By Sheldon Trollope

TALK ABOUT THE Mother of All Promotions. Mercedes-Benz dealer Cycle & Carriage has come up with some pretty innovative promotions over the years, with anything from condos, massage chairs, home theatre systems and all manner of luxury items up for grabs for pampered customers.

But this one takes the cake. If you’ve been shopping for a Mercedes-Benz for the last month or so, you would have undoubtedly heard about the Air of Superiority Programme in which, depending on the Mercedes model purchased, customers can choose goodies ranging from a flat screen TV, a chauffeured
Benz or a few days with either an SLK or SL.

If you ask us, however, the highlight of the programme is a helicopter tour of Singapore for your party of four. Any respectable billionaire has a chopper on call, after all, and if you’re going to Trump it up for a day, then the Elite Helicopter Experience, as the fancy flight is called, is the only way.

Besides, the Experience includes lunch at the Equinox, Swissotel The Stamford’s 73rd-floor restaurant, and it’s just not like a motoring journalist to turn away free food.Anyway, the day began when I was whisked from my apartment block to Seletar Airport where ‘my’ chopper awaited, all in the backseat comfort of
a gleaming, chauffeur driven S 350 L.

As ‘my’ helicopter was still in an airport after all, this meant that any billionaire illusions of going straight from limo to aircraft would be rudely interrupted, given today’s security requirements of walking through metal detectors and bags passing through x-ray machines. How terribly gauche.

At this point, you’ll also be informed that no photos or videos can be taken while you’re aboard the helicopter. Which is a bummer if you and your party want a keepsake to remember the occasion.

After a short safety briefing, you don life jackets (wouldn’t parachutes be preferable?) and a pair of headphones that let you talk to the pilot and other passengers. It also helps drown out the noise which would have you reaching for ear plugs anyway, and makes you look like an
authentic chopper passenger besides.

The flight itself lasts about an hour and takes you from Seletar to the causeway en route to Jurong Island, after which the chopper then veers east past Sentosa and goes as far as Bedok jetty. Needless to say, the view is a lot more interesting than it sounds, and it gives a spectacular glimpse of Singapore few have seen. Sadly, you can’t order the pilot to fly you over your worst enemy’s house so you can
drop a brick on his car or something.

Still, just being up there is a rare treat. Arranging such a flight on your own would set you back $4,000 to $5,000, but even if you had the cash for it, getting the security clearance to swoop over our skies for a joyride would probably requite the assistance of friends in high places, so to speak.

Of course, you simply could have bought a
Mercedes-Benz before December 31st.

Believe me, being able to end a call on your cellphone by telling the other party, “I gotta go, my chopper’s waiting…” would have been worth half the price alone.