A while ago a friend of mine was on vacation in NY and asked at his hotel regarding a helo tour, the receptionist suggested that instead of the tour my friend took the helicopter shuttle to JFK when he was returning to UK which means that you get to see the sights (some of), miss the traffic and the real bonus was that he checked in his bags at the heliport and saw them again on arrival back at LHR! Not sure if it was much cheaper than the tour but he seemed well pleased with the result.