Air men

To Chris Schoensee, sometimes the best customer service perks are the simplest — like a birthday basket with a bottle of rum.

That's what awaited a client recently when he debarked from a private charter flight from Schoensee's Paragon Charter, a new sister business to his other company, Fort Myers-based Paragon Flight Training.

Schoensee heard the customer, in route to Page Field in Fort Myers from a daytrip business meeting in Jacksonville, was celebrating a birthday. Schoensee found out the flier's favorite drink is rum, so while the plane was airborne, Paragon staff bought a basket with rum and other goodies. “He was totally surprised,” says Schoensee. “It was just a little thing, a $60 basket, but it meant the world to him.”