Like to Travel Cheaply? Try an Ad-hoc Air Courier Assignment. I Did!

Like many Chinese-Americans, I have an extended family spread over several countries. Hence, family get togethers can be a costly affair!  Being a frugal person, I love the challenge of finding the cheapest way to travel and visit my family.

A few years ago, I signed up to be an ad-hoc air courier. An air courier works for a courier company to transport time-sensitive documents and packages around the world using commercial airlines.  After pre-arranging with the courier company on the travel date and destination, I paid S$300 instead of S$1,000 for my flight from Singapore to Los Angeles.  I saved a whopping S$700 (about US$600)!  I did not have any checked-in luggage as the allowance was used by the courier company for their goods. My husband was scheduled the same flight so I was able to use his luggage allowance.  The air courier representatives took care of check-in for their payload with the airline and their staff retrieved their packages from the baggage claim when we arrived.  After the outbound journey, my commitment with the courier company was finished and I had a flexible return schedule. I was free to enjoy my vacation with family.

There are recurring air courier jobs where you are getting paid to travel.  However, you need to have a flexible schedule or be available at short notice.  Also, if you turn down too many assignments, you may not get new offers.  Find out more in Wikipedia.

At TripCompanion, you can be paid a small companion fee while helping another traveler on their air journey.  With air tickets getting more expensive all the time, the companion fee will defray some of your travel expenses.

Please share your tips for cheap travel!