Bilt Platinum Comes With Free Blade Helicopter Transfer—I Skipped Traffic and Was at JFK in 5 Minutes

One of the things I love about Bilt Rewards Platinum status is the annual free Blade helicopter transfer. I just used my third free ride on the way back home from New York.

Bilt Platinum also comes with the biggest transfer bonuses. I’ve taken advantage of 100% and 150% bonuses to airlines. It lets you match to Air France KLM Flying Blue Gold annually, which I’ve used for free checked bags, priority boarding and exit row seats on Delta. And there have been plenty of other one-off benefits I’ve taken advantage of (Alaska Airlines MVP Gold, Accor hotels status, etc.).

I wouldn’t normally splurge on a helicopter transfer, but it’s nice not to be stuck in the inevitable traffic between Manhattan and New York JFK (or Newark)! Here’s my trip report from last year.

My New York trip had several purposes, and since I was in town I attended Bilt’s launch event for its new credit cards. That was at the World Trade Center Observatory space, and I booked a helicopter out of Blade’s Wall Street lounge. However, the day before they called and texted to let me know:

• My flight would be cancelled because of planned maintenance on the scheduled helicopter.
  
• I could take a flight at the same time out of Blade Lounge West. I didn’t know for certain I could make it there on time given the vagaries of traffic. So they offered me a later flight, which still gave me cushion to make my departure.
  
• They also offered that if I made it to Blade Lounge West earlier there was likely still going to be room on the earlier departure. (I did make it in time, there was not room.)
  
• I wasn’t offered any sort of consideration or future credit for the inconvenience, just the re-booking or option to refund.

I arrived at Blade Lounge West. The parking lot is by the arrivals side of the building.

It’s a short walk to the departure side. It’s basically a trailer.

Inside is comfortable seating, bathrooms, and a bar. When you enter you’re checked in and given a wristband as your ‘boarding pass’. Bags are weighed.

For a helicopter transfer you’re limited to a carry-on and personal item, the weight limit is 25 pounds, and excess is charged. You can pay for up to 50 pounds total, either in advance or – if there’s room – on departure. More than this has to be sent separately by car (they’ll arrange this at a fee). I had a partial credit on my account from last year, which was applied seamlessly, so I paid for excess luggage at time of reservation. (I had 35 pounds total between my carry-on and laptop bag.)

I pulled up the drink menu, though the bartender was happy to offer me anything I wanted.

Bilt Gold and Platinum members can visit a Blade lounge two drinks even when not taking a trip. Bilt’s Palladium card comes with Gold status.

Here are som e other shots of the lounge.

I only had water, took a packaged snack from the bar, sat down and got some work done looking out over the water.

About 5 minutes before scheduled departure we boarded. There were just 3 of us on this trip. Rollaboards were brought out ot the aircraft by staff and stowed, while I took my laptop bag with me. One other passenger sat in back with me (there were two empty seats in front of us). We were told to seat belt and put on the headsets that were behind us, so we could hear and speak to the pilot.

We took off right away for our five minute trip to the basic Modern Aviation teminal at New York JFK.

We landed, and waited a few moments as staff retrieved bags. They opened the helicopter doors, and we headed straight into and through the terminal. Outside there were waiting cars for passengers to head to the different terminals where each would be departing from.

Interestingly, they advertise that you can pay extra for a private ride to your terminal. I suppose they could run a shuttle, where you share a ride with other passengers and make more than one stop. In practice I’ve not personally heard of this happening. If there’s a shared ride it would be for passengers heading to the same terminal, so I don’t think this upsell is really necessary.

Blade is such a fascinating business. Most of their money wasn’t coming from ferrying passengers between Manhattan and the airports (or out to the Hamptons, etc.). That was ess than half their revenue, with the majority coming from moving human organs for medical transplant. They were the largest provider of this service in the country.

Back in August, Blade sold its passenger business to Joby Aviation and kept the organ ferrying, and rebranded it Strata Critical Medical.

Joby bought an operating platform with permits, terminals, customer base, and operations experience with plans to eventually swap helicopters for eVTOLs as certification arrives.