Traveling Messengers

And so a few months ago, after paying $45 to IAATC for a laminated membership card and a secret Internet password, I stepped into the hidden parallel universe of courier travel. The laminated card was nice, but that secret password was a doozy. Twice a day, at www.courier.org, IAATC compiles and updates a route list of legitimate, active courier companies here and abroad and the current fares offered by each. For weeks I browsed the list every few days, unmoved by most of what I saw. The exception was a daily run from New York to Mexico City for $50, eight-day stay required. While I dithered, the deal climbed to $150, then disappeared completely.

"They're changing all the time," said Causey. "In fact, since Sept. 11, we've had three companies flying New York to South America cease operations altogether."

Chastened, when New YorktoHong Kong popped up for $200, I knew what to do. I called Jupiter, the courier company, and told the agent I was an IAATC member and hoped to get one of the available dates. Oct. 31 was open, about six weeks off. She was a bit surprised that I wanted the earliest possible return -- three days later -- but she booked it and told me to send $200 plus a $27 "fee" by money order.

I was in.

The agent mailed a photocopied sheet of instructions on what to do and where to go at each step of the trip. I was to start at JFK, bringing my passport and one carry-on bag. I would be allowed no checked luggage in either direction.

To a courier company, you are your baggage allotment. The reason is time. Standard air cargo has to arrive at the airport several hours before flight time and, worse, it may sit in a warehouse for days waiting to clear customs on the other end. Passenger baggage, on the other hand -- be it a Louis Vuitton valise or a carton of spare parts -- can be zipped from the curb into the belly of the jet scant minutes before takeoff. Likewise, after landing, those bags are the first to be unloaded and presented to customs.

But to gain passenger privileges for their boxes, of course, cargo companies need a passenger. So they purchase bundles of tickets on certain routes (usually at full fare, for maximum flexibility), negotiate special rates on excess baggage fees and then "hire" someone to sit in the seat by selling the ticket at a discount.

"They just need you there to make sure the cargo isn't bumped," said Byron Lutz, the recently retired co-founder of IAATC. "Regular cargo is often bumped. It's much less likely they will bump a courier. All they really require is that you be there and alive at takeoff. It doesn't matter if you're alive at landing."

HONG KONG, 11 A.M. (THREE DAYS LATER)

Of course, if you do arrive alive, you find yourself at the far end of an international flight with money to spare and not many clothes. In my case, that meant a pleasant three-day lark in Hong Kong, a city I'd never visited.

Couriers have absolutely no duties between flights, so it was with a clear but jet-lagged conscience that I ate dim sum, rode the ferries, saw one really big Buddha and was simultaneously mesmerized and repulsed by the unbridled mercantilism of the world's most commercial city. With help from a review-intensive Internet site called Asia-hotels.com, I found a well-located, comfortable pantry of a room at the Evergreen in Kowloon. With a $50-a-night hotel and a $200 flight, I felt financially free to stretch out a bit on food at the venerable Peninsula Hotel and have a suit made to order in 24 hours at the famous Sam the Tailor. An international courier, I reckoned, should wear shirts that fit and jackets that kill.

My carry-on bulged, but I looked fabulous as I waited to meet my Jupiter contact at the Hong Kong airport on the morning of my flight back to Tokyo. This one was young, without much English, but we pantomimed our way through check in. And when the ticket agent asked me the "pack-your-own-bags" question, all I had to do was point to my Jupiter badge and he sent me right through.

"Sometimes you can even get an upgrade," said Lutz. "The airlines look at the courier companies as valuable customers. You identify yourself as a courier and you dress business class and since you're traveling alone you might get lucky."