As far as I can tell, www.aircourier.org is a total scam. See below for my story.

But first, a slightly pro-courier story: a friend of mine did BOS-PEK last year via an air courier (NOT aircourier.org). He went directly through a courier that specialized in shipments to China. I think he paid $400 in the high season. He called, said "I'd like to go" and I think after a few weeks, they called him back and said, "You can leave Thursday." Somehow he got his Visa clearance, etc. in a few days and off he went.

Regarding aircourier.org: I signed up for a year, found out that the "recent deals" they posted on their website are actually quite rare. [One deal in a blue moon comes up, especially post-Sept 11, and post-War invasion, and aircourier.org is one of many sites that hear about it; you are competing vs. a bunch of folks for one spot. You are much better off SAVING their fee and contacting a real courier service (as opposed to their middle-man thing) directly]

And their "special money saving web sites" for last minute fares, etc. is none other than qixo.com. Great.

Anyway, they claim (or did at the time) a money-back refund on membership, so I called the 800-number up.

The guy that answered proceeded to try to sales-talk me into keeping my membership. I said that no, I really wasn't interested. He became slightly hostile ("I was making a big mistake") but finally gave me another phone number with the cancellation information.

This separate (non-800) phone number was simply an answering machine with automated instructions on where to send the refund request. (Bad sign, I thought to myself, that they have an automated message for account cancellation.)

So I sent them a letter via registered mail saying that I'd like a refund.

And I waited.

For a month.

Then I got a generic letter from them saying they had received my request for refund, but that I could have a lifetime membership for free if I "did my part to help America's economy get back on track" and not cancel my membership. By _NOT_ returning the enclosed form, I would "activate [my] free lifetime membership." Or I could send the enclosed form to cancel.

So I sent them their form with a letter via registered mail saying that if they didn't refund my money, I would have my credit card company reverse the charge.

And I waited.

Then I got a letter from them. It was a generic mailing offering to upgrade my membership to a "lifetime" membership for only $80!

One more letter to my credit card company and the charge was killed.

I just got an offer from them in the form of a $10 check, which if I signed, would automatically charge my account for a lifetime membership or some such.

Watch out for this outfit... I don't know how long a "lifetime" membership will last you...