I've been extremely disappointed from the start. There is always an issue with Wheels Up segments. My family and I have flown private extensively with no hiccups for years that was until I joined Wheels-Up. I will arrange weeks ahead of time for an appropriate jet size for the desired airport and Wheels Up will inform me just hours before the flight that they can't get me into that airport and they will get us somewhat close. Always a delay (not weather or mechanical related) and they never go on time and there is a negative sense of urgency. With other services they always go when we arrive and are always ready to do so at least 30 minutes prior to schedule. My flight yesterday was diverted to another airport (true to form) at the last minute and delayed. The pilot never came into the FBO to inform us of the delay. He finally came in and said: "ID's" no my name is. I asked how much longer on the delay he said: "after we fuel." I asked how long that would be he said: "after it's done". When I get a water from a newsstand I get better treatment. It was out of his way rude. We went off late (of course). The last flight we showed up in our arranged car drove out to the plane and waited 45 minutes. No one came out or said a word. The driver became extremely impatient and we all got out and went into the FBO. No one inside was aware why it was delayed. A NetJets pilot in the FBO waiting started asking our group what was going on. He was flabbergasted that no one had even made contact with us. The pilot took it upon himself and walked out to the plane and shammed the Wheels Up crew to come in and explain what was going on. After an explanation similar to being forced to apologize for something they didn't want to by a parent I deducted there was a sensor issue and they were waiting for it to be fixed. The pilot went back out to the plane. I got on the phone to customer service and stepped outside for the call. Then the two pilots got into an airport club car and drove away without saying a word. Wheels Up customer service said they had to look into it and call me back. Indeed the pilots left through the back door and we were told our flight was canceled for that day and maybe we could get out the following day. We were a group of six with bags and had to rent a large SUV at the airport. It's everything too. I tried to use "Wheels Down" that was a disaster. Advertised was a complimentary extra hour for VIP tours at Universal Studios. When I attempted to use the benefit Universal staff was unaware of it and looked into it concluding there was no such benefit. I asked Wheels Down customer service and the salesman that sold me my $250k commitment to look into it and just got we're still investigating after many follow-ups. Flying private had been and is a dream with other services… without any exaggeration from my experience with Wheels Up it is less stressful to fly commercially even during these times. And don't waste your breath bringing these issues up with the company they could care less.

Tried a membership, they can't get their act together to figure out why after 10 months my account is still not activated despite taking my. Money. Because my account cannot be accessed, Ive called to try and make bookings. Forget it, calling in a weekend you get voicemail and no calls back. Finally, the account rep said just book thru him. I finally book first trip, and account rep fails to tell me he isn't around on the weekend. As I am checking out of the hotel, I find it unusual I did not hear anything about my flight. Thinking no news is good news, I canceled my back up commercial flight ( something I did in case of a problem to ensure I would be in time for rescheduled meeting. I find out the flight is changed to nearly four hours later, crew canceled. The account rep, one would think would have made an effort to communicate especially given the problems, instead, some rep who had no interest in doing this, said she couldn't reach me. Hmmm they had my cell to book the trip, they had mt cell to send the trip, they had my cell to call for my credit card but their attempt to leave a message regarding the flight was to leave a voicemail at a general work voicemail in which my name is not even on the account announcement. Gotta love the office knowing the bosses personal and financial business for public knowledge. You would think a. Effort would be made to call the account rep and ask for another number,
I had to call other brokers who were able to provide a flight in three hours. When asking for confirmation the flight really is 4 hrs delayed and not &, so I can make a decision … we don't know, we don't have the information. Sure you do, where is the plane now? All you have to do is go to flightaware tell me where the flight is - at least I'll be able to make a decision if the location of a plane is nowhere close to the departure time …. I had to feed the wheels up the go to list for information. Meanwhile the account rep, went radio silent. One would think, his account,
Nothing but problems and here is the first booking finally and it's a mess, let me step in. Nope, cannot be bothered. I had a commercial flight just in case because of a meeting but failure to inform me properly ( sorry a message to my company's general mailbox is unacceptable). Obviously commercial flight was canceled en route to the private charter. Do not use wheels up if your time is limited and prefer efficiency with customer account relations.

I have been flying privately for over 20 years. I understand what is going on in the industry better than most. I've had several jet cards and owned my own jets in the past. Because of Covid and the economy The demand has never been higher. Unlike the best companies that stopped issuing jet cards because they did not want their service to deteriorate, Wheels Up took on more customers for the revenues and their service has become atrocious! The last three times I flew with them I was stranded at the airports even though I called the day before to confirm the flights. The first time, they "thought the flight time was hours later" even though I emailed the itinerary to them. The woman on the phone said she would call me back only to never do so. When I tried to call back all I got was a robotic recording asking me to wait. After 20 minutes I hung up. I called three more time and never got through to a human being. The next time I flew was told "there was an issue with the plane". After looking at the tail number on The "Flight Aware" app I realized the plane flew across the country and didn't reposition right away. So after so many hours the pilots "have to take a rest". It was simply poor planning not a mechanical error. I was notified at 9 pm for a 7 am flight the next day. I was up until midnight and had to find a 6 am commercial flight the next morning to get to a funeral.
The very next week I had a flight from the northeast. I had a car pick me up and take me out if the city to meet the plane. 10 min before the departure time I was told there was yet another issue and there was no way to get me back home. These events involved three different planes. I then had to arrange yet another commercial flight and find another driver to take me to a different airport over an hour away.

I would say on average 50% of the trips I take with Wheels Up have issues.

What's interesting is the pilots are good but even they complain about the company. The service people used to be good but most of the good ones are no longer there (they used to also complain about management) and now they are always short staffed so it is difficult to get them on the phone. Call them during any busy time and you will be lucky to get someone who knows what they are doing if you get anyone at all on the phone. Part of the problem is they do not use many of their own jets. They simply charter the trips out to whoever is available. So they have less control over those aircraft.

People with money who fly privately know how expensive it is. They expect great service and transparency. We will have another recession. The economy will always peak and trough. I do believe during the next downturn WheelsUp will lose a lot of customers because it's shoddy service and extremely poor performance. I know of many clients that feel the same way and as soon as their hours are over will never use Wheels Up again.

Perhaps one of the reasons is they went public last July through a SPAC at $10/share and have now lost nearly 70% of their value as they are stuck around $3/share - this in the best private jet market in history! Something is wrong and management doesn't seem to get it. On their most recent earnings call they announced record revenues of $345mm yet their net loss increased by $42mm to over $77 mm in losses.

My strong advice is to stay away! Do not use Wheels Up. You are better off using a local charter company.