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General Information

These questions and answers are part of the Airhitch® FAQ. To get a text copy suitable for downloading and printing , click here.

WHAT IS AIRHITCH®?

Airhitch® (as its very name would tend to indicate), is a FORM OF HITCHHIKING on commercial airplanes, the form hitchhiking takes when applied to commercial jet aircraft. Like any other form of hitchhiking, its key logical concept is SPOT AVAILABILITY.

It is a system or method of organized access to commercial aircraft which was set up by student TRAVELERS in the late sixties to help themselves and their fellow students (and other members of the academic community) get back and forth across the Atlantic between the U.S. and Europe during university vacation periods without having to spend an arm and a leg, and/or without having to suffer the REGIMENTATION to which the public in general are normally subjected in return for affordable costs in air transportation.

It is based on the concept of SELF-HELP, i.e., helping people help themselves to achieve certain ends, a concept that was very popular during the sixties and, although it (the concept of self-help, not Airhitch®!) has fallen somewhat into disuse with the passing of the decades, it continues to prove its usefulness in the domain of long-haul international and domestic air travel -- especially as regards covering large "chunks" of distance separating budget, unstructured, exploratory travelers from their respective geographical objectives of any given moment -- at minimal cost and with a maximum degree of freedom of personal movement.

The Airhitch® concept has, gradually over the period since its inception, evolved to include other geographical regions, besides Europe and the several regions of North America, both domestic and international, as well as other SEASONS (it now operates year-round from/to some North American regions). The method essentially consists of making oneself available, via a highly organized procedure (which has lately been given a big "boost" by the Internet), to take advantage of last-minute seating availability on commercial jet aircraft, on a "space-available" basis.

Because of the somewhat radical or unorthodox nature of the Airhitch® method, many people approach it in confusion. It is the purpose of this website, and specifically this general information section, to eliminate as much of this confusion as possible. One step in this process is for you to gain an acute awareness of what Airhitch® is NOT -- by clicking here.

And finally, note that the Airhitch® system is (as of Apr., 2004) the subject of a PATENT APPLICATION with the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office (patent no. 20040078210), to protect it from misuse (or ABuse) by imitators who don't completely grasp its subtleties and thus might attempt to extend its use, for the sake of commerciality, to travelers outside the "budget unstructured exploratory" category; for large-scale misuse/abuse of the system could result in its total destruction, since the transportation-providers -- the people who ultimately make it possible -- believe (and they are probably right) that if ALL travelers, and not just the relatively small population of budget unstructured exploratory travelers, were to start traveling this way, their overall ability to earn a profit would be badly impaired if not completely eradicated. We expect the patent to "issue" (i.e., be finally and irrevocably granted) sometime in 2006.

HOW IS AIRHITCHING POSSIBLE?

You may be astounded to learn that, on any given day, literally thousands of seats go empty on commercial jet aircraft -- the same kind you always fly on! -- between the U.S. and Europe.

(You don't have to take our word for this: you can verify it yourself through many sources on and off the web. Two good ones are Aviation Week & Space Technology magazine and the U.S. Dept. of Transportation's Bureau of Transportation Statistics [BTS], Office of Airline Information division; and if you're really skeptical, click here for a capsule description of how we arrive statistically at this conclusion. Even if you're not skeptical, it might be worth your time to take a look, as this is one of the fundamental theoretical assumptions on which the whole Airhitch® system has rested for the nearly three-and-a-half decades of its existence.)

Provided you are flexible and savvy enough to fit your own travel plans into what is available, by using the Airhitch® method, you can be at the counter ready to step aboard one of these flights rather than allowing the seat to depart empty. The transportation-providers who make seats available to Airhitchers do it because they realize that doing so enables them to maximize revenue without depleting their normal passenger base or publicly disrupting their fare structure: they have come to the realization (usually, as a result of a lot of convincing by us!) that the "generic" and non-demanding, highly flexible nature of the population of budget unstructured exploratory travelers poses no threat to their standard way of operating, which is to try to maximize profits by keeping fares and revenues as high as possible for those insistent on occupying a specific, predetermined seat on a specific, pretdetermined flight/date/itinerary.

DO I HAVE TO BE A STUDENT TO USE AIRHITCH®?

No, but it helps to think and travel like one. The Airhitch® system was created for the free-spirited, independent, and resourceful traveler who does not have a rigorous schedule, and is engaging in the experience of travel primarily for its own sake, and, thus, enjoys seeing different places even when en route to his/her final destination. Many students fall into the above "unstructured traveler" category, but use of the system is by no means limited to students -- nor even to people in the "unstructured-traveler" category: it can be and has been used for travel for other more extrinsic purposes, provided only that the user understands that the system was not conceived for such purposes, takes into account its limitations, and is able to adapt his/her needs to these limitations.

CAN I GO ANYWHERE IN EUROPE I WANT?

Sure you can, but not necessarily all the way on the same airplane that ferries you across the ocean! You must be willing to travel from any city within your REGION of origin to any city in your destination region, rather than insisting on travel between specific city points. Remember, the most expensive part of getting ANYWHERE SPECIFIC in Europe is crossing the Atlantic Ocean -- just as the most expensive part of getting ANYWHERE SPECIFIC on either U.S. coast is getting across the continent! Once in the general region to which you are heading, there are many easy and economical ways to move about. One popular means, especially for people traveling "unstructuredly" in Europe, is the EURAILPASS, which allows unlimited travel over a fixed period of time for a flat fee. There are also extensive bus routes and hitchhiking & ridesharing assistance services for those with limited budgets. For a list of specific places in Europe which have been accessed by Airhitchers, click here; BUT, specific destinations within western Europe change kaleidoscopically, and vary depending on region of departure, so no Airhitcher can count 100% on landing precisely in any of these places at any given time. There is a minimal "potluck" or lottery element involved in Airhitching, which is one of the charms of the system; and besides, ground transportation links between European city pairs are highly efficient, and, in the years since 2000, a revolution in the way the air transport industry in Europe is structured has been created by the European Union's deregulation policies.

CAN I GET BACK FROM EUROPE? CAN I START OUT FROM EUROPE?

Yes to both questions: see below under "HOW DO I REGISTER TO RETURN FROM EUROPE?".

HOW MUCH DOES AIRHITCHING BETWEEN THE US AND EUROPE COST?

Not much! The typical cost is $165 (plus taxes and a $29 registration/backout charge) from or to the east coast region; $233 (plus tax & $29 registration/backout charge) from/to the west coast or the Pacific northwest; $199 (plus tax & $29 registration/backout charge) from/to the midwest; and $177 (plus tax & $29 registration/backout charge) from/to the southeast. (Taxes for all Europe itineraries are $56 eastbound and $86 westbound.) For a complete list of current estimated costs associated with Airhitching, click here. But note: the above are estimated EFFECTIVE costs, they are NOT PAID until AFTER YOU ARE ON BOARD and they are not even AUTHORIZED AGAINST YOUR CREDIT-CARD UNTIL YOU GIVE YOUR EXPLICIT, INTERACTIVE PERMISSION VIA INTERNET INSTANT MESSAGING, which is the next best thing to giving it IN PERSON. (See below for more on this very important aspect of Airhitching!)

The above cost estimates are ONE-WAY or EACH WAY (depending on whether or not you elect to Airhitch® in both directions: you are under NO OBLIGATION to do so: some people Airhitch® in only one direction and use other means for the reverse direction).

However, note that transportation-providers sometimes tack on marginal SURCHARGES -- sometimes arbitrary, sometimes with good reason. We can't stop them from doing this, but you are always advised of these, as part of your interactive flight-briefing, prior to positioning yourself to attempt boarding, and can always decide at that time, or any time up to boarding, whether you are willing to pay those surcharges or not. Also note that these surcharges are relatively rare -- we estimate that, over the years, they have occurred in less than 5% of "Airhitching endeavors"; so the figures given above can be viewed with a high degree of predictability confidence.

HOW DOES THE AIRHITCH® SYSTEM WORK?

You initiate the Airhitch® process by formally signing up or "registering" for the system. This specifies for us, in a systematic way, all the stuff we need to know in order to help you help yourself get on the flight which will, from among those ultimately made available to you by the "gods" of the air-transport industry, best meet your needs.

HOW DO I REGISTER?

Although your own credit-card, if you have one, is by far the simplest method of payment, there are alternatives: you can, e.g., find a friend or family member who has a credit card and is willing to "lend" it to you (by allowing you to transmit to us their credit-card info and filling out a third-party authorization form) and simply reimburse them the cash; you can buy a PREPAID credit-card (in most gas stations or in minimarkets like 7-11 -- see, e.g., sites like mymccard.com); or, you can visit an Internet-payment site, like pppay.com, by which you can pay anyone with an email address.

Of course, if you feel you need more information than appears here, our ChatStaff is available online round-the-clock (except when system problems or staff-shortages keep us offline!) to answer questions. But please note: the AOS is a purely-volunteer staff, and our staff time is at a premium. Therefore, as part of the self-help aspect of the system, prerequisite to asking the ChatStaff questions via chat, you must try to find the answers using your own resources, including this entire website, and you must apply the info on this website to your specific situation.

Also, the ChatStaff CANNOT answer questions about the specific details of outcome in your own particular specific travel-situation scenario, because they cannot predict the future! Asking us questions like these is a bit like asking us, "If I go up to the road and stick out my thumb, how long will it take for a car to stop and offer me a ride where I want to go? What color will it be? Will the driver be old, young, male, female, etc." We just do not have a crystal ball for predicting these kinds of fine details! And anyway, if you are approaching Airhitching in the "right spirit", that is, as a truly exploratory, unstructured traveler, then these fine details WON'T MATTER ANYWAY.

HOW LONG BEFORE I WANT TO LEAVE MUST I REGISTER?

UNDER WHAT CONDITIONS WOULD I BE ENTITLED TO A REFUND?

NOTE: The following refund policy is set by the Airhitch® Operating Company (AOC), the company licensed by the founder of Airhitch® to derive minor commercial gain from the use of the Airhitch® trademarks and other intellectual property in return for managing the "administrivia" of Airhitch®. The Airhitch® Online Staff (AOS), who manage the INFORMATIONAL aspects of the Airhitch® system, have NOTHING WHATEVER TO DO WITH SETTING REFUND POLICY, and because our role/function is limited to acting as a source, a repository and/or a conduit for all authoritative Airhitch® information, we cannot dictate the AOC's refund policy, they are a completely independent body.

Since part of the ethos of Airhitch® is to help unstructured exploratory travelers hang onto as much of their money for as long as they can while traveling or preparing for their travel (you probably won't even ever have to claim a refund because when you Airhitch® you don't pay out anything until after you have set foot on the airplane carrying you across the ocean!), you can receive a full refund of any "unused" part of your Airhitch® transportation fee plus any taxes you might have been required to pay (but excluding $29 per-person-per-leg backout charge and shipping charges, although often the $29 backout charge is waived if your reason for requesting a refund qualfies you for exemption), at any time and for any reason (or even NO reason!) as long as you follow this standard refund-request procedure:

1. Prepare (but do not send until you have completed step 2 below) an email giving your name, your passport or other id. no., and your electronic boarding code number ("Airhitch® Boarding Code" or "ABC"), along with the exact amount of the refund you are claiming and the reason for claiming it. If the reason for claiming it was that you found better alternative arrangements, state what those are in as precise and thorough a manner as possible, so that your fellow budget unstructured exploratory travelers may benefit from it. Include especially the SOURCE of the arrangements, its contact info, the COST of the arrangements, and to the extent possible, the precise scheduling and itinerary of the arrangements.

2. At the same time, if you have (a) paper voucher(s) or other paper instrument(s) (you probably won't, because Airhitching is a 99.9% paperless process!), send this/these back to the issuing AOC (whose name and address will be on the voucher(s) or instrument(s)) via FedEx or some other cyber-trackable form of delivery. In your email to the AOS as noted above, note the delivery-company name (FedEx, UPS, DHL, etc.) and airbill/tracking no., or, just attach a copy of the airbill to the email.

3. Send the email to our REFUND STAFF at refunds-at-airhitch-dot-org pasting that email address, (replacing "-at-" with "@" and "-dot-" with ".") into the To: field of your email.

Following the above procedure meticulously will result in a same-business-day or next-business-day disbursement of your refund in the form of a credit on the credit-line of the credit-card you used to sign up with originally, unless you instruct us, in the above-mentioned email, to credit it to another credit-card account or to send it via some other means.

HOW DO I REGISTER TO RETURN FROM EUROPE?

The Airhitch® process works the same way in both directions across the Atlantic. With the omnipresence of the Internet, you can register for your return any time -- either before you leave your region of origin, or after you get where you're going! But keep in mind that the outbound and return registrations are TWO ENTIRELY SEPARATE AND INDEPENDENT TRANSACTIONS and nothing that happens as a result of one will have any effect on the result of the other. Whether starting out in Europe or returning from Europe, passengers heading in either direction across the Atlantic will be checking via the Internet for their final flight indications, just as they would when starting out.

There is a slight possibility that registering for your return before you leave your region of origin can be an advantage in terms of your boarding priority, especially for those trying to return from Europe during the peak season, because the rules of Airhitching dictate that earliest registrants board first in cases of contention among passengers for seats which are in short supply. If, however, you prefer the freedom of waiting until you are abroad and keeping your return-flight options open, you have the option of contacting us from anywhere you can find an Internet connection as soon as your return plans are set.

Back to "HOW MUCH DOES AIRHITCHING TO EUROPE COST?"

CAN 2 OR MORE PEOPLE BE ASSURED OF TRAVELING TOGETHER?

Yes, because nobody is ever OBLIGATED to board a flight, and the only condition under which everybody would NOT be able to travel together would be if the flight you were trying for had fewer seats left at the time your name came up in the queue than there were people in your traveling party, in which case you could ALL opt to NOT GO, and simply wait for the next flight with enough seats on it. But, in order to further minimize the chances of this highly-unlikely negative scenario occurring, if a number of people want to travel together, they should all SIGN UP TOGETHER using one and only one Airhitch® registration form (the form allows for multiple travelers to sign up together!).

WHAT OTHER SYSTEMS DOES AIRHITCH® HAVE IN PLACE ?

AIRHITCH®-Hawaii

The conditions and procedures described for Airhitch®-Europe (see above) apply, with the following exceptions: obviously, it gets you between various U.S. regions and Hawaii, not Europe; Airhitchable flights are much more frequent from/to Hawaii, so the minimum suggested date-range is three days, and the cost-estimates are adjusted accordingly (click here to see what they are).

SUNHITCH®

The SUNHITCH® is a sister-program to AIRHITCH® which facilitates access to flights to resort sun-destinations in the Caribbean and Mexico from the United States, primarily during the winter period (but, on a more limited basis, during the rest of the year as well). The program functions in general exactly like Airhitch® with certain differences, the most notable being that it is a ROUND-TRIP, fixed length-of-stay (1 week) program instead of one-way. It's basically just an inexpensive pathway to a week on the beach!

As in the case of standard Airhitch®, Sunhitch® requires the flexibility of a 5-day "date-range" for your departure date, and we do our best to accomodate preferences, but ultimately you must be prepared to accept any resort destination (exception: no one is required to accept Los Cabos when using California-Mexico Sunhitch®). The most common destinations (but THESE ARE JUST EXAMPLES and it is highly possible that at the time you want to travel, at least SOME of these destinations will NOT BE AVAILABLE and you will either have to go somewhere else or wait until they DO become available, which may be a long, long time!) from the northeast and midwest are Cancun, Puerto Vallarta, Nassau, Grand Cayman, Aruba, Jamaica and St. Maarten; and from California (currently, San Francisco only), Cancun, Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlan, and Los Cabos. BUT, as with standard Airhitch®, these can change each week.

Depending on the transportation-providers' policies, it is sometimes possible to arrange, at the checkin counter on departure, a shorter or longer stay, and certain TPs require you to travel on space-available in both directions, but most offer a confirmed return flight exactly 7 days after your departure. Sunhitch® thus constitutes the most affordable way to escape, generically, to a beach, especially when you need to arrange your trip at the last minute.

TARGET FLIGHTS®

If you don't feel you have sufficient flexibility in your travel requirements to benefit from use of the Airhitch system, and/or you're headed for somewhere else in the world besides those regions accessible via Airhitch or its associated "'hitch" subsystems, you can nevertheless act to minimize your costs (though usually not as radically as when you Airhitch®!) through our "Target Flight®" system. The Target Flight® system functions to secure for you a seat-confirmation, in advance, from a specific point of origin to a specific destination on a specific date. This itinerary and date will be as close as possible to the itinerary and date you request, and, in the vast majority of cases, precisely that itinerary/date.

The Target Flight process begins with you filling out a Target Flight® Quote Request Form. This form is available here on our website, and is also available in downloadable text-only form for emailing. In order to minimize your cash outlay, it is important that you communicate to us as much flexibility as you can in your trip-parameters, and the absolute lowest price you have so far been able to find, for the flights/dates/itinerary you need. [But note: if your desired itinerary corresponds to or includes an "Airhitchable" route-corridor, and your flexibility meets the minimum Airhitch® flexibility requirements or even comes close, there is NO NEED to request a Target Flight® at this time...because if you are able to successfully Airhitch® the route-corridor, you will spend LESS (and sometimes even FAR less) to accomplish your itinerary than you would spend on confirmed seats! So if you're flexible, and if your desired itinerary corresponds to or includes an "Airhitchable" route-corridor, you only need to sign up for Airhitching at this point and, if the Airhitch® system turns out, due to an exceptionally negative set of market conditions at your time of departure, not to suffice to accomplish your itinerary at minimal cost, you will AUTOMATICALLY be converted to confirmed seats under the Target Flight® system.]

If you do have to fill out a Target Flight® request (either because of extremely-limited flexibility or because your desired itinerary does not correspond to or include an Airhitchable route-corridor), once we receive it, we will reply to you with a Target Flight® "cost indication", which is the cost, usually far below the price you yourself have been able to find, at which we know the flight(s) can be arranged based on what our research has turned up in terms of availability on the day you request the quote, and based on the assumption that that availability will still be in effect when you transact the booking.

The next step in the process is for you to TRANSACT THE BOOKING, that is, go ahead and attempt to "hit the Target," by making your own booking, directly with the transportation-provider, on the dates of your choice for the itinerary of your choice. If you encounter any obstacles in making the booking (something that almost NEVER happens!), we will help you overcome them.

Normally, if such roadblocks do arise (which happens in less than 1% of the cases), you will be faced with the necessity of making a compromise on either itinerary or dates or price. We will carefully go over all your options with you via interactive cyberchat and/or email to help you make a decision.

If, as is the "expected case," you encounter no obstacles, you will, as soon as the booking is completed, be in possession of confirmed seats on the flights you have chosen, and you will have paid the transportation-provider DIRECTLY for those seats. We will then make sure you have everything necessary for final boarding including boarding-documentation procedures, and will ask you for a voluntary, tax-deductible contribution to our sponsoring organization, CIIE, equal to fifteen percent of the SAVINGS you realized, that is, the difference between the original lowest-price quote you gave us in your Target Flight® Quote Request form, and the price you "wound up" paying for your seats.

WHERE CAN I READ INDEPENDENT ASSESSMENTS OF AIRHITCH®?

Airhitch® (along with its associated subsystems) has been written about extensively in the popular press over the years, but perhaps the "best" (in terms of journalistic accuracy) material written about it, because of its highly consumer-oriented mission, have appeared in the Consumer Reports Travel Letter issues of June, 1985, and May, 1993. You should also be able to find the word "Airhitch" in the indices to such major daily newspapers as the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post, the Philadelphia Enquirer, the Toronto Star, Boston Globe, and the San Francisco Chronicle; and, obviously in Google.

HOW CAN I GET MORE INFO ABOUT AIRHITCH® AND ITS ASSOCIATED SUBSYSTEMS?

There are two principal ways: one is by email via info-at-airhitch-dot-org (you can protect your email against getting lost in a sea of spam by including the phrase "info request from website:" in the Subject: field); the other is by "live chat" via AIM, the AOL Instant Messenger -- our Airhitch® Online Staff is on both email and AIM, the AOL Instant Messenger on a 'round-the-clock basis except as system failures or staff-shortages might keep us offline, to help you gain a deeper understanding of what you have read in the above paragraphs! However, the EMailStaff and ChatStaff CANNOT answer questions about the specific details of outcome in your own particular specific travel-situation scenario, because they cannot predict the future! Asking them questions like these is a bit like asking, "If I go up to the road and stick out my thumb, how long will it take for a car to stop and offer me a ride where I want to go? What color will it be? Will the driver be old, young, male, female, etc." We just do not have a crystal ball for predicting these kinds of fine details! And anyway, if you are approaching Airhitching in the "right spirit", that is, as a truly exploratory, unstructured traveler, and with an eye toward, first and foremost, MINIMIZING COST and MAXIMIZING FREEDOM OF MOVEMENT, then these fine details WON'T MATTER ANYWAY.

If you're the skeptical type, you may want to take a look at some "fanmail" from some relatively recent Airhitchers, and perhaps even contact them via email or chat to interview them about their experiences! (Just please try not to take up too much of their time as they have graciously volunteered to allow us to refer you to them as living examples of the efficacy of the system.)

Finally, if you're really interested in the "whys and wherefores" of things, click here to tackle an article on the history, philosophy, and socio-political implications of Airhitch®, written by the founder of Airhitch® for the website maintained by Arthur Frommer ("Europe on $5 a Day", et al). (Frommer's site often blocks access to pages, so if the link above doesn't work, try here.)

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