Agent Tricks of the Travel Trade

I'll be forthright: I'm not a homemaker. I feel more at ease constantly
on the move, city after city, mountaintop to seaside surf, living out of
my suitcase and fumbling through a foreign language phrase book, than I
feel even comfy and cozy, napping on my couch on a Sunday afternoon.
Perhaps I'm a little crazy, but I find it thrilling sprinting to make a
connecting flight (even if it's the red eye); I believe it convenient
when the airline informs me my luggage is a flight behind, leaving
unencumbered to begin sightseeing immediately; and I think myself
resourceful when I arrive at a booked hotel only to realize I forgot to
make reservations but still haggle a room. Of course, while I don't mind
any of the perceived headaches of traveling, I do mind the high costs
often associated with it. Traveling, for me, is primarily about
escaping—whether it be work, commuting, obligations, sometimes even
family and friends—but how is it an escape if I'm worried about how much
I'm spending the entire trip?



I mention cost as something that would potentially worry me were it not
for the fact that, in reality, it doesn't worry me at all. At least not
since I wised up, did the requisite research and taught myself the agent
tricks of the travel trade. Travel agents' tricks that is, because in
addition to being a constant traveler and writer, I am also a licensed
travel agent. Not in the sense that I work for others, booking their
hotels, finding their flights, or landing them a deal on an Alaskan
cruise. Truth is, I only use my license for personal escapes (well,
okay, occasionally for family and friends too, but only when their
remarks regarding my debonair good lucks are particularly flattering).

If you've never heard of this travel industry loophole before, this may
sound somewhat (or completely) preposterous. In fact, however, it is
quite common among everyday people, both those who travel often or but
once a year, both those whose work relates to travel to those whose work
relates only to that which remains stationary. What I mean, plain and
simple, is anyone—you, me, your second cousin Otto, or my next-door
neighbor Irene—can get their travel agent's license lickety-split, and
immediately begin reaping the benefits.

First things first: when making travel arrangements for themselves,
every agent knows not to book a single step of their journey through one
of their own, i.e. other travel agents. Instead, they use travel
consolidators.

Think about the difference those terms: agent and consolidator.

An agent, in any industry where they're principal players, obviously
gets something in return for the services they provide. In sports,
agents represent athletes, working off the field to win their clients
lucrative contracts and commercial cameos so the athlete can in turn,
without financial distractions, concentrate and win on the field. For
these services, agents win themselves a percentage of every deal they
broker. The same is true in showbiz, modeling, or corporations where
headhunters wheel and deal multi-million dollar salaries and stock
incentive plans for their CEO clients. Likewise, then, in the travel
industry, agents receive discounts, courtesies and other special
benefits, not from the customer for whom they book a hotel or flight,
but from the vendor providing that service (i.e. the hotel chain or
airline) who profits from the customer. As agents for airlines, etc.,
they drive customers toward vendors whom offer them the most in return.

A consolidator, on the other hand, does virtually the opposite. Rather
than inflate the costs of travel by collecting fees, they combine, for
the sake of efficiency, the expensive and unstable parts of travel into
a cheaper, more solid whole. They work to maximize vendor's numbers,
ratios and the cost per head. Think about it in terms of magazine
publishing: the real cost in printing an issue is not the number of
copies made, but merely arranging and setting the plates that will allow
the print run in the first place. Once that is set to go, the only added
costs are that of extra paper and ink. The travel industry is the same,
the more spaces that fill, the cheaper tickets or rooms become per
person. As in any industry, consumers (i.e. travelers in this case)
benefit from the sheer volume of numbers (i.e. all travelers, yourself
included).

You, as a licensed travel agent would obtain special contact with these
consolidators and the deals vendors must offer to maximize their costs
per person. But while it's all well and good to make arrangements
through a consolidator as opposed to an agent, just because you acquire
a license (available online in under an hour) doesn't mean the
consolidator will believe you're as much a travel professional as they
are. To avoid common mistakes that expose amateurs from pros, you must
learn the proper lingo and travel codes. For that there are volumes of
eBooks (with corresponding printed versions) that provide the requisite
knowledge, which you can quickly study before contacting a consolidator
and easily flip through if put on the spot. Get these references. Some
of them are thick, but in reality you'll spend less than a hundred
dollars on everything you need to in turn potentially save thousands on
the first trip you plan with your travel agent's license in hand.

Furthermore, instead of turning to the discount fare finders like
Orbitz, Expedia, Travelocity or Priceline that lay-travelers search, as
a travel agent, you additionally gain access to the lesser known, but
more lucrative sites travel consolidators utilize.

Together, the benefits will materialize almost immediately. Buy plane
tickets the day before the flight's scheduled to depart, but only pay
what you would have had you purchased tickets two months in advance. Get
a spacious cruise ship cabin beside the captain's quarters for the price
of an ocean-level closet. Find yourself lodging in the seaside,
honeymoon suite for the price you might have paid for the basement
hide-a-bed beside the ice machine.

Finally, the travel industry is a weird and wonderful creature, in this
case, thankfully profit driven as much as other industries we often
loathe. To those who present themselves as viable agents, promoting and
thus earning money for the industry as a whole, it means endless perks.
I get more special offers from airlines, cruise lines, and packaged tour
companies than I know what to do with. For me, casinos, theme parks, and
luxury resorts are not necessarily what I strive for, but if that is
your cup of tea and your hocus pocus agenting appears legitimate, you'll
suddenly find yourself choosing between the best of many worlds: free
weekends in the Napa Valley, first class seats to Tokyo, an all expense
paid safari, a cruise down the Nile...

So what are you waiting for, get started! Find a comprehensive eBook or
alternate guide that takes you through the process of becoming a travel
agent, step-by-step. Don't sit on this opportunity, but rather start
traveling cheaply, today…

As for me, I've got a flight to catch…

Now, where did I put my passport?

Copyright 2006, Robert K. Blanc. All Rights Reserved. Reprint or
reposting of this article permitted only in its entirety with the below
resource box included and unchanged.