1. What Can AEA do for me, my faculty and my students?
AEA can create an entirely unique program for you from scratch, including hotels, meals, guides, transportation, excursions, special visits, and group air booking (with or without a program). We can introduce you and your group to people and places that are often impossible to meet on your own.
Or AEA can handle only the parts that you need assistance with, such as that 4-day service learning program you want to add to Cusco, with a special lecture by a sharp-witted historian on Day 2, for example.
Or AEA can put your own itinerary into motion. We are flexible. Our primary goal is that you get what you want out of your program.
Each program is your course, your faculty, your students, your credit, your dates, yours- plain and simple. Whether there are 8 people for 4 weeks, 125 people for 7 days, or something completely different, we will make it happen.
2. How is AEA different from others?
Our team and academic partners are like family. AEA is built on genuine relationships. When you travel with us, you may eat a home-cooked meal in our relative’s kitchen or spend the night in the jungle with a family friend, for example. Our team is family and we treat you like family, too.
Unlike many companies, AEA has dedicated, local teams in the vast majority of countries you will go. In many cases, we have multiple teams in the country. That allows us to not only be where you are; it also gives us the option to work with the partners who will best meet your needs.
Just like your students, no two (programs) are alike. We tailor every program to each group’s needs, interests, and budget. And we do that by combining our knowledge of your needs with the knowledge and expertise of our local teams in the country your are going to visit.
We care about the people and places where we travel, too. Have you ever had a guest with bad manners in your home? They ruin the experience for everyone. When we travel, we are guests in the countries, communities, and homes we visit. Not only do we encourage sharing, we want to ensure that we observe and learn from locals. We believe in “responsible travel” – actively increasing our positive impact and decreasing our negative impact on people and planet – and we hope you do, too.
Finally, AEA is in the process of applying for B corp status, which means we not only belive in the greater good, we do something about it- starting with contributing 5% of profits to the world's most vulnerable people, and fighting climate change- a major goal of ours in 2021.
3. What does AEA do to maintain safety and insurance?
Safety is of the utmost important to us. We have many people in our overseas teams, not just one or two people. Our in-country teams are a mix of locals who know the lay of the land; and when needed- foreigners, who know how to meet your expectations. They will greet you upon arrival, local bi-lingual guides will accompany you throughout the program (if you want), and a 24/7 emergency line is available to call at any time- for an emergency. We also provide extensive pre-departure materials that include the location of nearest hospitals, important phone numbers, and tips on how to stay safe while traveling abroad.
We have a top-rated, multi-million dollar, Professional and General Liability Insurance policy that can increase to $5-10 million. During non-COVID times, we also include a $1 million Kidnap and Ransom policy at no additional charge.
Our comprehensive CISI Travel and Health Insurance policy is included on all programs, and can be removed upon request. It includes $4k trip cancellation, health and security evacuation, mental health and health coverage, among several other benefits.
4. What is the average cost of a program?
Each AEA program in unique and completely customized for your group, so costs vary according to your needs and budget. In general, the lowest priced 1-week programs may cost around $1,000 without airfare to parts of Central America, for example, while many programs up to 6 weeks in SE Asia, for example, are under $4,000 with air.
Costs depend on many factors; however, such as international airfare, how many faculty are included in the student price, how many participants there are, how many meals are included, how much travel is involved and what type of accommodation is requested.
We are happy to put together a special program just for you, based on your budget. There is no charge for putting together a proposal.
5. Where are you located, and where do you go?
We are located in Portland, Oregon and Portland, Maine.
With more than 20 years of experience in Asia, AEA started with program assistance in Asia and the South Pacific, then grew to other regions because of the requests of our clients.
Now, we offer services in nearly all of Asia, Europe, North America and Latin America, plus much of the Caribbean, Oceania and Africa. We also offer programs in parts of the Middle East.
We only service destinations where we are able to offer the same level of service and unique contacts as we can in our original destinations.
6. What is AEA's level of support on the ground in each location?
We have full local teams – including in-country managers, local program managers, 24-hour emergency contacts, and local guides – in the vast majority of countries, and most of the major cities, where we operate.
In many countries, like China, India and Vietnam, we have two or more country managers and several teams to offer the best services and options for your group.
7. Tell me more about your insurance.
AEA maintains general, professional, bodily harm and automobile liability coverage up to $2 million during COVID times. This policy can be upped to $3 – 10 million.
Your institution also has the option to be added as additional insured.
AEA requires that all participants have international health and evacuation insurance; be that our comprehensive CISI policy that we include, or one that your institution already provides in its place.
AEA recommends trip cancellation insurance, which is included in AEA’s comprehensive CISI policy (up to $4k for health-related cancellations before a program departs). A part of the health coverage, this policy may be removed at your request.
8. Can AEA supply refrences?
We sure can- with pleasure. How many do you want? AEA has been in business since 2005 and has a long track record with more than 100 colleges and universities in the US and abroad.
In addition to the testimonials on our website, AEA can put you in touch with real, live faculty, SAO staff and administrators that have worked with us.
9. Can AEA assist with my alumni or executive MBA program?
Absolutely. And most likely at a much better price than you’re getting now. But we know price isn't everything. Quality is. And we pride ourselves on that. We also pride ourselves on being fair.
10. Does AEA accept credit cards?
Yes, AEA accepts credit cards. Normally, we include this cost in the program fee if you want to pay by this method or if participants need to pay AEA directly.
If you don’t expect to pay by credit card, we leave this fee out, which makes the program less expensive.
11. Will AEA please help us with group flights?
Let flights be the bane of our existence, not yours. We tried working with all of the large flight booking companies, but we always got much better prices booking directly through the airlines. Now, we book flights for many of our clients, and we are happy to book flights for you, whether you run your program through AEA or not. Not only that, 5% of our profits from airline booking go to fight climate change.
12. Why hadn't I heard of AEA before?
Odds are that someone told you about us, because about 90% of our clients are repeat or come through referral. To keep your costs down, we need to keep our costs down, so we do not advertise, except to attend a couple of conferences a year: NAFSA, sometimes FORUM and The Symposium on Faculty-Led Programs. If you would like to meet us at one of these, schedule a in-person visit or video call, please send us an email. We are also more than happy to connect the old-fashioned way, through the phone.