economy airmail to USA

[clickbaitoz]

I sell magazines & used to sell quite a few to buyers in the USA before covid19 restrictions. I sent them as large letters via 'economy airmail' which used to say on the Aust Post website postage calculator that the estimated arrival time was between 5-12 days, or was it 7-10...anyway the average for mine was around 10 days, 14 tops.

So now it says on there 25+ days. So just wondering if anyone has posted to there using economy airmail LETTER service & how long it took? I notice there's no economy airmail for parcels anymore. 

[sugar249]

The  reason there is no economy air parcel, is that international airlines have cut their services ( not sure if you noticed there is a pandemic),  and economy air used to be shoved into any spare capacity on planes, now there is no spare capacity and AP are having to charter special planes just for normal parcels.

This is the same reason economy air letters have had their shipping times expanded,  I'm actually surprised they are still offering economy airmail letters at all.

[clickbaitoz]

i didn't ask what the reason was and don't appreciate your sarcastic response.  If you can't actually say anything helpful then don't bother responding.

[davewil1964]

So why did you bother posting if you aren't interested in answers?

FYI, any member can post on any thread. The OP, in this case you, has no control over who posts what. I found Sugar's post helpful as it gave a probable reason for why your delivery dates have blown out.

If you aren't interested in that, refer my first point.

[clickbaitoz]

my question was 'So just wondering if anyone has posted to there using economy airmail LETTER service & how long it took? ' ..... i can't see where they answered that question.

You are correct, members are free to post on any thread, that doesn't mean it's helpful to the op. And being explained to me in a sarcastic tone that there is a pandemic on which would affect postage times, is not helpful. 

both these responses have reminded me part of the reason why i don't usually bother posting on these boards anymore. Have a lovely evening.

[*sons_and_daughters*]

There's not just issues with economy airmail. I went to the PO this afternoon, and the woman in front of me was most indignant when she asked how long the express item she was sending from NSW to far north Queensland would be. The young chap said it could be 3 days. She went off and refused to accept that it would be more than overnight. He pointed out that we aren't in the express network, not was the area she was sending it to.

She was demanding to know why it would take longer than overnight. The young chap pointed out that due to the current pandemic, AP can't guarantee express post times. Nor regular post times for that matter. She replied with "what pandemic?". I had no choice but to roll my eyes. Some people are complete idiots.

[davewil1964]

It would seem the answer to your actual question was nobody.

I wonder why other sellers' experience would relate to AP current guidelines and your experiences. I doubt that they would, if anybody had replied to the implied question.

If you want to ask germane questions, you will likely get germane answers. If you don't, you won't.

Good evening to you

[sugar249]

My humblest apologies for providing to much information to your question,  but you had commented that the parcel service had disappeared and that the times for letters had blown out.

I guess one of the things I get from these community forums, is when people actually give more information then the original question, as often we are left wondering why something has happened,  so from that when I have more information, which may go beyond the scope of the question, I feel it is beneficial to provide that information, it may be to much for the original OP,  but you need to remember that 100's of other people read these questions, so although the OP may not be interested many others would.

So to answer your original question, no I  haven't had current experience of what the current times for economy letters are,  as I use the normal service,  but even if I did,  the times at the moment would vary widely depending on availability of Airplanes,  but you obviously know that,  so no point me stating that.

But I will continue to provide information above and beyond what an OP may ask,  if I believe it is for the benefit of the greater community,  the OP may not be interested,  but others are.  Oh and by the way, my answer would have gone some way to answering your question,  as your question was a little like asking how long is a piece of string,  it depends on how long between airplanes.

[digital*ghost · Accepted solution]

Letters with merchandise is officially no longer available - it was suspended last year, and began to be enforced very strictly earlier this year as some postal outlets were allowing merch letters to get through. This resulted in many sellers receiving stacks of mail back, sometimes weeks after sending it, as it was not eligible to be sent as a letter. Anecdotally, however, 4-8 weeks was closer to the mark for delivery times. 

To send merchandise overseas now, technically parcel services are your only option, though I know some sellers are still sending letters.

The economy parcel option only disappeared from the list of selectable services in My Post a few weeks ago, and it only disappeared from selected destinations (i.e. it no longer comes up when creating a label to the US, but it still comes up when creating a label to France, one of the more expensive destinations - I don't know if this means anything, or whether I can check out and actually purchase the economy option for France, as I only send tracked OS now).

I have heard whispers of a possible 100g parcel option being introduced, to compensate for the loss of economy letter with merchandise, but apparently it will still cost more than $10 (I have no idea how reliable this info is, hopefully they do something, as I know there are countless small businesses adversely affected by the loss of the $3~ letters for their items). 

[clickbaitoz]

thanks for your very informative & helpful reply digitalghost.

i wasn't looking on the My Post section you've mentioned, i was just going by the postage calculator part of aust post website. Since i'm very much a hobby seller i don't use My Post for printing labels or anything, so i'm not all that up to date with any developments with AP, just thought i would check the calculator again which i've done maybe every 2-4 weeks in the last year to see if the situations changed & how much current cost is.

I assume when you say merchandise you mean items of value, in particular solid objects (eg cd/dvd/jewelry)? But in my case with magazines being sent as a large letter, how would the post service know its 'merchandise'? 

I know with things like cd's/dvd's people have been sending them as letters for years because they are under the letter size & weight restrictions. And AP has been trying to crack down on it for years by saying we can't post sold objects as letters, but then not enforcing it by returning to sender etc, At least it hadn't happened to me nor had i read/heard reports of it until now. Thankfully i had not sent any merchandise more recently so didn't get it returned to me, thanks for the warning.

It was costing me between $7-$14 to send the large letters to USA before covid19, depending on weight of course. So a $10 100g option would be pretty comparable & better than the expense of parcel post, even though the seller pays i still have to outlay for it & it can put buyers off in the first place.