<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Boraxo:
These days courier flights are less appealing, as one can - with enough advance notice - generally find a fare sale to your destination of choice that often times is not significantly higher than the courier fare. Plus, there is no guarantee that you will get FF miles for a courier flight... </font>
Amen to that. I flew three times to Asia in 1993 and 1994 as a courier, but since then the courier situation has worsened while the paid-ticket situation has gotten better. Those few companies that still use couriers are offering fewer deals upfront, and getting miles is now the exception. Supply of flights is down, demand is up as more people have found out, and courier companies have exploited that pretty ruthlessly. About the only cases where I could recommend the flights are if you live in NYC, LA, SF or Miami and can fly on very short notice somewhere and are hard-nosed at bargaining.