A Higher Standard

Ah, summer. For New Yorkers, the season officially starts not with savoring your first rooftop bar cocktail or artisan snow cone, but with enduring a hundred-mile stretch of parking lot to the Hamptons known (teasingly, we’re sure) as the Long Island Expressway.

Transportation alternatives are slim pickings. This summer, however, there’s one more choice. Thanks to the helpful folks at The Standard Hotel, weekend warriors bound for the beach — say Sunset Beach, or anywhere near a body of water of decent size, for that matter (Jedediah Hawkins Inn, anyone?) — can snag a seat on their Cessna Caravan, dubbed StndAir. The amphibious aircraft is ready to whisk passengers from 23rd Street in Manhattan to as far away as Provincetown.

Ok, so P-Town will cost private charter rates (StndAIR will fly anywhere within a 300 mile radius of the city), but if you’re feeling lucky (and thrifty) log in to StndAIR’s “Flight Board” for a chance to score a ticket on one of their scheduled weekend flights to West Hampton for as little as $30.

Too good to be true? It’s all in the odds.

The low starting rate is just the price of the first seat: the second seat goes for $95, the third seat goes for $145, the fourth for $195, and so on. Each seat’s price increases incrementally, so the name of the game is to book early. The catch? All eight seats need to be filled before the departure deadline 72 hours prior to take-off.

So, gather your friends (or, for that price, a few friendly strangers) and get your seats fast. Summer has officially arrived and, thanks to StndAIR, it doesn’t have to involve the LIE.

Flights on StndAir depart from 23rd Street and the FDR Expressway from May 26 – October 10, 2011. — E.T.

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