After almost a decade in operation, JSX goes all in on loyalty. The semi-private air provider first launched in 2016 with a single route between Burbank and Harmony, California. Now, the corporate operates as much as 140 public constitution flights day by day to twenty-eight locations all through the West, South, and East Coast.
With this gradual enlargement and widespread scale, it was time to spend money on a proprietary loyalty program, Ben Kaufman, senior director of buyer expertise, loyalty, and partnerships for JSX, stated in an interview solely with Afar.
JSX has been engaged on growing a program since April 2024. “To make a loyalty program profitable, there must be sufficient scale within the community to help it,” Kaufman stated. “We really feel like we’re now at that place the place there are sufficient routes and plane to essentially make it work.”
The simple scheme, dubbed Membership JSX, is completely primarily based on spending, so there are not any loopholes or various award availability. All passengers obtain 5 % again as future flight credit score on a ticket’s base fare, together with seat and pet charges. Vacationers can pool rewards with as much as 5 individuals, permitting for extra flexibility when redeeming. Nonetheless, flight credit expire after a 12-month interval.
Beforehand, JSX prospects had the choice to accrue miles with two main airline companion packages: United MileagePlus or JetBlue TrueBlue. Now, vacationers can have an extra possibility with Membership JSX. (They will nonetheless select to make use of their miles with the United or JetBlue packages if they like.)
“One among our findings in our buyer surveys was that just about 75 % of individuals would like for loyalty accrual to return to JSX, versus a companion,” Kaufman famous.
Whereas the thought of a public constitution jet service was thrown into query just a few years in the past when American Airways requested the U.S. Division of Transportation (DOT) to ban JSX and different semi-private carriers from working, JSX survived the problem and now its reputation is hovering.
JSX primarily operates out of personal air terminals, which implies main time financial savings for fliers. In reality, the actual luxurious of flying JSX is the flexibility to examine in simply 20 minutes forward of a home flight with out having to take care of lengthy check-in procedures, safety traces, and terminal crowds. Along with the time and luxury profit, the provider additionally gives Starlink in-flight Wi-Fi and has supplied the service freed from cost on all flights since Might 2023.
Present JSX locations embody Burbank, Orange County, and Oakland, in California; Scottsdale, Arizona; Las Vegas, Nevada; Salt Lake Metropolis, Utah; Boulder, Colorado; Taos and Sante Fe, New Mexico; Dallas and Austin, Texas; Westchester, New York; Miami and Naples, Florida; and Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.
The air provider operates a fleet of 48 Embraer ERJ-145 plane, every outfitted with 30 seats (organized in a 1-2 configuration). Earlier this summer time, firm officers stated they plan to lease two turboprop plane—ATR 42-600s—earlier than the top of 2025, which might additionally carry as much as 30 passengers. The provider has signed a “letter of intent” to buy 15 new ATR plane in 2026.
Whereas turboprop plane aren’t as quick as business jets, they’ll facilitate a significant enlargement for JSX—and supply tangible advantages to the flying public. “We’ll have the ability to use these planes to get into smaller airports that don’t have service, so we see this as opening up a brand new sort of market,” Kaufman stated.
Whereas officers remained mum on precisely which cities JSX might serve subsequent, the corporate has already been increasing its community this summer time with present plane. A brand new nonstop service connecting Orange County, California (SNA) and Salt Lake Metropolis, Utah (SLC) started in mid-June, whereas flights between California’s Napa County Airport (APC), Burbank (BUR), and Orange County (SNA) began earlier this month.