Disclaimer: This blog is not paid for nor endorsed by Johnny Air Cargo and Amazon.com
I've always been a fan of Amazon and its tremendous stock of great things. I've used the mega online seller countless of times to buy things that are so hard to find here in the Philippines. For many of us we've often relied on our relatives abroad to bring home some of those hard-to-find items back home. Unfortunately for me, my relatives only come home once in a very, very. very blue moon and that makes getting things a little bit hard. Thankfully I was able to stumble upon Johnny Air Cargo through my older sister's experience and the experience of others (bloggers).
I've always been a fan of Amazon and its tremendous stock of great things. I've used the mega online seller countless of times to buy things that are so hard to find here in the Philippines. For many of us we've often relied on our relatives abroad to bring home some of those hard-to-find items back home. Unfortunately for me, my relatives only come home once in a very, very. very blue moon and that makes getting things a little bit hard. Thankfully I was able to stumble upon Johnny Air Cargo through my older sister's experience and the experience of others (bloggers).
The first time I tried Johnny Air Cargo was last year, about the same time as this year, when I pre-ordered Khaled Hosseini's "And the Mountains Echoed" and had it shipped here in the Philippines. Many of you might be scratching their heads right now and wondering why I took the risk, especially when books here are released just the same time as their US and UK counterparts. Seeing that I wanted to try the service I decided to take the leap and it was well worth the experience.
Ordering in Amazon.com is a no-brainer, just shop whatever you want and make sure you have a credit card to pay for the expense. In this case, it was Hosseini's book which I had paid for back in January when I pre-ordered it. The next step was simply following the details found in the Johnny Air Cargo website, wherein you fill out the shipping details with a Johnny Air branch in the United States (one in New York and the other in California) and shoot them an email that you are expecting a package on this date.
After this the waiting game begins, Amazon's shipping schedule is usually spot on and sometimes quite early. Once the package has arrived in the Johnny Air branch of your choice, the service will send you an email regarding the receipt of the package and the airway bill number (AWB) that you use to track your package. From the time I ordered the book plus the shipping and delivery to the Johnny Air branch took seven days or so then Johnny Air shipping it to the Philippines then delivering it either their Makati or Megamall branch (you can choose) is another seven days. All in all fourteen days just to wait for your package.
The service isn't really all that bad and it is super convenient, especially for bookworms like me who are slowly despairing over the sad state of some of the big-chain bookstores in our country. Ever since my first experience with Johnny Air, I have since used it twice. The second was to buy a book titled North, South, East, West by Geir Lundestad; it was a textbook that I needed for my graduate studies. The third time was just recently when I bought my birthday gift for Tricia, Amazon's own Kindle Paperwhite. Since then the service hasn't failed me, sure my first attempt at using the service ended up costing an arm and a leg if I had bought the book locally, but it was well worth the experience. The delivery rates from the US to the Philippines aren't that exorbitant and since the service issues an Airway Bill Number, there is also peace of mind knowing that your package won't get lost along the way. More than that, the real convenience here is that there is no fear (based on the experiences of other bloggers) of customs and postal officials opening your package to check out the things you bought.
To see a more detailed instruction of how to use the Johnny Air service, check out their website here.