Salutations™!!
This morning I received confirmation that I have been allowed my release from the travel agency I was working with/under. This is a load off my mind. I love the travel business. I really do. However, it takes a lot of time and patience that I just don’t have. I don’t think I failed at the job, I just think it became such background in my life that I didn’t get to concentrate on it the way it deserved. 
I made a fair amount of money doing it, but the biggest problem I had was trying to convince people that they needed a travel agent. With OTAs (online travel agencies) such as Expedia, Travelocity, Kayak, and the like people feel they can do it themselves. I get it. With loyalty programs and reward systems, it becomes easier to think that. I had resources to check all over the grid and I’ll admit I would book my stuff through the resorts or hotels directly. But, what I tried to convey to people is that you work so many hours a week to get the money to take a vacation, why will you spend just as many hours looking into vacation things that you may or may not be happy with. There’s way too much out there to choose from that it bogs you down. We as travel agents were there to take the work out of it for you. We weren’t there to find you “deals.” I wasn’t a dealer I was an agent. But, none of that matters now.
Turns out it cost me about half of what I made in commissions to even be able to call myself an agent and be able to book travel. I hadn’t booked anything in about three months, or even discussed it, other than a passing conversation with friends. It enabled me to take “FAM” trips (familiarization trips) but really, most of what was available to me wasn’t any more affordable than what I could book and it usually excluded The BCPF. She’s my travel and life partner and really, if she’s not going, I don’t want to do it.
So, anyway, this is my final resignation. I’ll still talk travel with anyone and I’ll offer advice on things if I’m asked (and I hope that I’m asked) but I can’t book anything any longer. I’ll miss it but it’s definitely for the better. Oh well. Travel on, anyways! Thanks to my clients and thanks for my friends who trusted me to get their travel worked out for them.
Until tomorrow, same blog channel…
Scorp out!
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“What has happened to the good old-fashioned travel agent? I want to go to a really posh travel agent and have them organize everything for me. I don’t want to do things on the Internet.” – Jenny Eclair