Using the atmosphere to keep you off the ground feels like you have a problem where for every atmospheric molecule bouncing off your bottom pushing you upwards you're incurring a drag cost. My gut says that that means it's never going to work, but guts aren't always very good at engineering.
It *may* work if you had some impressive wireless energy transfer, but that means you probably would not actually save any cost in the grand scheme of things.
Blimps sound like they should be good for space, but as a concept they're oversized and full of hot air unfortunately.
