Hello All!

I hope that this newest blog brings you to a happy place. I have been thinking a lot about what a travel agent does. Here are a few of the many job duties for a travel agent:

1. Preparation: getting the basic information needed to get the quote started for the client.
2. Sending the quote to the client.
3. If the client is ready to book, making sure all of the necessary forms are filled out to take payments and get the travel plans booked.
4. Making sure before the client goes on the trip that they have everything ready to go (depending on where the destination is: passports are valid, reminder of some of the fees for baggage check in, etc)
5. Be available for the client while they are on their vacation (I will go into a little more detail later on).
6. Send out Thank you cards for letting the client know they are appreciative of their business and to remind them to spread the word if they have other people in mind that would benefit from the travel agent services.
7. Keep up to date information (especially with COVID-19, Real ID Act updates, etc)
8. Just like any job….on the job trainings (there are never ending amounts of vendors to choose from and in order to book through the vendor, you have to complete the training in order to make your commissions)

The above mentioned items are just the basics. It is not an exhaustive list of what travel agents do.

What I was talking about earlier in List Item #5 is being available to client. Normally, I am off on Sundays and any time off of my regular weekday job. But the only time I am available during those times is if a client is on their trip and an emergency comes up. I have to be ready to go into action at a moment’s notice. This week, my wife and I were on vacation for our 14th wedding anniversary. My current client who is on a missions trip, became ill and had to be hospitalized past the date of her return flight. I had to take about 2 hours away from my vacation to cancel the return flight and get a credit issued so when it was time to re-book the return flight, at least she would not have to worry about a good amount of the fare difference. Today, she let me know she was ready to re-book. There are now more items to consider in her re-booking. I took about 6 hours of my day trying to get everything together. A lot of that time was sitting on hold between the airlines and the vendor. In that 6 hours I was able to get her return flight re-booked and was trying to get back with the airlines because I have to deal with seat assignments and talking with the specialist team regarding another request that only the department can handle. I get to work on that some tomorrow. A lot of the hold times are because people are having to rebook due to COVID-19. That is an example of the one-off situations that a travel agent can deal with.

In the above scenario, the travel agent takes the stress off of the customer (as much as they will allow the agent to do so) by making all of these calls when situations arise.

When it comes to this business, I do not see it as work. Do I see it as a hobby, not at all! But there is a saying that I have heard: If you enjoy what you do, you do not regret going to work (Paraphrased). I do not consider this work because I am in love with planning (you can ask my lovely wife). She basically gives out ideas on where to go and then we see what we can make happen. So basically, you give me an idea of where you want to go, when you want to go, budget, etc and I go to town with research and we go from there.

I get a lot of people that love to book their own travel, for many reasons (they like the process, they have people who do the booking for them (they just pay their part), and the list goes on). Those are the people that I love to talk about possibly becoming a travel agent because you are paying the commission to someone else when you book through other sites, so why not get a piece of that commission for any trips that you book for yourself.

I have learned a lot in the past close to 4 years now of being in this field and continue to learn more every day. If there is a situation that I have never been in before, I go through the process of finding the solution, and as I go along, find ways to fine tune it to where it will not take as long for the future.

One of the many joys I get with this field of work are the smiles I see on people’s faces when they come back from their trip and let me know how things went. It definitely makes it worthwhile to give a service to others who can benefit from wanting to go on vacation, but do not want the stress of the planning. Let the travel agent do the work and let yourselves loose and have a great time and relax on your vacation.

If you are needing a trip booked, please contact me at 602-477-9882 or email me at goldenopportunities@yahoo.com

If you are interested in becoming a travel agent, please contact me at 602-477-9882 or goldenopportunities@yahoo.com for more details.

If you have any questions or have any topic ideas for future blogs, please contact me at goldenopportunities@yahoo.com

Until next time!