American Airlines Has Partnered With Blade For Helicopter Transport
Remember how I talked about American Airlines trying to charge for every economy seat? Well now they want to sell you a new, very expensive seat…on a chopper. How does skipping NYC or LA traffic on the way to the airport sound to you? Do you have 5 friends who love to be #bougieAF? Well American Airlines has partnered with Blade for helicopter transport to fill your need.
I Hate Traffic But How Much Is It?
So far the program is only set up in New York City and Los Angeles. According to Inc. the cost is $695 per trip but that is for 6 people. It looks like you actually have to have 6 people since they will only fly full choppers. That does know the price down and Inc. says it can be as low as $195 per person. I guess you can’t impress that significant other going all baller style on a two person copter ride.
If you wanna go full blown bougie you can add on Five Star service for $350 to skip all of that TSA mumbo jumbo. Or you could get TSA Precheck for free with a credit card but your choice there.
What is really interesting is that you can do it with any American Airlines seat, even dreaded basic economy. What if the regular economy seat was $100 more than basic economy? You could get that basic economy stuck in the back middle row seat but fly in a helicopter for only $95 more (kinda fuzzy math there haha). That is insane or you would have to be insane…something along those lines.
Conclusion
This is an interesting partnership and I could see it being useful for business people in each city. I don’t see the regular traveler doing it unless it is someone splurging for a bachelor party etc. I think Shawn needs to get the Miles to Memories team together so we can do a full blown 7 minute trip report for you guys 😉.
Let me know what you guys think. Could you ever see yourself doing it?
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I think the obvious first question is whether/how miles could be used for the helicopter flights, and how flexible are they with pickup/drop off locations?
I commented in our FB group I wonder if the CSR travel credit would work. I bet Barclay Arrival or Venture would work 🙂