HeliNY, for which they are a reseller, charges $925 for that trip as a charter. Aircraft capacity is 5 (maybe 6). So the regular price, assuming they make you wait for a full helicopter, is probably about $200.
All kinds of services advertise one-time introductory rates that way.
You really have to read the fine print of their promotions.
* 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 additional fees as indicated in the terms and conditions
http://mikeash.com/tmp/screenshot_F1E1DACD-A595-455E-A5C1-E2...
And it wouldn't let me proceed until I chose something; leaving it at the default wasn't allowed. Very tricky.
Which country do you live in ? I know nobody does ISP introductory prices in France.
So an $800 phone costing $60 a month for 2 years ($93 per month) gets advertised as 'free iPhone at just $30!'
Not sure if it works on our generation. On the one hand, obviously it does to some extent, else they wouldn't do it. I know I always made spreadsheets of monthly-average-costs (taking into account resell value of the phone) everytime I got into a 2-year contract. I know a few friends operate like that, too... In any case I think the fake advertised rate may not convince anyone in and of itself, but it does grab the attention, and that's such a key facet of marketing. For example here I'm sure plenty of people would be interested in paying $200 for the helicopter trip, but they probably wouldn't have immediately paid attention to it or had friends tell them about it or have it stuck in their minds if it wasn't priced $99.
The prices in bold are only for the first 12 months
Certainly not great. But at least it's reasonably clear that the number they give you isn't the full story, even if finding the real one takes a bit of legwork. Not trying to defend them, but this helicopter thingy is a bit worse.
In my experience with these things (although I haven't tried with Cox), month 25 is usually when prices go back down, because that's when they might lose you to a competitor.
Another issue is if they are flying to JFK the idea is you are taking a flight obviously out of JFK. So given that helis are small and weight sensitive I wonder if the app collects that info and/or what the baggage restrictions are.
> A beautiful new Bell 407 helicopter is just minutes away!
Now it really is for the 1%. At $99 I can imagine a family wanting to take one to reduce stress and complexities.
How long until drones can take us? :)
Why? Because they have to meet the same safety requirements as existing aircraft, but carry enough electronics to fly the aircraft as autonomously and as safely as a human pilot, which I think is actually a substantial hurdle to overcome.
If you assume you're taking out the pilot and replacing him with electronics, and assuming your average pilot is ~80-90kg, that's a fairly substantial amount of weight available for computing systems.
The theory between small and large craft autonomous flight should be the same, we've already got plenty of aircraft sized drones flying about that are packed with ordnance and axillary sensors for imaging and surveillance.
You have more things to worry about regarding subsystems on larger craft, but even those will likely just be additional code rather than extra heavy hardware on board.
I think the most likely pathway for a passenger drone will be retrofitting existing aircraft, and that could amount to a bunch of sensory equipment, a main control unit and a bunch of servos. Nothing too heavy, and it would just eat into a helicopters existing weight limits which are often fairly substantial.