So much for piling into the Honda Pilot with 150K+ miles and finding the Hotwire hot rate hotels. From this morning’s NY Times: [“Taking the College Tour by Private Jet”](https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/31/your-money/college-tours-private-jet.html)
An excerpt for those who don’t wish to get around the pay wall:
Once more, my children will feel cheated by their cheap father.
@-)
:))
I love your avatar, @Dave_N. Where did you get my family photo? 
Sound like my kind of college trip!
My kids’ high school had a trip over fall break/spring break. I think it was $5000 to do a tour of New England colleges over 5-6 days. Not sure if free t-shirts were included.
Pass the Grey Poupon !!
Opulence… i has it.
B-)
Hey, it was an '05 Toyota Prius, and it only had 120,000 miles on it! 
You got us on the Hotwire hotels, however.
Lol. It’s all a matter of perspective. We had friends that thought we were “ bougie” (as the kids say) because we stayed at great hotels and made a nice family vacation out of the trips. And then others who were appalled at the fact that we made our trips by car. They would never consider driving to any school more than 3 hrs away.
That is not my life ….when you can drop 60K on a tour you live a very different life than I live. (6k maybe lol)
I am not understanding… Doesn’t everyone charter planes for college trips? How else do you people get around?
@austinmshauri, just to give proper attribution, it’s from the great Randall Munro and his web comic xkcd:
[Duty Calls](xkcd: Duty Calls)
If you’ve never read it before, be sure to check out the mouse-overs.
I drive almost 3 hours to get to the airport.
If I’m traveling with just S and not my wife or daughters, Hotwire is for when we are feeling fancy. I found a motel room a few years ago for a sports trip that only cost $30, and it was safe so I was pretty happy. S and wife will probably be mocking me for that one for a while. I figure it gave him some good incentive to get a good education and a good job.
DD1 and I were not getting along well when we started the college tours. By the time we finished, we had a new relationship. I felt sad when we were done! DD2 has been at her chosen school for a month now, and is deliriously happy, so it appears those days are over for us. Honestly, kind of sad about it. Like childbirth, you forget the awful parts…
Man, I really need to win the lottery!
Our old Odyssey was our college chariot of choice, for visits and later hauling their gear to said campus. Better snacks, more comfortable seats, and functional cupholders vs. a plane!
When S2 was about three, we were headed down to see the relatives. Stopped for the night, pulled into a parking lot, and S announced, “There’s a six on that sign. We can stay there.” And we indeed stayed at that Motel 6.
A friend of mine is a private pilot and flew into Raleigh NC. He said there were quite a few private planes in to see Duke.
“A friend of mine is a private pilot and flew into Raleigh NC. He said there were quite a few private planes in to see Duke”
No doubt. When my kid was at Duke she regularly saw celebrities kids (Bruce Springsteen, Rob Lowe) and those whose family’s owned major companies(Estee Lauderdale, Walgreens) and sports franchises. I once found myself in the lobby of the campus hotel standing next to Michael J Fox and tried to act nonchalant as he asked me if he knew if the bellman could get him a private car because he’d seen me get out of one the day before. I did not say what I wanted to say (Oh my god you were my childhood crush and you remembered me from the day before!?!?) ) and instead told him that I’d arranged it through the concierge.
My daughter always said “I know we aren’t poor at all ( yeah, see above re private car) but I FEEL poor sometimes at Duke”)
It’s all a matter of perspective. Lol.
If you look at the 60k price tag, that’s actually about 1 year’s full cost at a private school, or OOS at a public. Many families do pay those sorts of bills, so I suspect the market for this kind of service isn’t too tiny. Funny how we gasp at 60k when applied to a private plane, but accept it as the going rate for a single rate at a private or OOS. Priorities, I guess. Or maybe familiarity with college costs breeds (grudging) acceptance?
Anyway, I bet a service like this would allow some C-level execs to participate in college visits they might not otherwise be able to due to time constraints. If that’s the case, then it would be a good thing I suppose. Our own little side story on a visit to Duke - I had reserved a midsize car like an Altima but somehow got upgraded to a Mercedes E-class. So I felt like Daddy Warbucks rolling up the hotel and campus!