Jaimito Cartero

So your airfare (Coach, I assume) and some decent cash? What was the cash component?

SkyTeam777

I already had a trip scheduled, and the option was between $300-600 for both bag allowances. But, then received an offer for free travel with a similar cash outlay for the baggage.

TA

You all may not remember, but being an air courier was a thing just 10 years ago. But what that meant was a courier company received shipments that needed to go overseas, and they would pay for the air ticket of someone whose baggage allowance would be used to send the cargo. You would get a ticket to some place with no baggage allowed, and a return ticket like 2 weeks later, for a somewhat discounted fare.

The courier/passenger never touched the cargo, just turned over the paperwork at the other end airport to the receiving company agent, and was well known to customs that this was their job, and the cargo was subject to inspection as usual. All above board.

I have no idea what they're thinking with this current idiotic scheme however.

SkyTeam777

I was also just offered $50 for each referral I make to Airmule. They just list their trip to China on the site, and that's it! Darn, it just seems too good to be true.

Do any of the legitimate courier companies still exist?

DrRodneyMcKay

It would be nice if somebody actually used the service and wrote a review, but I think we're all too smart to chance it. I'm also wondering who would use this service - I personally would rather pay fedex/ups a premium than hand a package to a stranger.

Although, since these are apps, you can read reviews in the app store, and the ones there are mostly positive - no way to know if they're legit, though.

jahason

My wife once agreed to take a friends suitcase to hand over to her friend's sister at the other end. This was an international flight within Europe. At check in they asked if I had packed everything myself and I said no. So then they called someone to thoroughly inspect that suitcase. After that they told me all is clear and I won't be stopped at the other end. This was about 20 years ago though.

TvHenderson1

krazieman

The reviews on this have so far been good. I assume the people that got thrown in prison for the drugs they inadvertently transported aren't able to post reviews.

rabilancia

Here's a blog article just posted yesterday:
https://thepointsguy.com/2018/03/air...ervice-review/

Jeannietx

To me it's not worth the hassle of dealing with someone's stuff, disregarding any possible problems.

pinniped

I will admit, I found the review interesting...and surprising to read about positive experiences from passengers completing successful trips with Airmule.

I guess in its new format - targeting people already going to China anyway on their own tickets - some subset of people will find it worthwhile. I would still have a lingering concern that even if Airmule has good intentions, someone might see this as a way to try to conceal contraband inside legal-looking products and have other people smuggle for them. I wouldn't count on the waiver and signed statements as protection if the Chinese authorities have a problem with something in the bag.

The_Bouncer

Way too much risk for way too little return.

mickeyjaw

I have a friend who still gets air courier jobs from time to time. Her last gig was hand delivering a replacement server from London to Johannesburg. I believe it went in an extra seat rather than the cargo hold since they didn't want it manhandled, and she was instructed to get a taxi with it directly to the customer's office at the other end rather than hand it off to a courier.

I think she said the hardware was worth about £15k but the software licenses were around £50k or more, and everything had been pre-configured / restored from backup as part of a disaster recovery service.

The delivery had to take part same day as part of a service level agreement so when they phoned her it was a now or never on the spot decision and she was on a plane within 2 hours.

pinniped

That makes sense. Whenever we've had to move a physical server somewhere, a human has gone with it. The main reasons is customs - whether you have to pay a duty or not, you can clear customs with it and be at the client site with the hardware that day. If you ship it, it could sit in a warehouse for weeks. We used to send equipment down to Peru semi-often: sometimes the duty would be a couple hundred bucks (paid by CC), sometimes nothing.

eigenvector

I could see this being moderately useful on long-haul Canadian domestic flights. Shipping is very expensive in Canada even by ground. A fully loaded suitcase that would cost $25 to check in on a domestic flight from Toronto to Vancouver would cost $100 to courier by ground (5 days transit time) or $300 for next-day air. No customs to worry about either.