[Dx-qsl] INTERNATIONAL POSTAL RATES AIRMAIL VS PRIORITY

Fri Jan 13 14:07:08 EST 2012

Al,

 USA Priority Mail is NOT the same as European airmail with the blue "Priority" sticker. In some European countries, there are two rates for air mail letters, "First Class Mail International" (using the "Prioritaire" label) and "Economy Mail International" (sometimes marked with the letter "B" to the left of the stamp). 
 Our Priority Mail will cost around 13ドル which might be a good price when compared to sending a package by airmail, such as your CD. But if sending a plain QSL card in standard SASE's, our Priority Mail is not as economical as plain air mail.
73 de Will WC6DX

 From: Alfred J Cammarata <alitalian39 at juno.com>
 Subject: [Dx-qsl] INTERNATIONAL POSTAL RATES AIRMAIL VS
 PRIORITY
 To: dx-qsl at mailman.qth.net

This is intended mainly for USA hams but if any non-U.S. hams can shed light pls do.

I recently mailed a CD in a safety envelope to a ham friend in Europe couldn't have weighed more than 4/5oz). The postal clerk asked if I wanted to send it air mail or priority which was about USD 3ドル cheaper than air mail. When I asked what priority mail was and how long it would take post clerk said priority handling would take maybe 5-7 days longer than air mail and that it would still go via air.

 My friend got my priority mail 5 days from the day I mailed it which isn't much different  from my experience than international air mail time between USA-EU.  Don't know if any USA hams have noticed but with increase in postal rates overseas and the controversy of sending more than 1 IRC (even though 1 IRC should be good regardless) that most of the envelopes from overseas are marked "priority" or have that blue priority" sticker on it? So, question is: 
if I could send that light CD priority can you send your international QSL/sase's cheaper using priority rate vs airmail rate now that ours will increase to USD1ドル.05?  What is the price difference? And is it worth looking into it  especially for those that send a lot of international mail?  Maybe some QSL mgrs could answer this best??  Tnx 73 al W3AWU     