Anyone here a travel agent?

How does pay work? Is it strictly commission or base plus commission? Is it hard to get into? Any info is appreciated!

Re: Anyone here a travel agent?

hi there. i'm not an agent but work in the travel industry and can help answer your questions.

agents work mainly on comission, yes. if you're a good agent, you can make good money but if you can't sell well...then not so good, like any comission based job I suppose. you have to build a real steady momentum b/c the bulk of your comission will come from hotels (on average they pay 10%) and unfortunately, not everyone pays on time.

is it easy to break into? yes and no. many existing travel agents are getting older without having younger ones to replace them with. so i know some consortiums (virtuoso for example, my old company) makes an effort to attract new talent. the catch though is that they look for people with travel expereince even if it isn't experience as a travel agent.

agents book travel through a system called the GDS - there are several programs this works with if you want to google it - sabre, TRUST International and I think one or two others. I only know TRUST and I will say that its tricky...and I can only do about 1/100th of what the program is meant for! from what i understand, a lot of agencies don't want to spend time training someone from scratch, they want someone who already knows the above mentioned programs.

you can get a feel for the industry if you read some of the industry publications - sign up for ASTA Smartbrief (it's free online), look at Travel Agent magazine online, Luxury Travel Advisor. the three biggest agent leisure corsortias - also worth looking into for info - are virtuoso, signature and ensemble. HTH! FM me with any questions and good luck!

Re: Anyone here a travel agent?

I was a travel agent. I was paid a salary, I made no commission unless I had a group booking of 20 or more people.

All companies are different

Re: Anyone here a travel agent?

YEP! I am a!!!

FM me for info!


I have my own site, but as I am certified, I book in many different ways with different agents. FM me for all the info you will need!

Also, this just popped up on aol... AT home jobs

Re: Anyone here a travel agent?

ETA: I am strictly commission base so I do it at night and on the weekends. If you can afford $2.00 a day, you can write it allll off at the end of the year plus a bunch of other expenses..