But weren’t you just in Chicago?
Indeed. I landed at JFK about 20 minutes ago.
Then how are you here?
Let me back up for a second. I’ve spent more time in my life bumper to bumper on the Long Island “Expressway”, Cross Island and BQE than I’d ever care to admit. I also know how entirely unpredictable they can be.
For a very-very tightly squeezed set of business appointments, I decided not to chance it at all, and booked Blade, the helicopter service between NYC and its key airports, rather than an Uber.
After many fun and amusing Blade trips, this was my most meaningful because it delivered on its core value prop: time.
Blade Made Impossible, Possible
I get lots of questions about Blade. I’ve flown it for years and reviewed it a few times. I still have a promo code that helps take $50 off your first ride (GilbertO187), too. For someone in no hurry, it’s a delightful flying novelty with NYC views worth experiencing from the air at least once and at a starting price of $195 before the promo code, it’s not an “insane” expense for novelty.
The feeling is very “Succession” lite. And I’d urge some of my fellow passengers to remember the lite is actually bolded. Despite their best acting, they’re no Logan, Kendall or Romey. L to the OG!
This mission made me appreciate the utility of Blade and not the novelty or amusement of it, both of which remain high. I absolutely could not leave Chicago before 1PM (2PM NY time) and needed to be in Midtown Manhattan by 6PM sharp suited and booted, ideally long before.
That left choices like… losing out on important elements of the Chicago trip and taking an earlier flight that would leave enough time to taxi into New York, or flying Blade. With Blade, my ORD-JFK American Airlines flight landed and parked up at our gate at 4:30PM and I was in Manhattan on West 34th street by 4:50 — door to door.
Yes, this was a true 20 minutes from gate arrival to Manhattan heliport.
A key Blade note, which I absolutely adore, is that they’ll automatically put you on the helo nearest to your departure time. I always go with their standard recommendation based on my flight arrival time and I’ve benefited both from early arrivals and being put on earlier choppers and later arrivals which account accordingly.
Basically, they know people will win some and lose some, so they accommodate folks on the earliest Blade service with seats based on when they’re actually on the ground and Blade is in control. In this case, they moved me up to a flight 20 minutes earlier. Either would’ve still been faster than New York rush hour traffic, but this was really meaningful on the day.
I couldn’t help but marvel that we’d landed at 4:30 and had left the terminal, made our way to the Blade terminal and flown to Manhattan, all before 4:50. Undoubtedly, many passengers were still waiting for bags or firing up the Uber app to wait for the 1:48 minute journey, which my Google Maps was noting due to construction.
This time allowed me to arrive at the venue, have a quick change and refresh, go over notes and actually be present and cohesive, rather than the scatter brain of scruff, just out of the back of a circa two hour taxi ride.
As electric vertical take off and landing (eVTOL) becomes a thing of the present rather than future, it seems like Blade could really continue to be a game changer in major cities. This trip reestablished my love affair with the service.
