The travel maths of an in-person program
FAI itself reports that over half its patients travel from outside California. For those families the clinic choice is also a travel commitment, and it deserves arithmetic.
Plan for roughly four to six in-person visits a year — families in public threads describe flying in every 8 to 12 weeks — for a program lasting 2.5 to 4 years. More than half of FAI’s patients travel from outside California by the clinic’s own account, coming from Florida, Texas, New York, and abroad. The community has built real workarounds: host-family housing and donated airline miles circulate in food-allergy groups. The New Jersey clinic opening 15 September 2026 will shorten the trip for East Coast families. The honest question distance forces: multiply trips by years by your family’s actual capacity — for some the answer funds itself in outcomes, for others it is the reason an at-home program exists. Curex competes with FAI.
Medically reviewed by Dr. Chet Tharpe, M.D. · Last reviewed September 2026
The numbers
Travel, quantified
- of patients travel from outside California — clinic’s own figure
- >50%of patients travel from outside California — clinic’s own figure
- between visits, per family accounts
- 8–12 wkbetween visits, per family accounts
- round trips over a 2.5–4 year course
- 10–24round trips over a 2.5–4 year course
- of patients offered OIT declined it — time burden the top reason
- 52%of patients offered OIT declined it — time burden the top reason
Competitor figures are what each provider published on its own site or what patients reported publicly, dated where checked. Prices and policies change — confirm current figures with each provider, including us, before enrolling.
The fit question
Sustainable beats maximal
In-person supervision and speed are real advantages, and for families who can sustain the travel they are worth real money and effort. The failure mode is the middle path: starting an aggressive travel-bound program and abandoning it in year two — the most expensive possible outcome, in dollars and in a child’s time.
The honest trade is speed versus gentleness. Under direct supervision, clinicians can treat more aggressively — in-clinic programs normally use OIT and accelerated protocols, sometimes adding a biologic such as Xolair so the patient can safely tolerate a significant dose of allergen. The biologic protects the patient during treatment; it is the immunotherapy that modifies the disease. At-home SLIT is gentler, safer, more convenient, and more affordable. Faster is not better for every patient; neither is gentler.
Curex competes in this market — we run the only fully at-home food allergy program — so read this page as a competitor’s honest summary of the public record and verify against the sources.
❓Frequently Asked Questions
Public accounts cluster around every 8–12 weeks — consistent with the program’s published four-to-six visits a year — sustained across a 2.5-to-4-year course. That is roughly 10 to 24 round trips over a full program, plus unplanned visits if dosing needs adjustment.
Do your own multiplication rather than trusting anyone’s estimate: flights for at least one parent and the patient, one to two hotel nights, ground transport and missed work, times four to six annually, times the course length. For a cross-country family this plausibly adds thousands per year on top of a program that can already exceed $10,000 annually — and it is the part no provider bills you for, so it appears in nobody’s brochure.
The food-allergy community genuinely helps: families in public groups offer host housing near Long Beach, and some donate airline miles to travelling families. Worth joining those communities before your first trip. The New Jersey clinic (from 15 September 2026) converts the trip entirely for East Coast families.
When the multiplication fails — when trips times years exceeds what your work, budget, or family logistics can absorb, an aggressive program you cannot sustain delivers less than a gentler one you can. Time burden, including travel, is the leading reason patients decline oral immunotherapy they were offered. That is not a verdict against clinic care; it is a fit question, and [the access page](/learn/no-oit-clinic-near-me) walks through the alternatives when the answer is no.
If you experience sudden difficulty breathing, throat swelling, or other signs of anaphylaxis, call 911. A prescribed epinephrine auto-injector is the first-line treatment — not antihistamines.
This content is for informational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always consult a qualified healthcare provider with questions about a medical condition. Content reviewed by board-certified allergists at Curex.
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