By: Jon Chan
Couriers can save a lot of money on airfare. They can catch a $99 flight overseas for the small lay over inconvenience of a day or two.
When you are a courier, you must travel with a single bag because you surrender your luggage allowance to the company hiring you as their agent.
As an air travel courier, you carry shipping documents on flights for a courier company in exchange for discount tickets.
These companies use couriers because it is quicker and less expensive to ship freight as luggage rather than air cargo. Couriers may also carry time-sensitive items such as business documents or medicines.
As a courier, you can only bring carry on luggage. You cannot check in your personal luggage. You give up your baggage allowance to the courier company hiring you. They need it for the materials they are shipping.
Courier tickets are regular round-trip coach tickets that are also non-refundable and non-transferable. So make sure you can make the flight.
Most likely, you will not keep any frequent flier mileage earned. It depends on the policy of the courier company. On the bright side, the length of stay for courier tickets is usually a seven-day stopover.
Rarely is it open ended up to six months. However, you may have to be a courier on the return flight. This may interfere with any plans for overseas shopping.
Don't expect travel to exotic islands. Couriers mainly travel to main business centers of the world because of the types of items they ship.
If you are traveling with a companion, you may be able to arrange separate courier flights within a day of each other. It's rare to find courier seats on the same flight.
Being flexible with your schedule will increase the likelihood you will meet up with each other at your destination on the same day.
