Confessions of a Travel Agent - p3
WAITLISTS Waitlists. I always make sure that all flights I have booked are confirmed. If a flight is waitlisted I always back it up with a confirmed one. Waiting for waitlists to clear can make even the most non-religious travel agent become a God loving individual as all day long we just pray for the flight to become confirmed.
DOCUMENTATION Passports are often left to the last minute. Then they can’t be found or they are out of date. The stories are endless. Shoes are a great place to hide such things – just in case you get burgled I’m told! I have heard of passports being eaten by the dog or digested by washing machines. If you intend to travel, please make sure you know where your passport is, make sure it has enough validity (usually six months beyond your intended departure from the last country) and enough free space for official stamps or visas. And don’t leave it to the last minute – it makes my job that much easier.
Most countries require that you are in possession of a return or onward ticket. However if you are travelling on a one-way ticket please note that immigration requirements of some countries can be quite severe. I will not give out the ticket until I have checked that these requirements have been met. Ultimately it is the airline’s responsibility to ensure passengers have the correct documentation before boarding.
RECONFIRMATION Some airlines ask that you reconfirm every flight and if you don’t, you run the risk of losing your seat. But other airlines tell you there is no need to reconfirm. Do you know how difficult it is to keep track of this and how confusing it is to clients on a multi-airline itinerary? Rather than tell my clients which airlines do and which ones don’t, I tell them to reconfirm all flights.
Mind you, this might upset some of the airlines but maybe there should be a standard rule for this. Over to you, airlines!
DENIED BOARDINGis a term used to describe the rare situation when you have a confirmed seat, a ticket in your hand, you’ve reconfirmed your flight but the flight is full and you’re not on it. Airlines often overbook certain flights to deal with a no-show factor. Very occasionally, all who are booked turn up which means a few unlucky souls will not be travelling on that flight. You may be offered a seat on another flight or you may be offered, at great expense to the airline, a seat on another airline. The rules for denied boarding compensation should be available at all airport counters.
REMUNERATION At present we work on a commission basis but this will soon be changing to a fee based system. In other words we will be paid in the same way as lawyers and accountants but certainly not as much! Airlines and principals are cutting costs by reducing agent’s commission which makes our bottom line much smaller. As a result some agencies are already charging fees. A recent example is the commission reduction on flights between Australia and New Zealand which makes it uneconomical to sell these fares unless a booking fee is charged.
Travel agencies work on very low margins and we have to balance out the price of a fare with the form of payment. Credit cards eat into this margin in a big way. But many people want to use their cards to gain access to more Frequent Flyer points. So should I offer a fare with credit card fees built in and then offer a discount for cash payment or do I offer a fare and charge a fee if payment is made by credit card? Having a good business brain is now a fundamental part of being a good travel agent.
