I just returned from an empty leg trip with JetSmarter empty leg, very similar concept to JetSuite suite deals. Was a great flight from Teterboro to north of the border.
It started out Tuesday, when I got a call from a friend of mine that JetSmarter was running a promotion for Wednesday (NYE) empty leg flights, to be just $4 a person. There was one particular NYC to Montreal one that we were interested in, but by the time we got around to actually booking it, it was taken by someone else. In slight disappointment I sent them a message explaining what happened when we tried to book and it wouldn't go through. They went above and beyond to accommodate me, and put free premium membership on my account for 24 hours, that I would be able to book any flight departing on Thursday evening or Friday morning.
For Friday morning there was no flight to YUL anymore, our next best option was to take a flight from Teterboro to Quebec City, and drive the 2+ hours to Montreal for Shabbos, which is what we did.
JetSmarter revolves completely around it's mobile app, to book a flight, to send a message or anything else. As soon as we booked a flight, we got a call to confirm what would be out best departure time, over a 2 hour window. Because this was an international flight, we also had to send in our complete front-page passport information, so they can input it on to the flight log, for customs and border patrol.
In the wiki of this thread, I note how to use public transportation to get from the city to TEB. Thankfully for this particular flight, they were using the Signature flight support FBO which is located very close to where the NJ transit bus drops you off. From PA Bus terminal till TEB took just about half hour on the bus, and then about a 10 minute walk along the airport road to get to out FBO. When you arrive at the desk, they will ask you what is your aircraft tail number, for them to know who to call in, to bring you to the plane. We had arrived about 25 minutes before our flights schedules departure time which was plenty of time, we ended up waiting around in the lounge there for about 15 minutes, till the pilot came over to escort us to the plane.
The plane we got was a Hawker 400xp, with 7 seats plus 1 extra seat that also converts into a toilet in the back. There were personal screens at the seats, complimentary kosher refreshments included, pringles, peanuts, cashews, and coke. There was also mini vitamin packets there too. Outlets were available between every seat, there was wifi on the flight too, but we could't really get it to work properly.
Flight take off and landing was very smooth, a lot more than I was expecting from a mini jet like this. And total flying time was just over an hour. On arrival, we were greeted with two agents from customs, who came on to the plane to check our passports, and from there to a waiting car to take us to the car rental area.
All in all a very pleasant experience, takes the entire hassle of flying away, no security waits or arriving early before, and no customs halls line later, everything runs like you would wish that it always should. Their prices on their short empty legs are lots of time very comparable or even cheaper than JS SuiteDeals and I would recommend them.
Pics to be uploaded soon IYH.
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