International Non Rev

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Firebird2XC

Well-Known Member
I wanted to ask about International Non Rev, and avoiding fees, etc.

Seems like there are a few things here and there were you can cross the pond relatively inexpensively as an airline Non Rev, but the taxes and fees into places like London and Paris have quite a mark-up.

Anybody know how to sidestep this stuff?

I'm getting a bit of wanderlust and travel on a budget.
 
You can fly into places with less expensive fees and take ground transportation to where you want to go. Look into Ireland or Scotland if you want to go to London or maybe Amsterdam if you want to go to Paris. The train system over there is pretty easy to use, it just takes a little longer (obviously); theres always the ferry to get across water too.
 
What I did to avoid paying the London (and anywhere else in the UK) departure taxes when I went was to buy a regular ticket from Stanstead to Dublin on Ryanair for ~30 bucks all said and done. Granted that was back in 07 and they have gotten more fee happy since then, but I saved ~60 bucks that way, and when your budget is $100/day that goes a long way.
 
ajf005 said:
You can fly into places with less expensive fees and take ground transportation to where you want to go. Look into Ireland or Scotland if you want to go to London or maybe Amsterdam if you want to go to Paris. The train system over there is pretty easy to use, it just takes a little longer (obviously); theres always the ferry to get across water too.
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So these fees are exclusive to specific airports? Interesting.

I suppose just eyeballing Heathrow and Charles De Gaulle had me boggled at the big numbers to process customs. Weird.
 
By avoiding these fees by going to a secondary city, you also get to see a little bit more of the countryside and the other beauties Europe has to offer.
 
Firebird2XC said:
I wanted to ask about International Non Rev, and avoiding fees, etc.

Seems like there are a few things here and there were you can cross the pond relatively inexpensively as an airline Non Rev, but the taxes and fees into places like London and Paris have quite a mark-up.

Anybody know how to sidestep this stuff?

I'm getting a bit of wanderlust and travel on a budget.
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I have not found many ways to dodge fees in about two dozen international non-rev trips in the past three years.

Gonzo mentioned jumpseating. That is hit or miss. I have taken United a a few times including out of Australia and Germany and I have yet to be charged the departure tax on them. That helped a lot. On the other hand, Delta is more organized with it and you will have to pay the departure fee as a jumpseater. Same with US Airways in my experience (but some stations for them want you to have a receipt of already having paid in PHL before you even go to Europe -- I no longer consider US Airways as an option because of this).

The cargo carriers are an excellent way to go. The problem is you are restricted from taking FedEx and UPS for whatever reason. That still leaves you with a decent set of options, but some parts of the world are just completely out. But Polar and Atlas and Kalitta do cover lots of territory -- when I took Polar out of Hong Kong last year I was not charged the departure tax. I am probably going to try and take Atlas out of South America next month so I am hoping for the same. They were happy to have a jumpseater along and there is lots of space.

http://www.polaraircargo.com/contactus-confirm.html

(time permitting, our resident Polar guy can help you with schedules...thanks Martin!!)

Other than that I can't think of any more ideas other than what has already been suggested in the posts above. I have not been back to the UK in quite some time due to the high fees -- they have outpriced themselves for me. There are so many cheaper places to go so it's a no-brainer.
 
When I say jumpseating I mean the cockpit jumpseat. When we cockpit jumpseat on AA we pay nothing. Also a AA guy told me we (AA/Eagle) can take FedEx international, but I have not tried.
 
Gonzo said:
When I say jumpseating I mean the cockpit jumpseat. When we cockpit jumpseat on AA we pay nothing. Also a AA guy told me we (AA/Eagle) can take FedEx international, but I have not tried.
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Aye.. that's just a long haul on a fold-down jumpseat.
 
Firebird2XC said:
Aye.. that's just a long haul on a fold-down jumpseat.
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It sure is. :eek:

If it's a departure fee on par with most places in Europe I wouldn't think twice about forking over about $30 for business class if it's available! Obviously this is not always an option and Latin America to MIA/DFW is not so far.
 
Nick said:
It sure is. :eek:

If it's a departure fee on par with most places in Europe I wouldn't think twice about forking over about $30 for business class if it's available! Obviously this is not always an option and Latin America to MIA/DFW is not so far.
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Eh.. the fees I saw for nonrev travel on AA ran into several hundred dollars.

Kinda ruined the idea of 'nonrev-ing'.

Perhaps it's just my company..
 
Gonzo said:
When I say jumpseating I mean the cockpit jumpseat. When we cockpit jumpseat on AA we pay nothing. Also a AA guy told me we (AA/Eagle) can take FedEx international, but I have not tried.
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You can't take FedEx international. Only the 50 states (CONUS plus AK and HI). UPS is the same way. Not even the territories such as Puerto Rico.
 
I non-reved to Dublin and Rome, both were 17 euro. This was a few weeks a ago. Like the other guys said and if you have some time to spend, fly into London then take the train somewhere else to avoid that departure tax. My best bet would be that the ferry from england to dublin should not be to much money.
 
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