New York – For decades, parents in the Northeast who sent their children to summer camp faced the same arduous logistics of traveling long distances to remote towns in Maine, New Hampshire and upstate New York to pick up their children or to attend parents’ visiting day.
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Now, even as the economy limps along, more of the nation’s wealthier families are cutting out the car ride and chartering planes to fly to summer camps. One private jet broker, Todd Rome of Blue Star Jets, said his summer-camp business had jumped 30 percent over the last year.
This weekend, a popular choice for visiting day at camps, private planes jammed the runways at small rural airports.
At Sullivan County Airport in Bethel, N.Y., roughly 40 percent of recent flights have carried families heading to summer camp. Officials at Laconia Municipal Airport in Gilford, N.H., and Moultonborough Airport in Moultonborough, N.H., reported similar numbers.
Private-plane companies and parents say these flights have also become more affordable to a broader base of fliers.
Parents said round-trip commercial flights from the New York area to Portland, Me., on peak weekends when they are allowed to visit could cost $500 to $600, even when bought well in advance. Mr. Rome, the Blue Star Jets president, said families could rent a seven-person turboprop plane starting at $3,800 for a round trip in one day, making the price competitive with some commercial flights.
“You don’t have to be a millionaire to do it,” Mr. Rome said.
For the price you pay to send your kids to camp these days, whats another couple of grand to visit them????
The article is misleading. For many parents, the chartered jet is the only viable option for visiting the kids and the cost in most cases is not all that great. For frum parents who live outside the NYC, NJ and Philadelphia metro areas, there really aren’t many good options (other than driving) to get to the heimeshe camps in the Catskills, Western New Jersey or Pennsylvania. If we routinely charter jets to get to out-of-the way locations for business meetings, why not to visit our kids?? Its a great investment.
Since when is a turboprop considered a jet?
1. It’s their money and they are free to use it as they wish.
2. probably there are many parents with children in the same camp doing it. (ie, same socio-economic grouping)
3. if not, then there may be an issue. I can’t see someone from BoroPark or Flatbush doing it to visit Camp Aguda.
If you got it and you want to spend it, kol hakavod!!!! The only problem is the jealous sissy liberals will rake you over the coals for it as is evidenced by many of the comments above me.
It does sound awful, but when it is explained by anonymous, it does make sense. Never would have thought of it. Look, thee people have money, boruch hashem, and as long as they give their maaser (you would hope they do that) then it is none of our business how thyey spend it. The torah is not a communist (lehavdil chas ve shalom) document. A wealthy person has an obligation to charity, but does not have an obligation to give it all away, comrade.
If your kid is mature enough to go away then he/she is mature enough not to see Mommy and Daddy for a few weeks. The idea that you need to go all out, including driving 6-8 is ridiculous. My daughter will be in PA for August. We will be visiting her and not my son who’s in the Catskills. We saw him a week ago. No need to drive everyone nuts, including yourselves. We work hard enough to pay for camp.
People don’t read and listen and understand. Driving from NYC to the Catskill is one thing; driving 8 to 10 hours is another. If the people have the money and not in debt; pay their full tuition bills, give at least 10% better yet 20% for tzadduka it is their business not mine or anybody here business. I do caution however what we show our children. I have children in Eretz Yisrael who know how seminary girls and yeshiva bochurim literally throw money around like a drunken sailor. My sons and daughters were on a limited reasonable budget; not one to go out and eat in a restaurant everyday and get everything dry cleaned. They had enough to go away every 5 or 6 weeks with Friends for Shabbos out of town, eat out once a week etc. If by flying is setting a bad example then don’t fly but if it is not and met all criteria by halacha than it is okay and is nobody’s business. I remember from a gemora when a rich man told his son to buy the soft vegetable to pay less and somebody heard him tell his son; they were afraid if this is the way he is with himself how
will he treat people coming for tzaddaka.
Number 11- you are absolutely right in that regard. As many people have stated above, it is your money from hashem and you are entitled to spend it as you please especially if it is more efficient. My problem was never with how you choose to spend your money. My problem was your implied assumption that this makes sense for many people or average people. If that was never what you meant to imply, then obviuously you are right. Why shouldn’t you be? Its your money, say and do what you’d like with it…:-)
Everyone can spend their money the way they wish..i still believe this is Bal Tashchis.
Are we allowed to throw out uneaten food because its my money.? NO
If i had this money i would rather drive up to camp like 99%parents do and i would pay for a poor kid who cant afford camp to spend the summer with my kids .
This discussion is simply generating sinas chinam and chillul hashem. The original article in the NYT has nothing to do with our community; we are not mentioned at all. In fact the NYT article relates that “Officials at the airport in Augusta [Maine] said 51 private planes arrived between Thursday and Saturday; on a normal day, they would expect just a few.” How many heimishe Yidden flew in between Thursday and Saturday?
My main problem with this is how the children who see or hear about it react. As adults, we know that it can make sense, especially if people have the money ands share the costs. But children don’t have the ability to see things in this way, and all they see is that it’s okay to spend money on something that really is, no matter how you slice it, somewhat entitled and self serving, although understandable. It really doesn’t teach children that sometimes you just have to endure some discomfort. If I had the money I’d be embarrassed to do it, but then again, that’s just my humble opinion.
Some readers, in their zeal to condemn those who fly private, may not have fully comprehended what they read, the article mentioned “Parents said round-trip commercial flights from the New York area to Portland, Me., on peak weekends when they are allowed to visit could cost $500 to $600, even when bought well in advance. Mr. Rome, the Blue Star Jets president, said families could rent a seven-person turboprop plane starting at $3,800 for a round trip in one day, making the price competitive with some commercial flights.” $3,800/7 = $543, that means its cheaper to fly private then commercial (private is usually multiple times the cost of a full fare first class ticket). Who in their right mind wouldn’t fly private instead of commercial. No security lines, no removing shoes, belts, liquids, etc… You can bring as much as the plane can hold, the plane leaves when you get there (can’t miss the flight) and its the same price as a commercial ticket. Additionally NY/ME is close to the distance of NY/Montreal. How many people fly NY/Montreal (easily $300) for a simcha or for a shidduch, why doesn’t everybody just drive?
Don’t worry yourselves too much, no where in this article is there any reference to frum families. Spend your energy philosophising elsewhere.