Airhitch

Infobox Company
company_name = Airhitch
company_
company_type = Non-commercial organization
foundation = 1969
location = Cyberspace
key_people = Robert Segelbaum, Founder
industry = Air travel
products =
revenue =
operating_income =
net_income =
num_employees =
parent =
subsid =
homepage = [http://www.airhitch.org/ airhitch.org]
footnotes =

Airhitch is a user-run system for hitchhiking on commercial airliners. It was started by a group of U.S. college students in the 1960s. People who travel in this way generally refer to themselves as Airhitchers. Most airhitchers fly between the United States and Western Europe. Before Airhitch migrated to internet based communication in the 1990s, it operated out of North American offices including New York, Los Angeles(Santa Monica), San Francisco, Seattle, Montreal, and Vancouver, and numerous European cities including Paris, Amsterdam, Berlin, Bonn, and Rome. Airhitch is a non-commercial system/method/process. Today virtually all exchange of Airhitch information takes place in an AIM chat room. In the chat room Airhitchers use their real names, while the staff use screen names such as Airhitch01, and Airhitch08.

Since 2006 the cost and availability of "Airhitchable" flights has been questionable. Currently the majority of "AHers" opt to help each other find conventional airfare to their destinations.

The Classical Airhitching Process

Registration

Airhitchers formally commit to participation in the Airhitch system by sending an online registration to the staff.

Flight-Briefing

With the guidance of the staff, Airhitchers explore the best possibilities for catching rides on flights and the procedural mechanics of how to take advantage of them.

Decision

Airhitchers decide which flight they will attempt to board.

Boarding

Airhitchers go to the airport and attempt to board the aircraft.

ee also

*Hitchhiking
*Standby (air travel)

External links

* [http://www.airhitch.org Airhitch website]
* [http://www.air-hitch.com Air-Hitch website]
* [http://www.frommers.com/articles/1276.html What a Difference a Hyphen Makes: Untangling the Air(-)Hitch Confusion] at frommers.com
* [http://appft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-bool.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=PG01&s1=airhitch&OS=airhitch&RS=airhitch Airhitch's US Patent application for an "Internet air travel system" ]
* [http://www.digihitch.com/article788.html The downside of using airhitch] at digihitch.com