KNRG

Well, if you want discounts and access to info..

http://www.disneytravelagents.com/

john9510

Hotels are the best ever with an IATA card!

I worked "with" an international agency for years and I saved many thousands of dollars over more than a decade before said agency pulled up stakes here in the US and now only does business overseas.

The company had 500 business cards made up for me, when I traveled I never had an IATA card. What I did have was the IATA number.

For close to 12 years when traveling I would call a hotel reservation and ask if the travel agent discount rate was available for the dates I needed, (available according to occupancy) if so I would book them for like $30-$45
for really nice hotels. The first thing reservations asked before checking any property was the agency IATA number and usually verbally said the name of the agency and proceeded on.Reservation done!

Get to hotel check-in and like anyone give them a major CC and about 65% of the time that was it but the other 35% of the time they asked for a form of ID and I would hand them one of the 500 business cards which they would make a copy of and hand back my card, occasionally I said keep it.

So I had no connection to commissions nor did I care..I had nice hotels for little money and boy do I miss it! I've considered getting a job at the desk of a hotel for a week or so to get my hands on another number!

Edit: I looked at it like the airline seat that flew empty, the agency collected a commission and the hotel sold a discounted room and collected some money instead of no money.

nidsdel

Usually fairmont group has really cheap hotels for travel agents. you can get those discounts by registering as a travel agent on their site.

You can take FAM trips.

You can fly on AD50, AD75 fares.

nidsdel

Went to Sandiego Zoo recently and it was get 50% off for the agent and a companion. There were 8 people in our party so I asked the nice ticketing agent to break the transaction into 4 and got all 8 tickets for 50% off!!

alwayslookinaround

So, I've been travelling for work on and off for 20 years and really a beginner when it comes to finding deals like most of you.

that being said, how do you find some of the iata fares? do you have an iata number and therefore can access a tool (?) in which you can search for these?

I do some personal travel, but always end up being the organizer of the group or just our family and I figured sometimes I could save money if I registered with iata? I've looked over the registration, etc.

I know i'm all over the board here, just trying to see if there's a way I can be more proactive in getting reduced rates for travel, whether its air or via a cruise.

TIA

Ocn Vw 1K

alwayslookinaround, I joined your post to an existing thread in the forum so that you can see more member experience with the IATA arrangement. /Moderator.

Zeno

Hello alwayslookinaround, I might be able to answer some of your questions. I don’t post much but I was a corporate TA for about 15 years in the 80s and 90s, since then I have been doing IT support for travel companies. Getting an IATA number is a very expensive idea, the fee is only a few hundred but you need to have around 10k invested in your Travel Agency, and that is for a non-ticketing location. If you wanted a ticketing location you would also need to get ARC approval. From what I understand most people who want to be an at home agent use a hosting company, I don’t know much about them to suggest anyone to you.

The way travel agents view and book IATA fares is through their GDS. In the US there 3 major GDS companies, Sabre, Travelport and Amadeus. These GDS are not point and click sites like the airline sites; you need to know specific formats to get your information. For example, availability in Sabre is
126MAREWRSFO3P

You then get a list a flight leaving Newark to San Francisco around 3pm, you can add Airline qualifiers or connecting cities, etc. Each step of the reservation process is done via formats that you would have to learn. When you are done with your PNR you would probably que it to your hosting agency for them to ticket. Since they are responsible to the ARC, they would check to make sure you didn’t break any fare rules before issuing the ticket.

Getting an IATA number and getting an IATA card are very different things. Basically everyone on the IATA list for the agency gets a card. Back in the day it got you some good discounts, now however it is rare to get a worthwhile discount. Most agents I know don’t bother with looking for TA rates. If you do sign up with a hosting agency and are looking for TA cruise rates make sure that they have a CLIA number as well.