It’s the wheel deal.
Blade — the helicopter company that shuttles city elites to the Hamptons for $1,000 a flight — is rolling out a swank coach service as a more affordable, but still luxe, alternative.
“We’re excited about the ‘white space’ that exists between a $40 Jitney ride and $1,000 helicopter flight,” Blade’s CMO Roisin Branch told The Post.
BLADE’s luxe coach bus will boast just 19 HoverSeats, which absorb bumps, have memory foam cushions and feature Bose’s noise-cancelling technology. BLADE
The new Blade Streamliner buses will feature first-class amenities such as deep-recline seats with memory foam backs and power leg rests, ultra fast Wifi, pillows, blankets and hot-towel service.
Plus, the tricked-out coach will have just 19 high-tech seats, each with five feet of legroom, allowing the Hampton-bound to stretch their Pilates-tone limbs. By comparison, standard coaches pack in around 50 travelers.
The seats themselves were specially developed by Bose to eliminate 90% of bumps and vibration and help prevent motion sickness.
The so-called “HoverSeats” are “the most advanced passenger seats in the world,” according to a press release.
To score one of the cushy seats, passengers will have to shell out $195 for one of the 12 seats on the right side of the bus, which features six rows of double seats, or $275 for one of the seven single seats on the left side of the bus.
BLADE is set to debut the Hamptons Streamliner on Friday, which will transport affluent New Yorkers to the Hamptons on a 19-seat high-end coach bus that will offer reclining seats, meal and cocktail service and spacious bathrooms during the two-hour trek “out East.” BLADE
Passengers can also bring their pups for an additional fee, and they’ll be doggy extras from luxury pet accessories company Bonefly.
All of the amenities stand in stark contrast to the Hampton Jitney. It costs just $41 when tickets are purchased in advance, but, in recent years, customers have complained about the once beloved service falling into dirty disrepair.
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Last season, a longtime Jitney rider griped to The Post that riding it was now “like taking an old Greyhound bus.”
Meanwhile, Blade’s Streamliners will even come with their own “Passenger Experience Team Members” who move through the bus to serve light food and drinks, along with offering pillows and blankets and even hot towels — all at the press of a call button..
Meal and cocktail service will also be available during the two-hour drive from Manhattan to the Hamptons. BLADE
Light bites available on board will vary depending on the time of day. Morning service, for example, will include NYC’s Popup Bagels, a lauded purveyor of the iconic carb that recently collaborated with Dominique Ansel on an escargot bagel.
The bagels will “come in nice and warm” each day, Branch said.
There’s also a full bar — well-stocked with bottles of Château La Coste’s acclaimed rosé — and a lavatory large enough for passengers to change out of their summer Friday best and into their Hamptons looks.
For now, the Streamliner will only depart from the Big Apple to the Hamptons from the corner 33rd Street and 11th Avenue. That should prove incredibly convenient for those who work in the Hudson Yards offices of Warner Bros. Discovery, Blackrock, Facebook and JPMorgan.
BLADE already offers services to the Hamptons via helicopter, as well as helicopter trips between JFK and Newark Airport. Stewart Cohen
On the way back, the Streamliner will stop on the East side of Manhattan before making a final stop at Hudson Yards.
Unlike the Jitney, it will spare passengers the indignity of stopping at John F. Kennedy International Airport in Queens and having to switch buses on Long Island in Manorville or Southampton.
The company said it expects its first-class service to appeal to those who pay $350 to $750 to take a car service to the Hamptons but might not spring for helicopter service
“Until electric vertical aircraft are available, we can’t make helicopter travel less expensive,” Branch said. “But what we can do is elevate the ground travel experience, which has not changed in over a century.”
Source link: https://nypost.com/2024/04/28/business/swanky-bus-from-nyc-to-hamptons-pampers-riders-with-cocktails-hot-towels-reclining-seats/