSmarter prices are shaking out.

JetSmarter Routes and Pricing

We specifically looked at New York to Florida routes as those are the ones where JetSmarter management says they have successfully made the semi-private private jet model work, plus routes from Chicago and Dallas where the company said it would be trying to gain new members with attractive non-member pricing. We only looked at flights that have availability to reserve seats as sold out flights don’t provide pricing information. All pricing comes from tech driven JetSmarter’s app, which is the central tool for the private aviation crowdsourcing play.

In terms of the prices members pay, in our analysis of 45 of JetSmarter’s scheduled shared private jet flights over the next month, we found members get an average 38.6% discount over non-members. The average non-member one-way private jet cost for a seat is $1,968 and the average member one-way private jet price for a seat is $1,207, so members save an average of $760 per flight.

We thought it was surprising that eight of the 11 biggest flight discounts for members – all over 49% – were between Chicago Midway Airport and Van Nuys Airport serving Los Angeles. In some cases, non-members are being asked to pay over $1,000 more, for example, $2,750 to $1,350. That would seem to fly in the face of JetSmarter’s goal of getting more new members in developmental markets, Chicago being one the company specifically referenced.

In terms of the markets where percentage-wise there was the least difference were flights between South Florida and Dallas to and from New York’s various airports, including Westchester County White Plains, Morristown, Farmingdale and Teterboro.

Will JetSmarter be able to pull commercial airline fliers over to the world of semiprivate flights? JetSmarter customers only have to show up at the private jet terminal 30 minutes before flights and usually are out of the airport 10 to 15 minutes or less after pulling up to the FBO. It means you can save a solid one to two hours of travel time using JetSmarter. The best price we found between South Florida and New York was $1,385 for non-members on July 7. Google Flights shows one-way nonstop first class flights from $327 to $588 on that day. From Dallas Love Field to Westchester County where non-members pay $1,135 on July 2 and July 19, the two dates there were flights with seats for sales – first class nonstop fares on Delta Air Lines and American Airlines range from $400 to $525. Only July 19, JetSmarter was at least in the game with nonstop first class fares ranging between $283 and $1,753.

Of course, one key question is how many of JetSmarter’s current members who joined when flights under three hours were free will now be willing to pay an average of over $1,000 per flight, at least for the routes that we checked out.

Below is our full private jet pricing comparisons of seats being sold by JetSmarter:

Route	Date	Aircraft	Non-Member	Member Discount	Member Price	Member Savings %
Van Nuys – Chicago Midway	12-Jul	Gulfstream IVSP	$2,140	$1,190	$950	55.6%
Van Nuys – Chicago Midway	19-Jul	Gulfstream IVSP	$1,850	$1,020	$830	55.1%
Chicago Midway – Van Nuys	23-Jul	Gulfstream IVSP	$2,400	$1,310	$1,090	54.6%
Palm Beach – White Plains	22-Jul	Challenger 850	$1,980	$1,080	$900	54.5%
Van Nuys – Chicago Midway	5-Jul	Gulfstream IVSP	$1,755	$945	$810	53.8%
Chicago Midway – Van Nuys	9-Jul	Gulfstream IVSP	$2,550	$1,340	$1,210	52.5%
Van Nuys – Chicago Midway	26-Jul	Gulfstream IVSP	$2,290	$1,190	$1,100	52.0%
Ibiza – London Luton	15-Jul	Citation CJ2	$1,535	$785	$750	51.1%
London Luton – Ibiza	6-Jul	Citation CJ2	$1,920	$980	$940	51.0%
Chicago Midway – Van Nuys	16-Jul	Gulfstream IVSP	$2,705	$1,355	$1,350	50.1%
Chicago Midway – Van Nuys	2-Jul	Gulfstream IVSP	$2,605	$1,275	$1,330	48.9%
White Plains – Ft. Lauderdale	15-Jul	Challenger 850	$2,375	$1,025	$1,350	43.2%
Nice – London Biggin Hill	30-Jun	Citation CJ3	$1,330	$570	$760	42.9%
Nice – London Luton	13-Jul	Citation CJ3	$1,445	$615	$830	42.6%
Nice – London City	15-Jul	Citation CJ3	$1,685	$705	$980	41.8%
Nice – London City	1-Jul	Citation CJ3	$1,690	$705	$985	41.7%
Farmingdale – Opa Locka	2-Jul	Legacy 600	$2,475	$1,020	$1,455	41.2%
Chicago Midway – Van Nuys	25-Jun	Gulfstream IVSP	$2,870	$1,180	$1,690	41.1%
Palm Beach – White Plains	15-Jul	Challenger 850	$2,575	$1,045	$1,530	40.6%
White Plains – Ft. Lauderdale	5-Jul	Challenger 850	$2,575	$1,045	$1,530	40.6%
White Plains – Palm Beach	9-Jul	Challenger 850	$2,770	$1,110	$1,660	40.1%
London City – Nice	20-Jul	Ciation Bravo	$1,565	$625	$940	39.9%
Ft. Lauderdale – White Plains	20-Jul	Challenger 850	$2,675	$1,055	$1,620	39.4%
Van Nuys – Chicago Midway	28-Jun	Gulfstream IVSP	$2,980	$1,140	$1,840	38.3%
Van Nuys – Chicago Midway	26-Jun	Gulfstream IVSP	$2,890	$1,060	$1,830	36.7%
White Plains – Palm Beach	13-Jul	Challenger 850	$2,770	$1,015	$1,755	36.6%
White Plains – Palm Beach	6-Jul	Challenger 850	$2,675	$920	$1,755	34.4%
White Plains – Palm Beach	8-Jul	Falcon 2000	$2,675	$920	$1,755	34.4%
Ft. Lauderdale – Farmingdale	7-Jul	Learjet 45	$1,385	$420	$965	30.3%
Boca Raton – Morristown	11-Jul	Phenom 300	$1,850	$535	$1,315	28.9%
Dallas Love Field – Van Nuys	5-Jul	Gulfstream IVSP	$1,765	$490	$1,275	27.8%
Teterboro – Opa Locka	3-Jul	Phenom 300	$1,650	$455	$1,195	27.6%
Van Nuys – Dallas Love Field	2-Jul	Gulfstream IVSP	$1,240	$340	$900	27.4%
Dallas Love Field – Van Nuys	19-Jul	Gulfstream IVSP	$1,340	$365	$975	27.2%
Van Nuys – Dallas Love Field	16-Jul	Gulfstream IVSP	$1,340	$365	$975	27.2%
White Plains – Opa Locka	28-Jun	Phenom 300	$1,450	$375	$1,075	25.9%
Morristown – Ft. Lauderdale	25-Jun	Learjet 60	$1,650	$350	$1,300	21.2%
White Plains – Dallas Love Field	5-Jul	Gulfstream IVSP	$1,420	$295	$1,125	20.8%
Dallas Love Field – White Plains	25-Jun	Gulfstream IVSP	$1,420	$295	$1,125	20.8%
White Plains – Dallas Love Field	28-Jun	Gulfstream IVSP	$1,230	$255	$975	20.7%
Dallas Love Field – White Plains	16-Jul	Gulfstream IVSP	$1,230	$255	$975	20.7%
White Plains – Dallas Love Field	19-Jul	Gulfstream IVSP	$1,135	$235	$900	20.7%
Dallas Love Field – White Plains	2-Jul	Gulfstream IVSP	$1,135	$235	$900	20.7%
Boca Raton – Morristown	25-Jun	Learjet 60	$1,780	$365	$1,415	20.5%
Teterboro – Ft. Lauderdale	25-Jun	Phenom 300	$1,780	$365	$1,415	20.5%