Rules and Consequences for your Travel Agent

In my day to day job, I put several scenarios together for the customer, however I can NOT reserve all of them indefinitely. The airlines, regardless of your personal mileage status with them, will NOT allow me to hold a reservation for more than 24 hours without issuing a ticket for the itinerary. I do not make a salary, I get paid based on how many tickets I issue, not how many hours in a day I work or how many flight scenarios I put together for traveller's. I don't mind doing that part because it's all part of my job. I work hard for what money I do make in this business.

The airlines send debit memos to the travel agency for excessive bookings, undercharging on a reissue or simply breaking one of the airlines many rules, which vary from carrier to carrier. If the agency receives a debit memo, and if it's found to be "my error", then I personally have to pay for the error out of my own pocket. My travel company does not cover for "errors and omissions". This business is like gambling to me and I've never been lucky at gambling. Believe it or not, it's extremely stressful. I take alot of pride in what I do and I hate making mistakes, especially those that affect my financial bottom line or the travellers travel experience.

The airlines would be just as happy if travel agents didn't exist, to leave the traveller "on their own" without any expert travel resources. They'd perfectly satisfied with outsourcing your phone call to an inexperienced reservation agent, where they respond with scripted responses. I've had 27 years of experience in the corporate travel business and have always prided myself on my expertise, honesty, accuracy and efficiency. I cringe when I need to call for additional travel assistance from them, because they have proven to be pretty much useless to me. If my question seems too complicated, sometimes I'll even hang up the phone, call back and hope to stay stateside with a more experienced representative.

Without a travel agent, people are on their own. I love my work as a corporate travel agent and I hope to be doing this job for many more years to come.