Plane tickets

Air courier flying

Air couriers work as document or package transporters for certain organizations or individuals who need to send important items fast and under secure conditions. Important documents or valuable objects are often transported by special hired personnel in order to minimize the risk of possible loss or damage. Speed is also an issue, businesses might need to send documents much faster than FedEx or DHL could deliver them to the other side of Earth.

Air courier flying involves generally short trips to various destinations. Sometimes, the courier flies repeatedly between the same spots, in other cases travels to various places within a period of time. If done often and to long distance, this can be exhausting, mainly due to the fact that there's little time left to rest between arrivals and departures. 

Airline tickets are offered either for low prices or quite often they're handed out to the courier for free. Generally, courier airline tickets cost between 50-75 % less than ordinary published airfares, but as mentioned can often cost zero!

For adventure-loving youngsters especially, this could be a great opportunity to shrink or even eliminate air travel expenses. However, be aware that cheap courier flying does not offer you enough flexibility to travel. One has little time to visit the destinations, there is usually no possibility to take anyone with you on the trip and flights come one after another regardless of your wishes to travel. You might need to fly back the next day already without having seen anything of the new city. You can try discover the night-life, though...

Air courier flying is the cheapest possible way of flying. To long distances, you certainly cannot find any cheaper way.

Very often, couriers are used to travel to very long distances to faraway relatively isolated regions. For instance, they need to travel between countries that do not have very good postal connection. In other cases, couriers might be hired only to transport small, but highly valued packages or other objects and hand them over at the arrival airport.

There are few domestic opportunities to fly as a courier. Those that are will likely be in large countries, such as Canada, where long distances need to be covered. However, evolved countries, such as Canada do have good reliable transportation systems and postal services, therefore rarely will couriers be needed.

The most common way to fly as a courier is to link faraway cities around the World by transporting for businesses.

Don't expect to carry the boxes or important documents in your hands, generally you'll only have access to the paperwork. In other words, you'd be more preoccupied of the bureaucratic part.

Here's how it happens...

You meet a representative of the air courier company or of the respective business you need to make the trip for. This usually happens just prior to departure at the airport gate.

Then, you are handed over the paperwork. You will most often carry only the paperwork, you won't even get to touch the package that needs to be transported. You are only on the flight to make sure the package arrives.

When arriving, you will meet with the person who receives the package, some papers will have to be signed and then you have to return.

If there are a few free days or hours for you, until your return flight, then you can take advantage of them.

Usually around 1 week is free at your disposal before you need to return. And when you have to return, you will often be asked to do another delivery.

You cannot postpone your trips. You are forced to accept the dates imposed on you.

Sometimes you will need to travel back and forth between the same 2 destinations for weeks. This could be tiring and could become boring, unless you do it for the sake of the job, not to exploit the travelling opportunities.

Most often, you have to pay for the courier flight, generally it is not offered for free. But, if a package/document needs to be transported fast, then the air courier agencies might offer free airline tickets as well.

In few cases, courier organizations allow negotiations on ticket prices.

Air courier flying is for you, if you...

Are a young energetic adventure-loving individual

You have a fast and punctual way of life

You are not bothered by travelling alone

You are resistant at travel stress

You can adapt to the schedule imposed to you (generally you will have to fly when they tell you to)

You can live the moment, use every little free time you have in order to feel well

Reducing air travel costs is your primary concern

It could be beneficial, if you...

Are already a frequent flyer program member (you could accumulate points/miles if you travel with your carrier)

Are willing to work as air courier in order to earn money, not just to travel (let's not forget: you're actually getting paid for this!)

Disadvantages of courier flying

The destination and the time of departure and return is set to you by the courier company

The courier company might give up on a certain flight in the last minute (you could find out 1 day earlier that the "flight is off")

You might have to stay too long (even 1 month) or too short (just 1 day), which might not be adequate for a real vacation

You might be asked to travel back and forth between the same places for a long while (this could bore you on the long term)

In order to exclude those opportunists who want to obtain free tickets for a few occasions only, agencies might apply strict rules to members

Often you'll only be able to transport a small amount of luggage, because you will be transporting theirs

Sample fares for courier flights

In case of those air courier flights that you have to pay for, here are some samples for airline ticket prices: 

Useful external resources

Air Courier Association [AirCourier.com]

(gateway to useful information and also to the opportunity of becoming a courier!)

Article about air couriering [GoNomad.com]

(GoNomad provides detailed info about how you can benefit from such a job)

How air couriering works [EHow.com]

(presents how air couriering works in a few comprehensive steps)