FLY FOR COURIER SERVICE
 

Has anyone had experience in flying as a courier? I'm interested in learning about this as I have a very flexible schedule and enjoying traveling particularly international.

Please email me with ideas.

I haven't done it, but I can tell you that most of the courier deals that I have read about made the "courier" pay an airfare that was about on par with the consolidator fares available to the general public. The fares might sound good to somebody who doesn't travel much and is unaware of the deals out there, but generally speaking I don't think they're anything to get excited about, especially considering the extra hassle involved. (If anybody here has a different experience, I would be interested in hearing about it.)
Plus, I would not be willing to carry anything on a plane or through customs of a foreign country unless I got to inspect it personally in advance.

courier is very restricted. you may not check in any baggage. You may not choose when to return home. If you are willing to fly the next day, sometimes you could fly for free.

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nwelite

Flying as a courier is really not much different than the behavior of many of us here on Flyertalk. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

That is to say, lots of FTers do not check any luggage for trips as long as a couple of weeks. (Punki does this as a matter of policy, I believe ... http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/biggrin.gif )

If carrying around less than a pound - more like a few ounces - of cargo papers in lieu of some checked baggage is considered to be an "extra hassle" then I must disagree completely with the assessment that courier travel is inferior. In fact, courier travel is a great option for people with flexible schedules, such as the original poster in this thread, FFAddict.

Most courier trips have fixed depature/return dates and the travel savings to the flyer are significant. Certainly, only a few trips are absolutely cost-free to the courier, but many are still at a great savings to both the courier and the company paying for the freight. It's a win-win situation for all parties. Why knock it?

Ferrying a few documents far outweighs any likelihood of difficulties at customs at either end of the transaction since, esp. since most courier companies only deal with legit companies.

I did a courier flight about 3 years back to London. I saved about $150, but did not get any frequent flyer miles. The flight times were not convenient (the return flight from London left at 7 in the morning).

The best value in courier travel is last minute flights, either booked the day before or a few days ahead, when they are heavily discounted. You also need to be near a gateway airport.

Look at http://www.courier.org for some background on how courier flights work. There is also a good book on courier travel by Kelly Monaghan, who was on the air travel forum on compuserve for a number of years, that would cover a lot of your questions.

I've flown courier to SIN and FCO/MXP in the past, although it was more than five years ago.

Contrary to common perception, in some cases you can check in baggage and can choose your return date within a certain window of say 30 days. In other cases, you are limited to one piece of carry on and your return date is fixed. It all depends on how desperate/busy the cargo agent is.

In either scenario, the fare is going to be cheaper than what you would pay even a consolidator, and yes, there have been stories of free travel for really last-minute trips (just keep your passport handy and tell the courier company that you are "flexible"). Fortunately, you know in advance which airline you are going to fly (before you book and pay). However, you may or may not be eligible for frequent flier miles. The first time I did it, I didn't bother asking for credit (a 20K miles opportunity http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/frown.gif) On my trip to Italy, TWA gave me mileage credit.

The best way to get a courier trip is to deal directly with the cargo agent. In NYC, there check out the white pages for Halbert (or is it Halbart?) and Jupiter in Queens.

In other markets, you can just look up them up in the telephone book.

Thanks to all who posted and to one FT who sent me an email. I live in LEX and fly out of LEX and CVG. My first impression is that my ticket cost to most of the major gateways for couriers would be expensive because of the short notice to buy the ticket to the gateway city.

My primary objective is to accumulate FF miles with inexpensive courier tickets. I primarily fly on DL and Secondarily on NW. In reading some info on www.courier.org I don't think these two airlines are used that much. I assume the courier company chooses the airline?

I haven't flown courier personally but I know someone who has. His trip was almost as expensive as a normal discount ticket. It seems that they don't allow the use of cheapest fares (at least when going ex-UK or ex-Australia), so overall the fare works out only about 10% cheaper (even if that) than a good deal from consolidators. Besides, they don't allow most discount airlines, so flights are restricted to the main "expensive" airlines which blows away any possible savings. And with all the luggage and return date restrictions it's hardly worth it.

But then again you might get lucky...

The courier companies have contracts with specific airlines. My flight was on United, though the boarding pass was stamped "NO MILES". There may be some courier companies out there that have contracts that allow miles, but just be careful to clarify that up front if you book something.

My courier flight was $250, but the winter fare on the same route was $400. I wanted to try it out, and overall it was a good experience, but the loss of miles and not being able to choose flight times ended up being a big negative for me.

If you're looking for miles, winter fares to Europe (Oct-March) are the best way to do it, and if you fly enough to get double frequent flyer miles, will be a much better option than courier travel. Being the distance you are from NYC or ORD, you're not going to benefit from the heavily discounted last minute flights that might open up (even if they did offer miles).

FFAddict, I looked into the courier approach a couple of years ago, and decided against it:

1) no miles. Even without elite bonuses, a roundtrip from SFO to Europe is at least 10,000 miles (15,000 for Asia), so that alone is worth $200-300 (at 2¢/mile). If you get 100% bonus, it's worth a free domestic ticket. Have to save a lot on the courier flight to beat that!

2) no upgrades. Not a consideration for many people, but as a UA 1K...

3) no choice of airlines. Again, less important for many people.

4) you have to get yourself to the courier's gateway. Out of SFO this isn't a big problem (although it would still often add $100 to get myself to LAX). Out of LEX or CVG, I suspect you'd spend your entire savings (and then some?) getting to ORD or NYC...better to buy a cheap (winter) ticket from your home base, get miles, and be able to choose your flights!

Basically, if you qualify to join this board, then you probably are not interested in being a courier! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif

I appreciate all of you that have shared your thoughts and experiences on my topic. I have concluded that I do NOT want to be a courier primarily because I am too far away from major courier gateways and also because I want to accumulate FF miles. Thanks to all for your help!

During the 1990's, I took several courier trips to SEASIA and never carried papers. Only once had meet at other end for packages to come down the luggage belt. Saved a lot of money and Got a lot of miles. even got an upgrade to Business a couple of times.
There are still savings to be made, but miles a little harder to get, now.

Last week I sat next to a guy who flys free internationally (in FC) as a courier. He is a retired police officer based in DTW who delivers things like computer chips to oerseas auto factories and CDs with sensitive design data. He makes 2-3 such trips a month and also does things like providing bodyguard service for visiting dignitaries.

Unlike some of the stuff described above, he goes where he is asked to go, all of his work is by referral and obviously depends on his background and skill at handling himself. He gets to keep all of the FF miles earned.

Sorry, Dave, but the reason for courier travel is to get extremely urgent documents and small cargo items through international border crossing formalities as quickly as possible -- passenger baggage is the quickest route through customs -- so there are no domestic courier flights.

I flew courier from JFK to LHR once, back in 1989, and I'd agree with the folks who've said it wasn't worth the effort generally but might be worthwhile under certain conditions. Mine was "certain conditions", and I actually paid about $100 more than the lowest available airfare from New York to London and back for the week that I was across the pond.

But $100 extra seemed a reasonable price to fly Concorde.

Looked into it but scrubbed the idea. Sounded like you'd have a better experience booking passage on a freighter

I have been a courier twice before, but each time my starting point was from a more likely hub for commerce; In 2003 I went from NY to Hong Kong via Tokyo, and in 2005 I went from Hong Kong to Tokyo.

However, I did/do not know if Washington, DC has any opportunities of this nature to be an onboard courier. Please advise if you know.

Get a job where your company deals with millions of dollars in areas that are not serviced by FedEx. Then maybe you can play courier.

I have visited websites like Freighter World and thought that it is a cool idea, but I have yet to meet anyone who has done something like this. Anyone? Maybe an idea for a new thread.

No, let's, avoid that.

There are some opportunities for such from DC too with a good number of tech firms and law firms requiring even intra-country flights. However, sometimes they just send an admin or temp to do the flight if they are willing.

I, too, am glad that I paid the extra few $$'s for my Concorde flight, especially given her passing. :( I've read that courier flights are not as important as they were back in the 1980's, when I used to fly them fairly frequently.
Best wishes, Dave