Last weekend we went to New York City and one of the highlights of the trip was how we got from JFK into Manhattan. I’ve always known about Blade and their helicopter transfers from all three New York airports into the city but had never actually flown on one. Well, I decided to change that and I couldn’t have been happier. It was one of the coolest experiences I have ever had, outside of showering on an airplane in Emirates first class of course.

What is Blade?

Blade is a company that provides on transportation between JFk or Newark airports and Manhattan by helicopter. You can book by the seat or even charter your own helicopter to take you where you need to go. And they don’t only operate in New York but have operations in the the South of France from Nice to Monaco as well as in Canada from Vancouver and Victoria. Additionally they offer flights from NYC to the Hamptons.

You might be wondering how much this costs because there’s no way it can be affordable. Well you’d be wrong!

Flights on Blade start at $195 and you can get $50 off your first flight with a referral which is how we booked our flight. With taxis or rideshares costing pretty close to that and taking almost an hour and a half, I had to check our Blade.

Booking Blade

Getting a seat on Blade couldn’t be easier. Either go to their website or their app to start. You can use my code GeorgeE32 for $50 off your first flight.

Select the airport
Choose which way you’re going, either Manhattan to the airport or the airport to Manhattan
Choose when you are departing
Number of passengers
Enter in your commercial flight information. This helps them find your terminal and coordinate your pick up or drop off time
Choose any add ons and book your flight!

Where They Fly

To/From JFK to Blade West on W 30th St. or Blade East on E 34th St
To/From Newark only to Blade West on W 30th St.
There has been scheduled service to LaGuardia in the past but it doesn’t look like it is still operating but you can book a private charter to/from there for a whopping $1,875. Note, that you can do this to or from the other airports if you want your own ride.
There used to be a third Blade location on Wall Street

The Experience

Thanks to the free Wi-Fi on JetBlue, I started getting texts from Blade letting me know they were tracking my flight and to let them know when I deplaned so they could have a car waiting for me to drive me to the heliport.

Blade does offer a meet and greet service for $150 but I did not find this necessary as their instructions couldn’t be more clear and our driver showed up about a minute after we walked outside.

You can also bring your dog or cat with you on the flight. Pets under 25 lbs fly for just $50. If they’re over 25 lbs you will have to purchase their own seat.

You know the trip is off to a great start when you see a $180,000 Mercedes Benz Maybach show up! Not only was there a driver but also someone else from Blade to help with our luggage. The pickup experience couldn’t have been easier.

*Our Maybach EQS 680 from JFK to the Heliport*

The drive was a short 5 minutes to the heliport but I would have been more than happy to ride in the Maybach all the way into Manhattan. According to our amazing driver, Blade and Maybach have a partnership to provide ground transportation between the airport and the heliport. Now they only have a handful of these so you might get a black SUV if one of these Maybachs aren’t available.

Upon arriving, our other Blade representative in the car with us hopped out and grabbed our luggage to take inside the heliport for us while we another representative checked us in after scanning our IDs. While that was being completed they weighed our bags and set them on a cart which they would take out to load on our helicopter once it arrived.

One important thing to know is that you are allowed 1 personal item along with a carry on that can’t be more than 25 lbs combined. They never told us how much our bags weighed and honestly I wouldn’t have beens surprised if they were overweight. However, our flight ended up only having one other passenger so they may have been more lenient because of the light load. If you have more or heavier luggage, you can either buy an extra seat for your bags which costs $145 and allows you to bring up to 65 lbs with you. Another, slightly cheaper option is to use their Excess Luggage Pickup and Delivery via Tote Taxi for $135 and have your luggage delivered straight to your final destination.

The lounge at the JFK FBO (Fixed Base Operator aka private terminal) was pretty minimal with a handful of chairs and sofas. They did offer us bottled water which we gladly accepted. After only a few minutes of waiting, we started seeing other passengers walk through the FBO and get loaded up in the waiting Maybachs to take them to the airport terminal. It was then we knew our flight into the city was about to start.

We lined up next to the door and after a few safety instructions from one of the Blade representatives we were walked out onto the tarmac to our waiting helicopter.

We were greeted by our pilot who explained a couple things about the flight through our headphones that are at each seat and we were off! I nerded out a bit listening to JFK’s air traffic control while departing the airport on our short 6 minute flight which took us over Brooklyn, across the East River, down past the Battery and up the Hudson River to our smooth landing at their heliport on W. 30th Street.

We were greeted on arrival by a Blade representative and brought inside their lounge while we waited on our luggage which was delivered a few moments later. I was too glued out the window the entire flight to think about ordering a car to take us to our final destination but I was more than happy to hang out for a few minutes with a glass of complimentary rosé from their bar.

What Card Should You Use

Blade is coded as travel, not airfare so the best card to use is the Chase Sapphire Reserve to earn 3x points. The Chase Sapphire Preferred, Citi Double Cash, and Capital One Venture X all earn 2x points on travel so if you don’t have the Sapphire Reserve, any of those would be your best bet.

Bilt Rewards and Blade

Bilt recently launched a partnership with Blade where you can earn 2x Bilt points per dollar on Blade flights. You don’t have to pay with your Bilt Mastercard to earn the bonus points but just make sure you have the card you are using linked to your Bilt account.

Additionally, Bilt Rewards members with elite status can earn more perks on Blade.

Bilt Silver members can receive a 10% discount on Blade airport flights booked through the Bilt app or website. This doesn’t stack with the $50 referral discount for your first flight but it will be useful for subsequent flights.
Bilt Gold members can also receive a 10% discount on Blade airport flights as well as receiving access to Blade lounges when not flying Blade (although, I’m not sure who would actually want to do that).
Bilt Platinum members receive the above benefits, plus one free Blade flight between Newark or JFK and Manhattan, or between Nice and Monaco. Eligible members will receive the free flight per year when qualifying for the status.

Use your Chase Sapphire Reserve linked to your Bilt account and you’ll earn 5 points per dollar which is worth 8.5% at 1.7 cents per point.

Is Blade a Good Deal?

While Blade certainly isn’t the cheapest option to get to or from each NYC airport, it is without a doubt the easiest, fastest, and coolest way.

Even though I booked our Blade flights the night before, I jumped on Uber to see how much one would cost and the cheapest UberX would have cost $117 without tip and would have taken a little over an hour.

If you’re flying by yourself, Blade is without a doubt well worth the slight premium especially if it is your first flight and can get it for $50 off like I did. If you’re traveling with someone else the value of it obviously goes way down as you have to pay for each seat versus splitting the cost of a rideshare or a taxi. Additionally, if you’re checking a bag you’ll be on the hook for another $135-145. This also doesn’t take into account just how convenient and quick it is. We walked out the doors at JFK just after noon and landed in Manhattan at 12:30.

You also need to factor in how far away your final destination is from Blade’s heliport in the city as that certainly adds some extra time on to your trip.

On the way out of New York we opted to get a rideshare back to JFK which took about an hour and a half in your standard smelly NYC Uber so we were regretting every second of it and wishing we had booked another Blade.

Wrapping Up

It’s been over a week now since the flight and I cannot stop thinking about how cool of an experience it was to fly on Blade. The entire experience was perfect and so well executed. Flying Blade is certainly a luxury but depending on the price of a taxi or rideshare you probably won’t pay that much extra and will save a ton of time and headache.

Don’t forget to use my code for $50 off your first Blade flight: GeorgeE32

The responses below are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Responses have not been reviewed, approved, or otherwise endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.

Flying Blade from JFK to Manhattan