I Love Airports

The following is a post by Fleet’s Director of Sales, Jennifer Forde, who is helping many learn how to enjoy airports again.

Dirty little secret… I LOVE AIRPORTS! I know that sounds strange, as most people see them as a morass of long lines, delays, lost luggage and irate travelers.  Of course, all these plagues are legitimate problems and they are becoming terminal, I’m afraid.  Yet, regardless of the frustrations I often encounter when flying, as I arrive at the airport I am filled with a sense of excitement and wonder.

When I was a small child, my father traveled extensively for his international finance job, and my mother and I either accompanied him or hopped aboard a plane to meet him in some exotic locale. By age three, my passport had more stamps than many will collect in a lifetime.

Perhaps it was that every time we arrived at the airport my mother treated each trip as a new adventure. Maybe it was that I was simply a child excited that we were going to meet daddy. Collecting a shiny set of wings for each trip was a pretty big deal for me back then, too. Whatever the reason, when we would pull up to the curb and they came to check our bags, I could feel the energy in the air.  Why were so many people heading in so many different directions all at once? I was small, but I recognized then that I was part of a much bigger world, full of possibility and promise. These great big planes were my chariots in the sky. I could go anywhere! I could do anything!

Of course, the day came when evil turned something wondrous into a vessel of destruction, not only altering the skyline of our city, but the way we took to the sky, as well.  I traveled internationally shortly after 9-11, and while the excited hum was still present in the air, it was a fearful energy.  It was no longer a feeling that the airport could grant access to the world, but that it could let the rest of the world in as well, for better and for worse.

The security measures and restrictions have understandably increased exponentially since that September. Every adjustment brings longer lines, reduced amenities and increased fees and surcharges.  We have irritated passengers paying for bags, standing around barefoot and beltless, while they wait to be x-rayed before their overbooked flights are inevitably delayed. Sure, this adds hours to the trips we take. Yes, it’s nauseating to smell the feet of the man in front of you. Yet, I still feel the excitement. It’s imprinted on my child-brain, I suppose. I understand that security is there to try to safeguard us and that delays are now somehow the norm on commercial flights. I remember trips with Mom and try to see it all as part of the adventure.  However, I know I am the exception to the rule.

This is why I am thrilled to work with Fleet Aviation, where I can offer a safe, personal and hassle-free flight experience for our clients, without draining their wallets.  I love that when you charter a smaller private plane with us that you get all of the excitement of the airport and none of the frustration. Working for Fleet has allowed me to revisit the airports I remember from my childhood.

I cannot help but smile when I see the familiar wonder in the eyes of our clients’ kids when they climb aboard their very own aircraft, heading off on an adventure of their own with Mom or Dad in tow.  Even Mom and Dad have that same gleam in their eye when they charter a plane for a business trip! The wonder of taking to the sky hasn’t diminished one bit; it’s just a whole lot easier to recognize it – when you remove all the lines and fees and bare feet.

Working for Fleet Aviation has enabled me to share what air travel should be and what I know it can be - safe, efficient and affordable flights with all the excitement and none of the hassle. I hope that everyone has a chance to experience what Fleet has to offer and I invite you to call or email me so I can help you plan your next trip in the Northeast.

Make a Wiser School Investment

IT IS NO SECRET that the cost of sending a child to private secondary school or university is exponentially increasing. Tuition at New York City private schools have increased 79% in a mere 10 years, according to a recent Wall Street Journal article. And the New York Times reports the average tuition at a private college in the US is $27,293 and is increasing at around 4-5% a year. And that doesn’t even include room, board, books and other living expenses. According to the Department of Education, the most expensive institution, Bates College in Maine, comes in at a whopping $51,300 per year including room and board.   That means those students and parents are looking at spending almost a quarter million dollars for one diploma. The numbers are staggering.

If you had a $250,000 investment to make – would you feel comfortable researching opportunities,  looking at potential benefits, deciding on their value, comparing them to alternatives and making the investment decision completely on your own? Probably not. The private wealth management industry continues to flourish and many people turn to their financial advisors to guide them through the most critical decision making processes, keeping them aware of all aspects of the investment environment. It is the same for applying to college. People understand the risks and realize they are probably not qualified to lead the search without guidance. They turn to college counselors who can make as much as $40,000 to coach one child and their parents through the admissions process.

On the other hand, as much as you put your trust in the hands of these experts, would you turn 6-figure investment decision completely over to someone else and take a laissez-faire attitude with it? The answer is an equally enthusiastic “no.” You have regular check-ins and get involved in the decisions based on your overall risk tolerance, life goals and personality. And it’s the same with selecting a 4 year school – be it secondary or university level education.  You and your child need to spend time on campus seeing the buildings, meeting the teachers and professors, talking to other students, and getting a clearer sense of the culture and environment. You need to find the “right fit” in order to ensure your quarter-million dollar investment will reap the return you seek.

Yet many parents don’t spend as much time visiting prospective campuses as they should, if they were really thinking about the investment in their child’s future from a dollars-and-cents perspective. There are at least 4 opportunities for visiting schools and getting a better sense of them before classes actually commence:

1. Pre-Application: Campus Tour
2. While Applying: Interview
3. Post-Acceptance: Admitted Students weekend
4. After Placing a Deposit: Orientation

And many students go back a handful of times in between just to be sure they are making the best decision possible.

Now marry that with the fact that universities and boarding schools are notoriously located in hard-to-reach destinations. The first three scenarios are most likely going to be happening at more than one university as they are all critical parts of the filtering and narrowing process. Are you really going to spend hundreds of hours on the car to make these visits happen? Are you going to skip these and risk investing in an institution that won’t pay off later? That would probably be unwise. The answer seems to be to make the travel more efficient and productive. And we have an idea how you can do that: charter.

Fleet Aviation flies to hundreds of airports in the Northeast alone and no matter how far away the school is, there is typically always an airport less than an hour away. (Follow these links to see a sampling of Boarding Schools and Colleges & Universities in Fleet’s Range.) And because you fly completely on your own schedule, you can easily visit more than one location in a day saving hours of time and a lot of hassle. We’ll wait on the ground while you take a tour or participate in an interview, and we’ll even help arrange your ground transportation so the entire trip is seamless. Instead of being exhausted at your desk on Monday after a weekend of slogging through traffic all across the region, we keep you productive both on the road and back at home. And our low hourly rates means you not only save headache and hassle, but you can your travel plans aren’t dramatically adding to the cost of admission.

With our help, you can focus on learning what you need so that you can be sure to mitigate the risk of your hefty investment and be confident it will pay off four years from now.

Visiting a College: The Most Important Questions to Ask

The following is a guest post by Louise Baker who ranks online programs for Zen College Life. She most recently wrote about getting an online criminal justice degree.

TRYING TO FIND the perfect college for you can be a difficult process; you research, visit, and ponder about which college will be the best for you both personally and academically. Searching for colleges can be time consuming and exasperating. You may feel like so many colleges offer exactly what you’re looking for. At the thought of choosing the right college, you immediately feel anxious. Not to worry! Finding your perfect college is not impossible; when visiting it’s important to know the right questions to ask that will give you insight to whether or not a college is really right for you.

“What are your best programs?

Often, students ask the college whether or not a specific program is good. It wouldn’t be good for the college to put down it’s own programs, and as a result, most colleges will say that the program is good. In order to get to the bottom of things, it’s better to ask the college what their best programs are. If the program you’re interested in isn’t mentioned, you might want to consider taking the college off of your list of possibilities.

“Can potential students shadow current students?”

If you really want to find out what a college is like, staying with and following a current student around campus, to classes, the dining hall, and other important places, is one of the best ways to find out whether or not you truly like the college.

“How are the dorms protected?

Depending on where your college of interested is located, security can be extremely important. Make sure that you’re comfortable with the college’s answer to this question.

“Can I live off campus? When? Can I bring a car?”

Some colleges don’t allow freshmen to live off campus and some colleges don’t even allow you to bring a car for your first year. Although you may be perfectly happy living on campus, you may eventually seek a different living situation. If the college doesn’t allow you to bring a car, be sure to ask about what kind of transportation they offer, both for on and off campus trips as well as getting you home to visit on the holidays!

“What kind of extracurricular activities are offered?”

Remember that you’re not going to in class or studying all of the time. You’ll want your perfect college to offer extracurricular activities that you’ll be interested in.

Remember that your perfect college is out there. Good luck!

Boarding Schools in Fleet’s Range

IN ADDITION TO the colleges and universities in our range, often parents will fly Fleet to area boarding schools either as part of the admissions process or to attend their child’s sporting events.

Here is a sampling of Boarding Schools within our range, and the nearest airport we could fly you to.

• St. Paul’s, Concord, NH KCON
• Exeter, Exeter, NH KPSM
• Andover, Andover, MA KLWM
• Middlesex, Concord, MA KBED
• Groton, Groton, MA KFIT
• St. George’s, Middletown (Newport) RI KUUU
• Deerfield Academy, Deerfield, MA 0B5 or 7B2
• Eaglebrook, S. Deerfield, MA 0B5 or 7B2
• The Governor’s Academy, Byfield, MA 2B2 or KLWM
• St. Andrew’s, Middletown, DE KEVY
• Suffield Academy, Suffield, CT KBDL
• Miss Porter’s, Farmington, CT 4B8 or KHFD
• Loomis Chaffee, Windsor, CT KBDL
• Westminster School, Simsbury, CT 4B9 or KBDL
• Concord Academy, Concord, MA KBED
• Berkshire, Sheffield, MA KGBR
• Peddie School, Hightstown, NJ N87
• Lawrenceville, Lawrenceville, NJ KTTN
• Hill School, Pottstown, PA N47, KPTW
• Mercersburg Academy, Mercersburg, PA N68
• Brooks School, North Andover, MA KLWM
• St. Mark’s, Southborough, MA KORH
• Williston Northampton, Easthampton, MA 7B2
• Asheville School, Asheville, NC KAVL
• Avon Old Farms, Avon, CT 4B8, KHFD
• Northfield Mount Hermon, Mount Hermon, MA 0B5, KORE
• Oldfields,Glencoe, MD KEVY
• Proctor Academy, Andover, MA KLWM
• Ethel Walker, Simsbury, CT 4B9
• Emma Willard, Troy, NY KALB
• Fay School, Southborough, MA KORH
• Holderness, Plymouth, NH 1P1, KLCI
• Millbrook School, Millbrook, NY 44N
• Pomfret School, Pomfret, CT KLZD
• Portsmouth Abbey, Portsmouth, RI KUUU

Colleges and Universities in Fleet’s Range

WE OFTEN GET ASKED where our clients fly with us to visit colleges and universities. These clients are parents who know the best way to get to these schools is to fly private with Fleet.

Here is a sample list of Universities and College in our current range and the nearest airport we can fly you into (typically under an hour):

• Bates College, Lewiston, ME KLEW
• Skidmore College, Saratoga, NY 5B2
• Connecticut College, New London, CT KGON
• Colgate College, Hamilton, NY KVGC
• Hamilton College, Clinton, NY KVGC
• Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, NY KPOU
• Bowdoin College, Brunswick, ME KIWI
• Middlebury College, Middlebury, VT 6B0
• Mount Holyoke College, South Hadley, MA KCEF
• Franklin & Marshall College, Lancaster, PA KLNS
• Colby College, Waterville, ME KWVL
• Smith College, Northampton, MA 7B2
• Cornell University, Ithaca, NY KITH
• Bucknell University, Lewisburg, PA KSEG
• Union College, Schenectedy, NY KSCH
• Dartmouth, Hanover, NH KLEB
• Dickinson College, Carlisle, PA N94
• Bennington College, Bennington, VT KDDH
• St. Lawrence University, Canton, NY KPTD
• Williams College, Williamstown, MA KAQW
• Wellesley, Wellesley,MA OWD
• Hampshire College, Northampton, MA 7B2
• Trinity College, Hartford, CT KHFD
• Lafayette College, Easton, PA, KABE
• RPI, Troy, NY KALB
• Hobart and William Smith College, Geneva, NY 0G7
• University of Rochester, Rochester, NY KROC
• Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA  KABE
• University of Richmond, VA KRIC
• Amherst College, Amherst, MA 7B2
• Gettysburg College, Gettysburg, PA W05
• Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Worcester, MA WORH
• Washington and Lee University, Lexington, VA KSHD
• Princeton, NJ 39N

Forget the canoe – take a plane to camp!

When I think back to my adventures at sleep away camp in Vermont, the memories include canoes and mosquito bites. Judging by the article in today’s New York Times about taking a private jet to camp — it seems these days some kids’ camp experience seems less about bug juice and more about champagne.

Or is it?

While the examples highlighted in the article may be extreme (that is what makes good reading, after all) the reality is that flying private to camp can actually make a whole lot of sense – if you choose the right plane for the mission. When flying regionally, taking a jet can be overkill… squashing that campfire mosquito with a sledgehammer. If you fly to camp destination in the most efficient aircraft for regional travel, not only will you save time and hassle, but you will ultimately save money as well.

Similar to flying charter to visit boarding schools and colleges, there are plenty of reasons why it makes sense to fly private to summer camp:

• Leave closer to home and land closer to your destination. Fleet flies direct to hundreds of small airports the commercial carriers can’t fly into. It’s likely there is an airport within 15-30 minutes of the camp grounds.
• Save time and headache – Reduce a 5 hour drive to a 1 hour flight. You can arrive 5 minutes before departure and keep on your shoes and belts the whole time.
• Be more productive – Eliminate the waiting and energy-draining associated with commercial travel and driving. When you land, you’ll be rested and ready to join in the sing-along.  And by optimizing your time away, you’ll return home feeling like you never missed a beat.
• Fly completely on your own schedule. Fit your travel around your time with your children – not the other way around.
• Go for as long or as short of a visit as you want. Our aircraft can wait on the ground while you settle your youngster in and spend the entire afternoon for parents’ visiting day. Or, if you want to stay for the whole weekend, we can come back to pick you up whenever it suits you.
• Easily visit multiple locations – Is your son learning to sail in Maine while your daughter enjoys the outdoors in New Hampshire? Not a problem! We can take you to visit them both in a single day.
• Save money - Once you factor in the value of your time on top of the cost of airfare, parking, and ground transportation you’ll realize flying commercial can be a lot more expensive than you originally thought. Fleet’s low hourly rates make it the sensible choice for regional travel.

When you put it all together, it’s easy to see: Flying Fleet to summer camp isn’t about luxury, it’s about extreme practicality. No lines, no connections, no crowds, no breaking the bank.