Did you know that international
corporations will
pay for you to fly to Zurich...or
Paris...or Rome? All
you have to do in return is agree to
carry time-
sensitive business cargo (it could be
files or computer
discs, for example) to your
destination. You may never
have to touch, let alone actually
carry, the bags.
Representatives of the firm that has
hired you will
take care of all the dirty work. All you have to do is
check the cargo as your luggage.
It's called traveling as an air
courier. And it's
perfectly legal. Thousands of travellers do it every
year.
As an air courier, you fly like any other
passenger on the plane, enjoying the
same comforts and
amenities. There are only two differences. First, you
don't have any checked luggage (just
your carry-on
bags). And second, you don't pay full fare for your
ticket. In fact, you may not pay anything at all.
But more than that, there is
something exciting,
even romantic about traveling as an
air courier. You
can be called up for duty with little
more than a day
or two notice -- like a foreign
correspondent or an
international spy. What an adventure, to receive a
telephone call asking if you can
leave for the Far East
in 24 hours...or if you're interested
in flying to
London in the morning.
Of course, it can be much less
spontaneous, if you
prefer. Some courier services allow you to make
reservations weeks or months in
advance.
Making The Connection
You want to fly to Sydney,
Australia, and then
take off for a grand adventure Down
Under...exploring
Queensland's rain forest...sailing
the Great Barrier
Reef...maybe traveling northwest from
Sydney to Mudgee,
a little, undiscovered town cradled
in the Cudgegong
Valley on the western side of the
Great Dividing Range,
where you can visit stud and sheep
ranches, go
prospecting for gold, and marvel at
Frog Rock (a huge
sedimentary amphibian that crouches
beside the road)...
But the cheapest round-trip
ticket to Sydney
you've been able to find costs US$1,500 --
considerably
more than your pocketbook can afford.
Don't give up on your trip. Pick up the phone and
call a courier service. Explain where you want to
travel and when and ask if the
service has any packages
going to that destination at that
time. Most services
require that you call not more than
60 days in advance
of your trip.
If it is your first time looking
for work as a
courier, it might be better to make
the initial contact
by letter rather than telephone. Tell the service a
little about yourself, include a
resume, and assure
them that you are flexible,
available, eager to travel,
and accustomed to packing light
(remember, you'll only
be allowed your carry-on
luggage). Then follow up on
this letter with a phone call,
requesting a specific
assignment.
But before you accept an
assignment, verify the
terms of the arrangement. Some services no longer
offer free tickets to their couriers;
some offer only
deeply discounted tickets. In fact, as the occupation
becomes more popular, it is becoming
harder and harder
for couriers to travel free. Years ago, courier
services not only provided couriers
with free airfare
to their destination, but they paid
them a fee as well.
Today, this is unheard of.
It is still possible to get free
airfare, though,
but you may have to shop around. And you probably will
have to settle for a last-minute
booking. Even if you
can't get your ticket for free, you
will be able to get
it for about 70% less than you could
buy it anywhere
else.
Another thing to keep in mind is
that you can
bargain for a fare. If you're interested in flying in
two months to Buenos Aires, you may
not be able to find
a free ticket. (Remember, free tickets are usually
associated with last-minute
bookings.) But neither do
you have to settle for the first fare
quoted you.
Haggle.
Bide your time. The closer it
gets to the
date of departure, the more eager the
courier service
will be to make a deal.
The only red tape involved is an
application form
that the courier service will ask you
to fill out.
Some services also charge minimal
annual registration
fees.
The reason for couriers
More and more businesses are
using courier
services. The reasons are simple. First, nearly all
major businesses now operate
internationally. When
someone says, "I want it on my
desk by 9 a.m.," he
doesn't care that the person he's
speaking to is
halfway around the world. If packages or documents are
shipped by traditional methods, they
can take hours,
even days to clear customs. Not so with material
shipped with a courier. It clears customs within
minutes of landing at the airport,
just like any other
passenger's luggage.
Second, material shipped with a
courier flies on a
scheduled airline, and, because of
that, it usually
flies on time.
So, when a marketing manager in
Des Moines wants
to send the results of his most
recent studies to his
affiliate in Hamburg -- and ensure
that they reach
their overseas destination by 9 the
next morning -- he
picks up the telephone and calls an
international air
freight company.
The major freight companies,
such as Federal
Express and DHL International, fly
their own planes and
therefore have no need of
couriers. Smaller
operations, however, must rely on
courier services to
arrange for the transport of their
parcels. These
freight companies contact a courier
service, which in
turn tries to find a free-lance
courier who wants to
fly -- immediately -- to Germany, for
example. If you
happen to call the courier service
that same afternoon,
you're on your way to Europe.
For your part, the work involved
is minimal.
Always check in the day before you
are scheduled to
depart to make sure the time or the
flight or the
carrier has not been changed. This is not a formality;
it is a safeguard. It is not unusual. In fact, it is
common for courier flights and times
to be changed at
the last minute.
Once you're sure of your flight,
simply arrive at
the airport about an hour ahead of
your departure time.
A representative from the freight
service will deliver
the material to the airport and check
it in as the
baggage for your ticket. You'll then be given the
ticket, the baggage claim check, and
a form detailing
the contents of the baggage.
When you arrive at your
destination, another
representative from the freight
service will meet you
at the airport, where you'll retrieve
the baggage,
clear it through customs, and then
take off to enjoy
your trip. The service is responsible for making sure
that the contents of the baggage are
as they should be
and that they are delivered where
they are supposed to
go.
Your only responsibility is walking the parcel
through customs.
The courier service will have
given you a sheet
with instructions for your return
flight. Don't lose
it.
And the day before you are scheduled to return
home, again check in with the courier
service to verify
your flight time.
Finding a service
To find a courier service, you
could simply open
your local yellow pages, look under
"Air Courier
Services," and then call each
firm listed to see if
they use free-lance couriers and if
they provide free
tickets or only discounted
tickets. But you'll
probably be disappointed. The services that advertise
in the yellow pages rarely use
free-lance couriers and
never give free tickets.
A better way to start is to
contact Now Voyager,
74 Varick St., Room 307, New York, NY
10013; (212) 431-
1616, a large courier service that
deals with a lot of
different freight companies and uses
a lot of free-
lance couriers. Call between 6 p.m. and 11:30 a.m. to
hear a tape recording detailing all
available flights
and prices; call in the afternoon to
book flights.
Other courier services that use
free-lance
couriers and that sometimes offer
free tickets to their
couriers include:
Airhitch, 2790 Broadway, Suite
100, New York, NY
10025; (212) 864-2000
Courier Network, 295 Seventh
Ave., New York, NY
10001; (212) 691-9860
Halbart Express, 147-05 176th
St., Jamaica, NY
11434; (718) 656-8279 or (718)
656-8189
International Courier Travel,
5757 W. Century
Blvd., Suite 700-26, Los Angeles, CA
90045; (505) 758-
7911
TNT-Skypak, 38 E. 29th St., New
York, NY 10003;
(212) 532- 5777
World Courier, 137-42 Guy R.
Brewer Blvd.,
Jamaica, NY 11434; (718) 978-9552 or
(718) 978-9400
Courier Travel Services Ltd.,
346 Fulham Road,
London SW10 9UH, United Kingdom; tel.
71-351-0300. Polo
Express Services Ltd. (a subsidiary
of British Airways)
2 Fitzharding Street, London W1H 9
PN, United Kingdom;
tel. 81-759-5383
Air Facility, Esmeralda 634,
4oB, Buenos Aires,
Argentina; tel. (54-1) 322-7720.
Jupiter Air Ltd., Ground Floor,
Block 2, Tien Chu
Centre, 1 E Mokcheong St., Tokwawan,
Kowloon, Hong
Kong; tel. (852) 761-1303, fax (852)
761-1029.
Jupiter Air Oceania Ltd., Unit 4
154-166 O'Riordan
St., Mascot, NSW 2020, Australia; tel.
(61-2) 317-2113;
fax (61-2) 317-2238.
Jet Services Roissy, Batiment
3416, Module 700,
Route du Midi, 95707 Roissey, France;
tel. (33-14) 862-
6222, fax (33-14) 862-6246.
Discount Travel International,
169 W. 81st Street,
New York, NY 10024; tel. (212)
362-8113, fax (212) 362-
3236.
Way to Go, 6679 Sunset Blvd.,
Hollywood CA 90028
USA; tel. (213) 466-1126, fax (213)
466-8994.
For more information
For more on traveling as a
courier, read Air
Courier Bargains by Kelly Monaghan,
available from
Inwood Training Publications, Box
438, New York, NY
10034-9959. The cost is US$14.95. Another good
reference is Fly There For Less by
Bob Martin,
available from TeakWood Press, 160
Fiesta Drive,
Kissimmee, FL 34743 USA. The cost is US$8.95.
Steve Lantos is the publisher of
Travel Unlimited,
a monthly newsletter on international
courier travel
from the U.S., Canada, and
Britain. The address is P.
O. Box 1058, Allston MA 02134 USA.
Contact the International
Asssociation of Air
Travel Couriers (IAATC), 8 South J
Street, P. O. Box
1349, Lake Worth, F: 33460 USA; tel.
(407) 582-8320.
The IAATC charges an annual fee of
US$35.
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