Travel Agent
 

I'm curious as to how to become a travel agent.

Is it worth it to become a travel agent if I book my own travel (hotels) for my business trips, book my familie's travel plans for their vacations, etc?

How does one get to become an official travel agent, are there tests, certifications, or simply nothing at all required (doubt it). How do you obtain commissions, etc from booking with hotels, airlines, etc.

I saw a travel agent today - he was smoking cigarettes with a dinosaur...

Funny guy:cool: Seriously is there any advantage to booking hotels "acting" as a travel agent?

I believe there have been threads here in the past on this very same issue. The answer was basically no. If you want more information, please use the search feature.

If one were to get "certified" I guess that they could make a few bucks off of their friends and family, on trips we'd be booking already, for probably the same price.

If you're not going to make a business of it, it would not be worth your while to become a travel agent. Reason? Because you need to be affiliated with a host agency (and use their IATA number) in order to earn commissions. Those commissions will be paid to your host agency, and you will earn a percentage of them. However, there are expenses you will incur to join a host agency--a start-up fee and/or an annual continuation fee plus a requirement to carry Errors and Omissions insurance. You won't even come close to breaking even if all you want is to book travel for yourself and your family.

Add to that: you will need to learn how to "invoice" your host agency for your share of the commissions you earn, and you will have to go after the hotels when they don't bother paying those commissions.

As far as commissions from airlines ... there are no commissions on domestic flights (as a general rule). You would have to learn how to use a GDS in order to book airline travel (and a GDS is another monthly expense), and airlines are now charging fees to travel agencies when they issue tickets. (It's actually a negative commission). There are commissions on international air, but it varies from agency to agency, depending on whatever contractural agreements are in place with various airlines ... and it is *complicated* knowing how to jump through all the hoops. And, worse, if you make a mistake as a TA, you can be hit by a "debit memo" from an airline. I'm a TA, but I don't book air for these reasons. I refer requests to the air specialist at my agency.

If you're interested, I wrote a blog awhile ago on the subject.

A very nicely written piece ^.

Yes, but it's hard to act like a travel agent as you gotta show a certification ID card and it's a card from like one of three organizations that hotels recognize as legitimate. Don't buy into those home based businesses with a host agency. But as a full fledged agent you get from 10% to 75% off of normal price with probably an average of 40% off to 50% off. FAM trips can be no cost at all (for example new hotels like Wynn in vegas will send out specials for shows and meals and three night stays for no cost). Hotels after major upgrades or such will offer rates at 75% off for TA's and such to come back to them or if you don't send clients to hotels or don't go there yourself you'll get emails offering big big discounts or free stays if you come back.

IATA agency in the USA or Canada aren't worth it to get it (complicated, expensive and you'll lose money just getting the agency certified and up and running plus you gotta have qualifications already). If you can get an third world registration then it is worth it as it is less expensive and easier to get and you can still operate it out of the mainland. Home based agencies aren't generally worth it as getting a host agency is a pain in the butt and are scams (I do know some that are legit but most of what you find are scams) and you don't get an individual ID from a recognized agency like IATA so you can't get discounts at hotels yourself. You can find some good online travel agent sites that have daily articles and home based and technology newsletters and such that you can look at to get an idea of what you'd be dealing with.

You can't get much from airlines, there are some foreign carriers that give you a comission but nothing from domestic carriers. You can get AD75 fares for yourself if you do a lot with an airline and for a specific purpose but that's about it.

Only way to go about this is two ways IMHO, go IATA if you have a guaranteed niche market. And I mean guaranteed no questions asked 100% cash in your pocket at a level of 350 K per year of travel minimum (that might let you break even). Or go CLIA (cruise line agency rating organization) as it is easier to get and easier to deal with and easier to handle (majority of crusies are still booked through travel agents I think). But if you are going IATA in USA you need a whole lot long list of items before you can get it plus then you need a GDS and such etc... I say going CLIA over IATA in the US as most hotels and such will recognize CLIA like they recognize IATA. Anything else, any other agency isn't worth it. Check on the major hotels web sites, go to travel professional or such area of their web site, and look at what they accept (usually they will say enter your arc / IATA / CLIA or such numbers).

A Foreign Agency (IATA) costs me very little in fees each year and it saves me in my own travel. One 3 day hotel stay (at an average hotel) covers my yearly fees. Then I added my folks (just south of you in Bradenton) as employees and such and they get the special rates also when they travel. Plus you get special rates at like amuesment parks and such etc... But I do have a niche market that takes me a few minutes a day to deal with and isn't considered by me as a money making full or part time job and everything we do I can do online in a few minutes. It took a long time to set it up like this but it's down to a science now where a guaranteed client group base is going to the same places over and over and over and over.

Search IATA here on FT for other threads.