Articles about Travel Agency Card Mills

There is an interesting article written by Arthur Frommer in a Florida
newspaper about the ledger. You can read it here
http://www.theledger.com/article/200...801060364/1326

He brings up the point that some travel suppliers have stropped dealing with
some of these card mills, while others (Carnival Corp) continue to take
bookings.

Frommer has been around a long time and his series of travel guides have
been widely accepted. In a blog entry in December, he directed his readers
to a Chicago Tribune article for more information about this subject.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/travel...,2865134.story

I found this paragraph very telling: (note - YTB is one of the companies
that Royal Caribbean stopped doing business with)

"Most YTB agents had little or no commission on sales of travel in 2006,
according to company documents filed with the SEC. At the end of 2006, YTB
reported it had nearly 60,000 registered travel agents. For the year, it
paid those agents about $4.9 million in travel commissions, or less than $82
per travel agent."

So for me, the question still remains.... how professional are "agents" or
"affiliates" of a company when the average agent is making $82 a year in
commission?

Real travel agents hate it when I say this, but the travel distribution
system has been ineffective in policing it's own industry. I feel that
people who book travel should be made to demonstrate a certain level of 1)
knowledge 2) experience and 3) financial responsibility.

If we don't clean up our own house, someone else is bound to do it for us.


--
George Leppla http://www.CruiseMaster.com


May 12, 2008 - 5 nt New Orleans http://www.cruisemaster.com/fantasy.htm
October 26, 2008 Sleazy 5 http://www.cruisemaster.com/sleazy5.htm
Feb. 8, 2009 Solstice Valentine http://www.cruisemaster.com/solstice.htm

"George Leppla" wrote

To piggyback on my own post... Carnival Cruise Lines just announced new
eligibility requirements for travel agents to request discounted "travel
agent" rates.

Now, in order to qualify for a TA rate, someone had to have made 5 completed
bookings in the past 12 months. The big change is that sailings are now
tied to the individual agent and not the agency.

So now joining a card mill and "traveling like a travel agent" without
actually producing sales is getting harder and harder.


--
George Leppla http://www.CruiseMaster.com


May 12, 2008 - 5 nt New Orleans http://www.cruisemaster.com/fantasy.htm
October 26, 2008 Sleazy 5 http://www.cruisemaster.com/sleazy5.htm
Feb. 8, 2009 Solstice Valentine http://www.cruisemaster.com/solstice.htm

On Thu, 10 Jan 2008 09:27:13 -0600, George Leppla wrote:

So now joining a card mill and "traveling like a travel agent" without
actually producing sales is getting harder and harder.

Ah, how the pendulum does swing, eh Lep? When the cruise lines couldn't
give away cabins, they let anyone and near everyone into their fold.

More power to them.

Thus spake "George Leppla" :


"Most YTB agents had little or no commission on sales of travel in 2006,
according to company documents filed with the SEC. At the end of 2006, YTB
reported it had nearly 60,000 registered travel agents. For the year, it
paid those agents about $4.9 million in travel commissions, or less than $82
per travel agent."

So for me, the question still remains.... how professional are "agents" or
"affiliates" of a company when the average agent is making $82 a year in
commission?

Good grief! How does that cover E&O? Or do they not have any?


Real travel agents hate it when I say this, but the travel distribution
system has been ineffective in policing it's own industry. I feel that
people who book travel should be made to demonstrate a certain level of 1)
knowledge 2) experience and 3) financial responsibility.

I agree. I've gone through loads of CLIA courses (great way to get
started, many, such as the phone selling, apply to any travel sales),
TA University and, a requirement for me, the CDK.


If we don't clean up our own house, someone else is bound to do it for us.

Let's see, I have to be a registered seller of travel in how many
states?

--
dillon

Always get off the first shot. You may hit him and
you're sure to throw off his aim. -- Lazarus Long