JetBlue Adds Blade Helicopter Flights to Loyalty Program

Getting a quick lift on a Blade Air Mobility helicopter from New York's JFK airport to Manhattan? Soon travelers will also get perks in JetBlue Airways' loyalty program, TrueBlue, on their flight.

JetBlue will offer top tier Mosaic TrueBlue members a "limited number" of free seats on Blade's flights between its heliport on East 34th Street in Manhattan and JFK airport, and all TrueBlue members will have access to "preferred pricing" for their first Blade airport flight. What is not clear is whether Blade flights will earn TrueBlue members points in the loyalty program. Blade will be "integrated" into the TrueBlue program — suggesting more benefits are to come — by early 2023.

“This partnership with Blade will help us further evolve and enhance our TrueBlue program so our
most loyal customers can enjoy more perks more often," JetBlue Vice President of Loyalty and Partnerships Chris Buckner said.

The JetBlue-Blade partnership evokes a similar image to that of the electric vertical takeoff and landing, or eVTOL, aircraft the likes of American Airlines, United Airlines, and others see as the future of connecting people to a major airport in a large metropolitan area. However, Blade, which operates traditional gas-powered helicopters, is very much of the past generation of polluting, noisy, and exclusive urban air transport that the eVTOL industry is trying to distance itself from. Tickets on Blade flights from either JFK or Newark airports to Manhattan begin at $195 per person; the cost of a train ride from either airport ranges from $15.50 to $18.75 per person.

Blade will begin offering "continuous" service 13 hours a day, six days a week between Manhattan and JFK on June 27.