The answer for Bowles, and for more and more small and medium-sized businesses, was simple: charter a private jet. Once seen as the luxurious purview of the Donald Trumps and of the world, private air charter is rapidly becoming the transportation mode of choice for a wide range of business travelers frustrated with flight delays, crowded airports, missed meetings, and lost luggage.

Charter-jet flight hours rose nearly 13 percent between July 1999 and July 2000 alone, according to Fred Gevalt, publisher of the Air Charter Guide http://www.aircharterguide.com, which tracks the industry. "In prior years, growth had been half of that at most," Gevalt says. "I think that last summer's fun and thrills was really an epiphanal event. It's starting to occur to people that there are other ways of flying."

The perks of air charter would make any weary road warrior drool. Instead of departing from a jam-packed commercial hub like JFK or Newark, you pull up on the tarmac at a calm general aviation airport like Westchester or Teterboro. None of this "checking in two hours before flight time" – you arrive when you're ready to depart. On board, amenities can include everything from fruit and bottled water in smaller planes to the fully-catered luxury of a "flying conference room" in a privately-chartered Gulfstream, complete with power port access and a table for meetings. When you arrive, your car pulls up beside the plane, your luggage is placed in the trunk, and you're off. "You feel like you've almost been faxed there," Gevalt says.

With more charter brokers offering volume discounts and other incentives, air charter has become a financially realistic choice for companies that never would have dreamed of private planes in the past. "We're seeing a consistent trend of smaller companies looking at charter as an option. When we first started 15 years ago, it was seen as a real perk – only something fat cats or Fortune 100 companies used," says Jane McBride, CEO of FlightTime http://www.flighttime.com, a leading charter broker. "With the new economy, and the incredible pressure on everyone's time, charter and business aviation is now an integral tool for all types of business travelers."

Okay, time is money, but money is still money, too. How much does air charter set you back? For what Gevalt calls a "typical bread and butter mission" – a flight from an office park outside one city to an office park outside another city four or five hundred miles away – he estimates you might pay between $3,000 and $4,000 round-trip. Many charter brokers offer bulk deals – FlightTime's "Freedom Plan" is one example – that make private aircraft more affordable. For 25 flight hours in a light plane such as a Lear, FlightTime charges a $35,000 membership fee, plus $1250 an hour for each occupied hour. "It's really not a big-ticket item, if you run the numbers compared to a business fare or even full-fare economy," says McBride.

FlightTime is popular because of its long track record and its handy Web-based schedule search engine, but it's far from the only player in the game. Myjets http://www.myjets.com lets you sign up on the Web to buy unused legs of charter flights – frequently at the last minute. Skyjet http://www.skyjet.com capitalizes on the Internet auction craze by allowing travelers to bid on empty leg or one-way fares offered by charter operators. And Ebizjets http://www.ebizjets.com offers something called a "no-fee fractional" plan. With fractional ownership of a charter plane, you buy a share of a plane just as you might buy a timeshare in a condo. But you're locked into that plane, even if your travel needs vary. "What if you're flying with one colleague today, but six colleagues tomorrow and ten colleagues the next day?" asks Ebizjets owner John I. Williams, Jr. With "no-fee fractional," travelers deposit $100,000 and up into an account with Ebizjets, and in return receive a "debit card" that they can use to pay as they fly – on whatever type of plane they choose. "Some of our corporate customers have bought a 500K travel card, and they work with us to have any number of flights in the air at the same time," Williams says. Want out? Ebizjets returns your unused balance with no fees.

Despite the benefits, Herring Media staffers – and many other charter-air converts – still fly commercial much of the time. "If there's a suitable fudge factor in your schedule, then the lower cost [of commercial fares] makes it worthwhile. But sometimes time is worth more than money," says Bowles. "And how do you measure the value of feeling like a human being when you land?"