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Gotham Air: Manhattan to JFK in 6 minutes for $99

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Re: Gotham Air: Manhattan to JFK in 6 minutes for $99

#181

Post by ZoFreX »

ubernostrum wrote: post #121
seanmcdirmid wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

EasyJet exists in Europe you know... You really have to read the fine print of their promotions.

Ryanair, too. They will fly you to $MAJOR_CITY* for just €0.50†! * Where we actually mean "a smaller airport 150km away from that city and you're on your own for getting to it" † Plus €20 ticketing fee, €20 payment-processing fee, €20 boarding-pass issuance fee, €20 checked baggage fee, €20 carry-on baggage fee, €20 fee for no baggage, €20 plane-boarding fee, €20 airport use fee, €20 fee-handling fee and other additi…

A combination of legal changes and consumer pressure has changed that a lot. I flew them recently (for the first and last time - but that wasn't related to obfuscated pricing) and there wasn't much in the way of hidden charges. Checked baggage was extra and there was a tiny card processing fee, other than that I paid the advertised price.

Re: Gotham Air: Manhattan to JFK in 6 minutes for $99

#182

Post by ZoFreX »

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #64
lmm wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not where I live they don't. Is this a US thing?

EasyJet exists in Europe you know... You really have to read the fine print of their promotions.

With EasyJet I've always paid the advertised price, give or take a couple of £. As far as I'm aware they don't have any "first-time flyer" discount rates.

Re: Gotham Air: Manhattan to JFK in 6 minutes for $99

#183

Post by mtbcoder »

coin wrote: post #104

Questionable website, clicking on "FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS" on an iPad (Safari iOS 8.1.2) does nothing. Hopefully the helicopters are better.

I noticed that as well. I also received a blank page until a few refreshes eventually loaded the page. Oddly, all the HTML of the site is loaded via Javascript.

Re: Gotham Air: Manhattan to JFK in 6 minutes for $99

#184

Post by coldtea »

Alex3917 wrote: post #92
ovb wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And before US Helicopter, there was http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_Airways New York Airways had one notable accident: http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/05/16/may-16-1977-hel...

The NYC helicopters in general have a terrible track record. There are constantly articles about them crashing into the rivers, into buildings, into other helicopters or planes, etc. Someone else in the thread posted an article about how the overall helicopter fatality rate compares with the car fatality rate, and while it's hard to say for certain, it doesn't look promising.

Once I run the numbers for air travel fatality rates, as compared to car fatality rates but talking into account miles travelled for both (and number of passengers etc), and, assuming I was correct, they came out pretty close.

Re: Gotham Air: Manhattan to JFK in 6 minutes for $99

#185

Post by coldtea »

ybalkind wrote: post #170
rpmcb wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd be interested in sources for these claims. Lots of hyperbole in this comment.

An anecdotal source this - but a family friend of ours is a senior pilot for a well known international airline and a former air-force pilot. He also owns and fly's a microlight in his spare time. Recently my father took a helicopter flight and when this family friend heard about it he was absolutely livid at my father for risking his life and made my father swear to never fly a helicopter again.

>Recently my father took a helicopter flight and when this family friend heard about it he was absolutely livid at my father for risking his life and made my father swear to never fly a helicopter again.

Could just mean that pilots can be irrational too.

Re: Gotham Air: Manhattan to JFK in 6 minutes for $99

#186

Post by mpdehaan2 »

mkopinsky wrote: post #129
TheSpiceIsLife wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As someone who lives in a city with a population of approximately 100,000 in the greater metro area - Launceston, Tasmania - I'd like to take a moment to reflect on your comment. Google Maps tells me Manhattan to JFK Airport is a 32 kilometre taxi ride and takes three hours, plus it takes two hours to clear security at the airport. I'm a little astounded by those numbers. Five hours to get from the couch at home to t…

The numbers above are an exaggeration. I lived in the north end of manhattan (the part furthest from JFK) and an hour to get to JFK was on the long side - typical is probably 40-80 minutes. It doesn't take two hours to clear security at an airport either - typical is anywhere from 10 to 45 minutes.

Incidentally, Uber direct to JFK is slightly cheaper than a cab too ($45-ish?). You think it would be crazy expensive, but it's flat rate. I'm not sure about from JFK into the city, but I think I was told it was the same.

I'm not too big of a fan of the AirTram + Long Island Railway (LIRR) route, which ends up at one of the major train stations, has on outside terminal (not great in the winter and slow with a lot of things to remember to do), but is about half price of that.

Re: Gotham Air: Manhattan to JFK in 6 minutes for $99

#188

Post by llimllib »

coldtea wrote: post #184
Alex3917 wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The NYC helicopters in general have a terrible track record. There are constantly articles about them crashing into the rivers, into buildings, into other helicopters or planes, etc. Someone else in the thread posted an article about how the overall helicopter fatality rate compares with the car fatality rate, and while it's hard to say for certain, it doesn't look promising.

Once I run the numbers for air travel fatality rates, as compared to car fatality rates but talking into account miles travelled for both (and number of passengers etc), and, assuming I was correct, they came out pretty close.

According to wiki, autos are more than an order of magnitude more dangerous per mile:

                                       Air      Car
    Miles driven                        40      450
    Risk (millionths)                 0.60     6.75
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transportation_safety_in_the_U...

edit: that was a shallow misreading of the data. But the end concludes that air travel is roughly slightly less than an order of magnitude safer.

Re: Gotham Air: Manhattan to JFK in 6 minutes for $99

#190

Post by dankohn1 »

mpdehaan2 wrote: post #186
mkopinsky wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The numbers above are an exaggeration. I lived in the north end of manhattan (the part furthest from JFK) and an hour to get to JFK was on the long side - typical is probably 40-80 minutes. It doesn't take two hours to clear security at an airport either - typical is anywhere from 10 to 45 minutes.

Incidentally, Uber direct to JFK is slightly cheaper than a cab too ($45-ish?). You think it would be crazy expensive, but it's flat rate. I'm not sure about from JFK into the city, but I think I was told it was the same. I'm not too big of a fan of the AirTram + Long Island Railway (LIRR) route, which ends up at one of the major train stations, has on outside terminal (not great in the winter and slow with a lot of…

Uber flat price to the city is great until you hit a surge, which is easy to hit in the afternoons, especially when it rains. Then it can be 2x or 3x the price of pre-booking a ride. Uber should add reserve pricing for trips you know in advance, like AWS does.
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