From Chris Paine...
>   Wait a minute here-- don't teams fly charter to and from Alaska now?  If
>they do, then a school doesn't need to be near a big airport to be able to
>receive the Nanooks.
>
>  [stuff deleted]
>
>     Now, if schools do actually fly commercial flights, well, what I've
said
>won't apply.  But it seems like they couldn't-- how easy would it be to get
>from Anchorage to Grand Forks or Houghton?
 
From what I've seen, you hit it on the head in the last paragraph.  To my
knowledge, since UAF pays for 25 tickets they control the flight schedule.
 When Michigan traveled to Fairbanks they went commercial from Detroit to
Cincinnati to Salt Lake City to Seattle to Anchorage to Fairbanks.
 
My guess is that UAF has some algorithm that attempts to minimize costs
while simultaneously maximizing frequent flyer miles, which they receive.
:-)
 
 
  John H
  U Mich