A few weeks back, JetSmarter, a startup that bills itself as an Uber of private jet charters, briefly offered a status match for frequent fliers with over 1,000,000 miles or hold top tier elite status.
If you have 1M frequent flyer miles or CC points, or hold elite status with a major airline, we have a gift for you: https://t.co/k5W89tNcM2
— JetSmarter (@JetSmarter) June 3, 2017
Those who qualified would receive complimentary Simple Membership for three months, which allowed you to book two seats on any empty leg flight (Jet Deals) or a seat on a certain regularly scheduled private charters (Jet Shuttles).
Luckily I had enough miles and quickly submitted my status match request.
Initially I was quite skeptical on whether JetSmarter would go through with the promotion. After all, a free membership for three months that offered complimentary access on empty private jet flights, along with select shuttle flights seemed way too good to be true.
Lo and behold, a couple days later I received a missed call from JetSmarter, along with an email pending approval, with instructions to make an appointment.
After sending a quick email reply I was notified via JetSmarter’s app that I was approved for a complimentary JetSmarter simple trial membership!
It’s important to note that I tried to “hide” myself as much as possible using a personal email account and my legal name. I definitely didn’t want JetSmarter to influence my review in any way.
For all intents and purposes, I was one of the lucky few frequent fliers who hit the status match gold mine.
Reports soon surfaced that quite a few status match requests were denied due to significant demand, so I must have gotten in under the nick of time.
Initially I tried booking a Jet Deals flight on Father’s day weekend from Aspen to San Francisco.
Ultimately, a last minute flight diversion due to weather resulted in no flight, but we were able to have beautiful road trip through the Rocky Mountains.
Undeterred, I decided to try my luck at a Jet Shuttle flight instead. Unlike the Jet Deals program, Jet Shuttles are guaranteed to fly. As a result, there were significant restrictions for Jet Smarter simple members, whom can only book a single seat on Jet Shuttle flights less than three hours for free.
Most of the free shuttle flights were short flights under an hour on propeller aircraft between cities like Los Angeles and Las Vegas.
Nothing wrong with propeller planes, but if I was going to fly private it would be on a proper private jet.
After scanning all the different free Jet Shuttle flights, I ultimately settled on a flight from Fort Lauderdale to Chicago, one of handful sub three hour Jet Shuttle flights using a Gulfstream 450 jet, or G4 for short.
The flight booking itself was quite simple, and after a few taps, I was booked on the Jet Shuttle flight for the July 4th weekend for $0!
I was pleasantly surprised on how simple the process was, and it almost felt like I was booking an Uber, except in this case I was booking a spot on a G4.
Finally, my childhood dream of flying private, and in a Gulfstream no less was about to come true.
