AirHitch - The Cheapest Ticket to Europe!
Jun 26 '00
I had been planning to spend a few months in Europe for quite some time. The only problem was that I was a working stiff, with a day to day routine and not enough vacation time to accomplish my goal. I had been to Europe before, and felt that there was much more to be seen and done.
When the timing seemed right, I quit my job and started making plans. I was a bit nervous about my budget, not wanting to exhaust all of my savings, but at the same time wanting to travel with more monetary freedom than my previous trip, which had been done on only $18 per day. I figured out my total budget for the trip, and found that I would be able to spend about twice my previous daily budget, but only if I found an excellent airfare bargain.
I did quite a bit of research, and found that my options were not as limited as I imagined. First I looked into air courier services. Air couriers allow you to travel inexpensively to many destinations throughout the world in exchange for a service. You are simply required to give up a portion of the baggage space you are normally allowed to transport items the courier services ship in their place (Don't worry - my research indicates that these services are on the up and up and will not require you to ship illegal goods). You must also deliver an envelope containing shipment information to an office at your city of destination. There are no restrictions or services required on your return trip.
Ticket consolidators can also provide tickets abroad at reduced rates. Consolidators essentially buy huge blocks of tickets on selected flights and sell them to travelers at discounted rates. While these are cheaper than full price airfare, I searched for an even cheaper option. Then I stumbled on AirHitch. This was the cheapest option I had found, and would also allow me to pack freely for my trip, which would last over 3 months.
How does AirHitch work? AirHitch works a bit differently than courier services. Basically, there are thousands of unused seats on planes between the U.S. and Europe every year. This is mainly due to lack of demand for seats during certain times of year, but even during busy times seats can be empty for a variety of reasons. AirHitch has an agreement with a number of airlines such that if a particular flight is not full, an AirHitch ticket, or voucher, can be used to "purchase" a ticket on that flight. In other words, your voucher is not a ticket, but acts as a ticket when an empty seat on a flight is available.
What's the catch? Well, there really is no catch per se. You enter into the agreement to purchase the voucher knowing that you can only use it in exchange for an empty seat. You are essentially flying standby, which can make things a bit stressful. You are not likely to know whether or not you'll make it onto a particular flight until 30 minutes prior to its departure. On the other hand, because others are likely to have AirHitch vouchers as well, you have to arrive extremely early to place your name on the standby list.
Translation: You'd better be flexible! And when I say flexible, I don't just mean about the time and day of your flight. The voucher is good for any European destination for which AirHitch happens to have an agreement with for any given week. OK, let me back up, because that last sentence contained quite a few qualifiers. First of all, you don't necessarily know which city you'll be flying into. You can choose to fly into Paris for example, but there may only be 3 flights to Paris during a particular week on which you can use your voucher. Remember, that still doesn't mean you'll get onto one of those 3 flights. And you can only get flight information 1 week in advance. That applies to both ends of your trip. In other words, if someone asks you when you'll be back home, your best prediction will be the week you are planning to return. And if all of the flights during that week are full, your prediction will still be incorrect. The bottom line - be prepared to fly into and out of a number of large European cities to maximize your opportunities.
An additional note on flexibility - the vouchers are good from any domestic airport in your designated region (West Coast, East Coast, Southwest, etc.). So you could use your voucher to on a flight from L.A. to Amsterdam or from San Francisco to Paris, because L.A. and San Francisco are within the same region of the U.S. This can also increase your chances of getting a flight, but getting from one city to another within the U.S. can be an inconvenience.
AirHitch is best for students. Why is that? Well, as I said in the previous paragraph, if you want to maximize your opportunity to get across the Atlantic, you'd better be prepared to fly into a number of European cities. The cities with the most AirHitch-friendly flights are those you would expect - Paris, London, Munich, Rome, Athens, Madrid, etc. Others are available, but don't count on getting onto the flight. If you're a student planning a European tour, your itinerary is probably flexible enough that you can start and finish anywhere on the continent. Especially if you have a Eurail pass, which will allow you access to all of Europe. The other great thing is that you can fly into one city and out of another, and the price of the vouchers is the same.
My Experience with AirHitch. For all of its negatives, it worked fairly well for me. I was out of a job and had a Eurail pass. I had a long list of possible cities to act as the launching point for my trip. Because I wasn't traveling during a specific two-week period, I could leave anytime I wanted and come back anytime I wanted (provided I didn't run out of money). As it turned out, I tried to get onto a flight in San Francisco that I learned at the last minute was full. There were 4 people ahead of me on the standby list who also didn't make it, one of whom had waited for over 6 hours. I had to lug all of my things back home, which wasn't exactly pleasant. It was hard to get excited about going since I didn't know exactly when I would leave. The other problem was that the next flight from San Francisco (to Paris this time) didn't leave for 3 days. I ended up driving to L.A., where there were 3 possible flights the following morning (2 to Amsterdam, 1 to Paris), and got on the first one to Amsterdam, on an airline I had never heard of - MartinAir. I arrived at the airport 3 hours before the flight left and was first on the standby list. Other than a long drive to L.A., I experienced no trouble with anything.
On my flight back, (from Paris) I got onto the first flight I targeted. I had to call the AirHitch office to get the list of possible flights the week I planned on leaving, which wasn't too great a hassle.
The Bottom Line. You really do need the ultimate in flexibility - period. That being said, the only way I can recommend using AirHitch is if all of the following apply:
1. You don't have to leave or return on a specific day or during a specific week.
2. You have a Eurail pass, or some other means of transportation between European cities, in case you don't get your targeted flight.
3. You're prepared to miss flights after long waits in airports.
It is cheap though, and if those things do apply, it might work well for you as it did for me. Rather than listing voucher prices, which vary depending on your region in the U.S., I'll refer you to www.airhitch.org where you can investigate and find more specific info. I hope this information helps!
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