Hi,

How often do you know somebody who is in one or more of the following situations

(1) Is staying away from his home town / country and is missing something from there
(2) Absolutely loved a product but unfortunately is not *yet* available in his country
(3) Missing something that you had / experienced during a short stay at a different place
(4) Have heard and read a lot about something, but have no way to get from the place where it is available
...

This network probably has travelers visiting all corners of the globe on business / liesure.

Can the traveler community help out people in one or more the situations above?

Question is - would you as a traveler be willing to spend a few bucks upfront to buy something when you return from your travel and carry it with you for somebody in your town. While you probably may not know the person before it gives you an opportunity to be of great help to him/her and meet somebody new.

Any positive / negative feedback to this thought is greatly appreciated.

Regards,
Raghu

As a newly minted expat, I'd be happy to be a part of something like that on FT. I miss American stuff and would be happy to bring Tayto cheese and onion crisps to those Irish stuck in the states!

Welcome to FT

This community already does that - for free. I can think of numerous examples of products being transported to/from the US for other FTers. In one case, someone carried necessary medical equipment for another FTer.

Done it many times for people in this community... as have many others.

Heck,

I've been known to travel with Black and Whites from New York to my visiting city. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_and_white_cookie

Welcome to Flyertalk raghucs.

I recently ferried a copy of the San Diego Reader.

It would be interesting if everyone posted their schedules to some kind of calendar, might like the airline lounge meet-up threads on Yahoo!. I'm sure all of us are just dying to have more luggage & packages to bring on our journeys.

I once long hauled a Chipotle burrito across the pond to Paris for a fellow american.

Thanks all for the welcome messages :-)

Good to see that there is some interest on the lines I am thinking of on FT and hence a follow up question :-)

If you were looking for stuff or willing to carry stuff where is the place you would normally go to see options?

Is there any way to contact FT members 1-1?

You can private message (PM) other FTers by clicking on their name, and then clicking "Send private message".

LOL, if it's not something large, I wouldn't mind helping another FT'er.

Good that lot of FTers are carrying stuff for others already.

But how do I reach the person who is for example coming from city A to B. Any ideas how that can be done within the FT framework? or outside?

If you're looking for something specific, you might try posting in CommunityBuzz. The thread title should probably be, "Looking for someone traveling from A to B," and the body should list specifics on why you're looking for that, what you'd like them to bring with them, and similar information.

Also must be legal. I've seen too many episodes of "Locked up Abroad" to take the risk of something that isn't legal.

This is true. Must be legal in both locations.

I think my answer is going to be a bit different than others: I probably wouldn't participate in any kind of formal network that involves carrying things for people in exchange for future items, compensation, etc.

If there's an FT'er out there that I already know reasonably well, even if in a purely virtual sense, I'll fetch that bottle of barbecue sauce or oddball T-shirt for you - no charge. Buy me a beer or something.

But if you're thinking of some sort of new social network / new venture project...maybe it'll work, but I'm unlikely to be an early adopter.


Love the Chipotle burrito idea, but how well do those things travel? I guess if you're jonesing bad enough it doesn't really matter!