When the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks halted air travel, Jhery Brown became one of thousands of flight attendants grounded and without a job. But now a little ingenuity is keeping her airborne and earning a living. With her West Palm Beach-based business, First Class Travel Genie, Brown may also be on the leading edge of a travel services trend chaperoning minors, the disabled and elderly on flights across the country.

Business: Accompanying minors, elderly and the disabled on domestic and international flights. Brown also offers a nanny service to accompany families on vacation traveling with children. She books travel reservations for groups and individuals, and her home care service includes running errands, booking appointments, personal shopping and driving clients to the airport and appointments.

Brown may also be on the leading edge of a travel services trend chaperoning minors, the disabled and elderly on flights across the country.

"We deal with numerous organizations and travel associations," David Castelveter, vice president of communications for Air Transport Association, said, "and this is something I've never heard of."

An Army brat, Brown's hunger for travel developed living in almost 10 different states and countries before age 21. She returned to her hometown of West Palm Beach to attend the Career Institute of Education, where she became a Certified Travel Specialist in 1997 and worked until the airline industry's 2001 layoffs.

But the 39-year-old mother of two refused to sit still. In 2003, she leveraged her flight skills into her First Class Travel Genie travel assistant business; and has since expanded to home care and errand service.

Brown's fluency in sign language and specialty in assisting the disabled has made her a staple for divorced parents who regularly fly their children to visit family. It keeps her flying two weeks out of the month, escorting autistic children and underage minors to their destinations.

And while her fee for flying with a minor can reach$300 to $700 a day domestically, it is an expense parents are willing to pay. When Keisha Johnson sent her 16-year-old deaf daughter to a week of camp in Hawaii last year, $1,800 brought Brown along to chaperone and teach her how to use sign language in social situations.

"Having Mrs. Brown accompany my daughter was like having a big sister and mentor for her," Johnson said. "When you're talking about your child, money is not the issue."

Undeterred by the down economy, Brown calls her business "recession-proof" as she's traveled to 16 states in two years and to almost as many countries. What's more, her business has caught the attention of the Palm Beach County School Board - which refers her to parents needing travel assistance.

One of those parents, Erica Lawrence, flies Brown to her home in Massachusetts to watch her two toddlers for a week at a time.
"You can get anybody to baby-sit, but do you trust them?" Lawrence said. "I'd rather pay a little more and know they are with someone they trust."

Another growth area for Brown is elderly home care. By running errands and planning vacations for elderly clients, she is adding sky miles to the home care industry - one of the top 10 industries for job growth over the next decade.

While her business is rare, it is starting to bloom as she now considers hiring employees and even creating a franchise. "This is it, this is my niche," Brown said. "I was born to travel, and I was born to help people."

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