JetSmarter 500 East Broward Blvd Fort Lauderdale FL

JetSmarter, a private jet booking app backed by Jay Z and the Saudi royal family, is looking to be an Uber-like disruptor in the sky. Judging by the way it has been received in the market (FYI, the app allows a flight to be booked in just about three minutes), JetSmarter certainly seems to have achieved its founding goals. Several startups are coming up to provide ‘Uber for Private Jet' services for instant bookings of private jet charters.

Today, JetSmarter connects travelers to flights in 50 markets around the world, including New York, Chicago, Fort Lauderdale, Las Vegas, Atlanta, London, Paris, Moscow, Dubai, Milan and other business and leisure travel hubs. However, if you frequently fly on popular routes between major cities, then you should have no trouble finding flights.

JetSmarter also just announced they've added four new routes on the Gulfstream IV SP including New York - San Francisco, New York - Las Vegas, Los Angeles - Fort Lauderdale, and Fort Lauderdale - Las Vegas. To put this into perspective, in our example JetSmarter loses $22,666.68 on each shuttle they run between New York and California.

However, the company has four JetSmarter membership plans, non-members can still use the service by paying higher price. The idea behind this promotion is obviously to break the most hardcore frequent flyers out of their shell and show them what JetSmarter's charters are all about.

When the popular routes grab a critical mass, the Jet App allows the members to create on-demand private jets (Shared Charter). Other regional private charter companies with membership models have cropped up in New England and Texas, Foley said. My wife and I are frequent charter flyers, have been NetJet members, etc.

JetSmarter is making private airfare available for more than just the typical 1%, by either allowing customers to share a private plane, or have a seat on the plane. One of the most mind-blowing things about JetSmarter is that once you're a member, flying private is essentially free".

Thankfully every other person we met on each of my three free JetSmarter flights (all operated by XOJets) was very nice and fun to talk to, but if you are adverse to basically being forced to socialize with strangers then you may not like the arrangement.

High employee turnover, horrible customer service, fine print traps everywhere you turn, botched schedules and flights, flying frat houses on their shuttles (if you're looking for the quiet, stay-to-themselves flyers you would expect on private aviation, think again).

JetSmarter is backed by a significant amount of international venture capital. Part of JetSmarter's aim is to create a members' club which allows customers to network, do business deals (and perhaps even speed date?) at 35,000 feet. JetSmarter doesn't operate with their own aircraft.

And this is super common - it happens in roughly a third of all chartered flights. It's not perfect, but it sure beats flying commercial and it's a lot cheaper than flying private. For those who want a full-on luxury experience with minimal hassle, you can charter your own jet in moments via the app, or else book onto a shared charter with other parties to spread the cost.

Take it from me who is an avid business flyer, Jetsmarter has the worst customer service I have ever experienced. Considering a private chartered flight can easily cost upwards of $15,000, it is a tremendous benefit to be able to hop on flights of this caliber FOR FREE.