ALOL. Let's begin with them pulling the rug out from under all of the potential customers who had "pay as you go membership." I have seen several reviews indicating stories like this are not uncommon, and the T&C weren't always on their side. As a matter of fact, I believe this was discussed here on the forums as well.
What about it is hard to fathom about how it's profitable?
Still don't really believe they are profitable- most startups aren't. They spend a ton on marketing and . Flying JS since 2015 I can see that they initially began targeting Top line performance through membership growth, but have since expanded to tiered, and "ancillary revenue" like cancellation fees, extra seats, and helicopter transfers. The issue is; they've been so aggressive on those fronts lately, they've exacerbated an already tough model which relies on external operators and empty legs flights. What's worse, they haven't focused on customer service at all. Their customer service only seems to want to upsell you. THis is why it's a flawed model; most startups can afford to have bugs in their system, and only suffer mild mishaps when things are glitchy. Here, one or two bad experiences can cause them to lose memberships, so the margin is very tight, and a lot of times, things aren't even in their control operationally. But they just want to expand without trying to fix issues, have contingencies, or at least want to try and side with customers. They pitched the product as pure luxury, where they really are the LCC of PJs in terms of service. Bottom line; you get what you pay for as always and aline your expectations accordingly.
