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Baggage claim: Trading your excess airline luggage-allowance
- tmaly 10y agocool idea, but I just imagine someone getting in trouble for transporting something that is not allowed.
- pavel_lishin 10y ago> For bringing a Citizen watch to Vu in Ho Chi Minh City, you can make $5. Franz in Munich is apparently unsatisfied with the quality of coffee there, and will pay you $15 to bring him a box of San Francisco’s Blue Bottle beans. Ahmed in Cairo has seemingly spotted a good deal for an Apple Macbook Pro in Dubai, and is willing to part with $100 to have someone bring one to him. The trouble of even downloading the app and signing up for an account isn't worth $5 to me.
- maerF0x0 10y agoMe neither, but we're part of a disappearing slice of the world where we cant be bothered. Much of the the labor force will do anything to make more than minimum wage.
- saryant 10y agoDoes that really apply to people flying from San Francisco to Munich?
- ProblemFactory 10y ago> Much of the the labor force will do anything to make more than minimum wage. But the subset of the labor force that takes international flights?
- disordinary 10y agoThose people aren't flying internationally. If you spend hundreds on an airline ticket then you wont care abbot $5
- chrischen 10y agoTell that to hostel-ers around the world.
- disordinary 10y agoI spent several months backpacking around Europe, through Russia, and then China, and a friend of mine is pretty much a professional backpacker well into his 30's. It can be tough, and you take odd jobs when you can get them. But realistically $5 is not going to buy you a nights sleep in a dorm, it might buy you lunch, it will just buy you a coffee in some airports. Not worth the risk for the money on offer. Knowingly being a drug mule, on the other hand, pays better.
- PhantomGremlin 10y agoKnowingly being a drug mule, on the other hand, pays better. Just be careful you don't wind up in a Turkish prison. Then, what you need to do to escape is to kill the chief guard and walk out the front door wearing his uniform: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midnight_Express_(film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midnight_Express_(film) No thanks. Not the life for me.
- chrischen 10y agoYou can get hostel beds for $15-$20 in Hong Kong, even if it doesn't get you all the way, it's a significant chunk, so little bits from various places will add up.
- disordinary 10y agoYou can get a hostel for $25 in most places, seasoned travelers are not going to be taking unknown packages around. The people that do that sort of stuff are the people going on their first trip overseas.
- disordinary 10y agoCompletely not worth it, against airline and government policy and an easy way to recruit drug mules. "Here, buy this thing from that suspiciously empty shop and take it across international borders." Also $5 to buy a watch is hardly worth the time, unless your literally buying it at duty free.
- Asooka 10y agoWell, you can be absolutely certain I'm going to open the package when I receive it to make sure it's not drugs and if it does look suspicious, I'm calling the cops.
- THE_PUN_STOPS 10y ago> Airmule, a rival, sets standard fees for deliveries: $40 for packages up to 5lb (2.3kg), or $60 if the “mule” departs within 48 hours, plus a $5 fee if the mule has to travel to pick up the package. Uhhh.... They actually named it Airmule? Is this satire?
- disordinary 10y agoYeah I read that and did a double take, they desperately need a different brand.
- tantalor 10y agoIn case anybody is wondering: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mule_(smuggling) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mule_(smuggling)
- anexprogrammer 10y agoWhat could possibly go wrong? "did you pack your bags yourself? Are you carrying anything for anyone else?" "Well I'm carrying an Airmule(tm) package. They packed it. They texted a photo to prove it was totally legit." "Um, really sir? Please come with us"
- r00fus 10y ago"You've earned a free body-cavity search!" Hope no Airmule users plan travel to the Philippines...
- bko 10y agoI can't see this as a long term viable market. Airlines obviously won't like this and it's only a matter of time until they lobby politicians to make this illegal because "terrorism" It's a shame because I believe that loosening restrictions of airline tickets, specifically allowing for transferability would be a huge opportunity. If tickers were transferrable, the seemingly arbitrary shifts in pricing would fall considerably. The same restrictions could apply such as visa restrictions and perhaps even a limit to transferability such as 24 hours before the flight. It would be a huge win for the consumer but sadly I doubt this will happen any time soon.
- blowski 10y agoWhilst my initial reaction is to agree with you, I thought the same about Uber and AirBnB.
- tdb7893 10y agoI think the distinction is that Uber and AirBnB both correspond to underused assets that you own and control. This deals with something that you don't price or control, and is already heavily regulated. Also, one problem is that neither weight not space on a plane are very underutilized in current airlines so if this took off airlines would either a) employ a pricing scheme that effectively kills it (e.g. pricing on weight of luggage or something) or b) increase costs to flyers to correspond to increased costs to them.
- tdb7893 10y agoSending arbitrary packages via airlines I can't see being anything other than a security and customer service nightmare. Even without airlines actively fighting it (and with good reason) there is little possibility this will take off.
- itissid 10y agoIn all fairness, its upto the mule to make sure what you are taking. Seems its only is a nightmare as much as what happens now, when you transport a package for someone else.
- carpathiani 10y agoShipping with a contract carrier provides lots of benefits. The method described here only increases risk for all parties.
- pmontra 10y ago"Did you pack your bags yourself?" Be careful about what you answer. "No" is a bad answer and "yes" is OK only if 1) the content of the bag is OK and 2) you really packed it.
- jbmorgado 10y agoThis seems like a very big risk. You are actually putting your name on a baggage that is passing trough a high security/high traffic control situation. I would never do this for someone I didn't trust personally.
- maerF0x0 10y agoYou didnt read the details. You're also tasked with provisioning and packing the thing . Eg: goto walmart and buy me M&Ms, fly them to london to deliver to me.
- adamio 10y agonot with Airmule, with them the packages are pre-packed
- maerF0x0 10y agoGotcha, because it was first mentioned I was thinking the article was about grabr. But I see now its about the whole idea in general. Yes, taking an unknown prepackaged ("ticking"?) container onto the plane for a stranger seems to either be 1) stupid or 2) vastly undercompensated.
- jacalata 10y agoThe details say that there are two startups, one of which has exactly this problem: > Grabr largely skirts this conundrum by having the courier do the purchasing and packing. With Airmule, the goods come pre-packaged by the person sending them.
- peterbonney 10y agoOne big thing the article leaves out is the delivery logistics on the other end of the trip. Let's consider the $5 watch example. For such a low-value parcel, how much time and effort will each party put into delivery/receipt? As a courier, for a mere $5 there is no way I'm going to go out of my way drop off the package to anyone. So the recipient is going to need to retrieve it from me at the airport. Are they willing to wait around for hours (or pay someone else) for me to arrive, clear customs, etc.? Because I'm certainly not going to hang around at the airport for hours for them if I'm only getting $5 - so they'd better be there on time. And that means they are going to have to pay for transportation to/from the airport (usually pretty far from the city center) on top of the cost of shipping. All in all it seems like a pretty hard sell - mail/package couriers have already sorted out these logistics and will deliver stuff straight to your door, usually quite cheaply. The only way I can see the economics working is avoiding import duties in countries where they are prohibitive, which of course means shifting an unacceptable risk to the courier.
- disordinary 10y agoActually, if they wait for me and throw in a lift to town and I might be tempted. Airports can be seriously costly to get from/to.
- desdiv 10y ago>Grabr largely skirts this conundrum by having the courier do the purchasing and packing. On the US customs declaration 6059B form[0], question 14 is: I have commercial merchandise: (articles for sale, samples used for soliciting orders, or goods that are not considered personal effects) Truthfully answering yes means you waste an extra 15 to 60 minutes dealing with customs and paying import duties on whatever you're bring (personal exceptions doesn't apply for commercial goods). That's assuming you're a US resident. If you're a non-resident then you better plan on sleeping in the airport that night. Lie by answering no and 99.99% of the time you won't be caught. But 10 years down the road if the government ever have an axe to grind against you, they can just look up that confirmation email you got from Grabr and match it against the 6059B form you filled out and they got you on the hook for making false statements (18 U.S.C. § 1001)[1]. [0] http://www.immihelp.com/immigration/sample-us-customs-declaration-form-6059b.pdf http://www.immihelp.com/immigration/sample-us-customs-declar... [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Making_false_statements https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Making_false_statements
- Cpoll 10y agoUse a throwaway email for Grabr, there's not much they can do short of a sting operation.
- pfarnsworth 10y agoNo thanks. The laws are so brutal in some countries, there's no way I would ever risk it. In Japan, Sudafed is illegal, which is something I would not have known if not for my friend who ran into this issue years ago. And in some countries like Singapore and Indonesia, even a small amount of drugs will get you executed. Too much risk for so little return. Who knows what they are packing in their package, and it really seems like drugs and other illegal items would be relish at the opportunity to use this service.
- jacalata 10y agoInteresting - I was expecting this to be about trading your luggage allowance with other passengers on the same plane, which is a much tinier audience but might avoid some of the risks.
- post_break 10y agoI've watched enough Australia border security episodes to know I would never use this service.
- CodeSheikh 10y agoGiven the current political climate and default skepticism and fear that comes with air traveling, I would not take $50 to take someone else's goods. Heck I double check if one of my friends of family member try to send an item with me (that has happened like 1 out of 1000 times I have traveled). This app has funding from Russia and it might be a success there. Sure they just wanted a media footprint catapulted by US media outlets. What I would like to see is airlines encouraging me to check in a few days/weeks earlier and state how many bags I am planning to check in (international travel as domestic airlines dont allow free check in bags except southwest ). If none or less then I should be compensated in some sort of air miles. Then the airline can sell the extra space to a private shipping company. No need to turn travelers into Uber for taco bells for a nostalgic digital nomad living in Reykjavik.
- bronco21016 10y agoThis is exactly something I could see low paid employees at a US regional airline doing to make some extra money.