We flew to the Hamptons like the 1% with Blade, an 'Uber-for-helicopters' startup - and it was as fabulous as it sounds
Blade, an aviation startup cofounded by former Sony and Warner Music Group exec Rob Wiesenthal and GroupMe cofounder Steve Martocci, aims to make it a little easier on you.
Blade uses an app to crowdsource flights on helicopters and seaplanes that you can book seats on in an instant. Rather than have you spend hours on a slow train or in a cramped car, Blade's flights promise to get you out to the Hamptons in just 40 minutes.
Destinations include Quogue, Southampton, East Hampton, Montauk, Nantucket, Martha's Vineyard, and Cape Cod. You can even snag a seat on a helicopter going to one of the New York area airports, a five-minute ride the company calls Blade Bounce.
Tickets range from $395 to $695 for a trip from Manhattan to the Hamptons, Blade's most popular destination. For a few hundred more dollars, you can do a custom charter flight to a destination of your choice, and you can even choose to fly on a faster aircraft if you'd like.
Socialites, celebrities, and elite businessmen are catching on - Laura Prepon, Jon Hamm, and Olivia Palermo are just a few of the big names that have been spotted in one of Blade's three luxury lounges in Manhattan.
Blade completed a $6 million Series A funding round in May of this year. Google chairman Eric Schmidt, Discover Communications CEO David Zaslav, IAC's Barry Diller, Alex von Furstenberg, Raine Ventures, and iHeart Media chairman Bob Pittman all contributed to the startup's most recent round.
We wanted to see what the fuss was about, so Blade treated us to a trip to the Hamptons on a recent evening.