What does an on board courier quote contain?
An on board courier quote is ten lines: the service boundary (airport to airport or door to door), a pickup rule of about three hours before departure, delivery as soon as customs is done, a named flight with times, two customs lines that are usually marked not included, a list of what is included (airfare, courier fee and hotel where the routing needs one), a total, a validity window of about 60 minutes, and a note that everything is subject to seat availability. The total is the airfare plus the courier's fee plus any ground legs and hotel; import duties and taxes are never inside it, because they are levied on the importer of record. The price locks when you reply "job confirmed", not when you enquire.
A typical offer for Dubai to Istanbul reads like this: airport to airport; pickup three hours before departure; delivery ASAP after customs; a named flight with times; export and import customs not included; flight cost, courier and hotel included; a total; sixty minutes of validity; and a note that everything is subject to seat availability. Ten lines. Each one is doing work.
"Airport to airport"
This is the service boundary, and it is the first thing to check against your actual need. Airport-to-airport means the courier receives the shipment at the departure airport and hands it over at the arrival airport. If the box is in a factory in Jebel Ali and needs to reach a plant an hour past the destination terminal, you want door-to-door: a different quote with two ground legs in it. Neither is better; they are different products, and the expensive mistake is assuming one while buying the other.
"Pickup: 3 hours before flight departure"
The three hours are not padding. They cover check-in, the security conversation about an unusual item, and the buffer that makes the connection survivable when the first queue is slow. On lanes with heavier screening the rule stretches further. When a quote says three hours, the real message is: the collection time is part of the flight plan, not a courtesy.
"Delivery: ASAP after customs"
Note what this does not say: it does not name an hour. That is honesty, not evasion. The courier's flight lands at a known time; how long arrival formalities take is the one variable no provider controls. On JFK it is the CBP hall; on São Paulo it is import formality depth; on Lagos it is the drive afterwards. A provider who promises a delivery minute on an international lane is promising you the departure, not the delivery.
The customs lines
"Export customs: not included. Import customs: not included." These two lines cause the most confusion and the most disputes industry-wide. They mean the formalities are either your broker's job or quoted separately, not that customs magically does not apply. For documents this is usually trivial. For commercial goods, samples and anything regulated it is the heart of the job, and we would rather price it explicitly than bury it. Our customs guide covers what a hand carry legally is at a border, because the answer surprises people.
"OBC + hotel"
If the routing gets the courier there after the last flight home, the hotel is part of the cost of the job, and a quote that includes it is telling you the duty period has been thought through. A quote suspiciously cheaper than the others on a long sector has usually deleted this line and will find it again later, on your invoice.
"Offer validity: 60 minutes" and "subject to availability"
The validity window exists because the largest component of the price is an airline fare, and airline fares are repriced continuously. Sixty minutes is roughly how long a fare class can be trusted to still be there. This is also why the honest answer to "what does a hand carry cost" is a band rather than a number until the day and flight are fixed; every route page on this site shows an indicative band for exactly this reason, for example on Dubai to Frankfurt and Abu Dhabi to Mumbai.
Who pays customs duties and taxes on a hand carry?
The importer of record, always, and the quote says so rather than hiding an estimate in the fee. The cleanest way to settle the question before the courier flies is to name the Incoterm on the commercial invoice. Under EXW the buyer takes on everything from the seller's door, including export clearance, which is rarely what a shipper wants from a courier service. Under DAP, delivered at place, the seller pays for carriage to the named address and the buyer clears import and pays the duty and VAT, which is how most hand-carry jobs are structured and why our two customs lines read "not included". Under DDP, delivered duty paid, the seller carries the duties as well, and a courier can only honour that if the consignee's broker or our own customs and formalities service has quoted the duty in advance against the HS code and the declared value. Whatever the term, the courier walks through the red channel with the invoice, the packing list and, for samples and equipment that are coming home, an ATA Carnet; the customs guides by country say what each border expects, and the ATA Carnet guide covers temporary admission in full.
What makes one on board courier quote dearer than another?
Five things, and none of them is a margin. The fare class: a seat bought four hours before departure on a full flight costs more than the same seat a day earlier, and the quote you receive at 09:00 and the one at 15:00 can name different airports for that reason. The sector: an intercontinental lane to New York, São Paulo or Los Angeles carries a longer duty period, a hotel and sometimes a visa, where a Dubai to Istanbul or Mumbai run is home the same night. The consignment: a second case, an extra seat for a fragile rack, a premium cabin on a long sector or a second courier for a split shipment each appear as a line of their own. The calendar: weekends, public holidays and show weeks move fares. And the handling: a consignment with a lithium battery, a temperature-controlled shipper or a dangerous goods declaration needs checks, and sometimes an airline approval, that take time and are priced as work. The comparison of a seat against a parcel network is in on board courier versus express freight, and what can travel as hand carry explains which items add lines.
What should you send the desk to get an accurate quote?
Seven facts, and the quote comes back within 15 minutes of receiving them. The readiness time: when the consignment can actually leave your hands, because every arrival promise counts from there. The collection and delivery addresses, or the two airports if you are buying airport to airport, with a named person and a phone number at each end. The dimensions and weight in kg of each piece, since cabin baggage rules decide whether it flies on the courier's lap, in an extra seat or not at all. What it is, in plain words, with the HS code if you have it, and whether it contains a battery, a liquid, a pressurised part or anything temperature-controlled. The declared value, which drives the all-risk cover arranged on request and must match the commercial invoice the courier carries. The deadline, in the consignee's time zone. And who is handling customs at each end, or whether you want us to. With those seven the desk runs the sort across the UAE airports and Doha, names the flight and sends a number that holds for the validity window. The guide to choosing an OBC provider lists the questions to ask any desk that answers, and the glossary decodes the shorthand on the quote, from NFO and OBC to POD.
"Reply 'job confirmed'"
The two-word confirmation is the industry's contract-by-conduct. The moment it is sent, the desk buys the seat, which is why the confirmation, not the enquiry, is the moment your price locks. Before sending it, three questions are worth thirty seconds: Is the service boundary right, airport or door? Is the person receiving briefed and reachable? And do the customs lines match who you think is doing that work? Get those right and the rest of the job is ours to worry about, which is what you are paying for.