Charlie Funk
It was a great time. Flying was a glamorous, exciting way to travel. Airlines and travel agents were partners, and each respected the other. "Travel agent" was an appellation carried with pride. Airfare discounts of 75% and sometimes 90% were available to agents, one of a number of perquisites available to these professionals.
One of the most coveted of those perks was an upgrade from coach to first class. But the agent had to be dressed properly to get the upgrade. For men, it meant a suit or jacket and tie, and for ladies, a dress or suit. The agents had to look the part; they had to conduct themselves professionally.
Hoteliers and resort owners courted agents, as well. Familiarization trips and site inspections were some of the plums of the industry. Agents were invited based on their sales production or the potential the supplier believed the agent and agency represented. These events were fun and meant to entertain, but there was the expectation of professional responsibility on the part of the agent to learn about the property, as well.
But it was cruise lines that have historically put the cherry on the sundae. Ship inaugural invitees were treated like royalty, had their airfare paid by the cruise line in many cases and used a two-night, three-day cruise to showcase the latest addition to the fleet. At least one night involved formal dress, and business-casual dress was expected for meetings and group functions. It was a fun time, but those invited were professionals, and there was a reasonable expectation that these guests would so comport themselves.
All that began to change when Delta announced commission caps on Feb. 9, 1995. Most other carriers followed suit, and by mid-2002 airlines stopped paying commissions to most agents.
At about the same time, a proliferation of programs offered the untrained and unaware the opportunity to become a "real travel agent" and travel free and make a lot of money. Many were nothing more than multilevel marketing (MLM) schemes that focused on the new "instant travel agent" recruiting additional "new agents" to pay initial fees of several hundred dollars and annual fees of several hundred dollars more. Those doing so earned a commission on each recruit, with early participants handsomely rewarded.
Other programs consisted of little more than an ID card selling for several hundred dollars that promised the holder the opportunity to travel free, have suppliers clamoring to get the cardholder to attend fam trips and earn money doing it.
Thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands, signed up. Some really thought the plan was to sell travel and make money. Some booked a modest amount of travel before giving up when it turned out to be more work than they had been led to believe.
As a result, a significant number of these newly minted "travel agents," regardless of how they came to be, were able to avail themselves of a wide variety of fam trips, seminars at sea, site inspections and other similar events intended to train and educate the attendees. Because many of these agents had no reference point, their behavior at some of these events became problematic. Unfortunately, even those who have been in the profession long enough to know better are included.
The following are some of the more egregious. Some reading this column might think I'm being overly harsh, and to that end I welcome feedback on how my viewpoint is flawed.
• Soliciting other guests to change travel agencies for their next booking. I exclude situations where, in the course of a discussion, a guest might ask an agent for a business card. I include overt acts such as one that Sherrie and I encountered on a Princess transatlantic repositioning cruise. We returned to our room to find a business card in the mail holder by our door. Looking down the hallway, we saw that nearly every mail holder also contained a business card. We complained to the ship's staff, and the cards disappeared. We kept the one delivered to us and filed complaints with Princess and the host agency for the person who had distributed the cards. Interestingly, we noticed that cards were distributed only to minisuite and suite category staterooms.
• Soliciting other guests to join your MLM. On another cruise, a passenger joined us in the hot tub and within two minutes of striking up a conversation asked us if we would like to become agents and travel free, as he was doing right then. We learned that for $495 up front and $49 a month, we, too, could become travel agents and travel for free. But the real money in the program was signing up others to join under us and be paid a percentage of their fees. Asked about how much travel he had actually sold, he admitted that he had sold none, but that didn't stop him from being invited to cruise free. He seemed a bit crestfallen when we told him we owned a brick-and-mortar agency.
• Camping outside the onboard future-cruise sign-up office. Snagging people as they leave the future-cruise desk onboard a ship and telling them you can give them back a percentage of their cruise fare in cash if they will sign over the booking can be described with one word: theft.
• Not attending seminars and other training sessions. The whole purpose for being at these events is to learn the product so you can sell it more effectively. One anecdote related one agent telling another that this was her third seminar at sea in less than two years, and she had never sold a cruise for any line, including the host. While maybe not rising to the level of theft, I think it constitutes fraud and deception of a generous supplier.
• Loudly proclaiming to all, "I'm traveling free" or equally provocative phrases that communicate to all around -- some of whom paid thousands of dollars for their trip -- that they're in the presence of a privileged person. Sometimes, if enough of these "agents" brag often and irritatingly enough, the paying guests band together and write a joint letter of complaint to the management.
• Agents who dis their clients. Sitting around a table with other agents, loudly discussing how stupid some clients are, dumb things clients have done and the like creates a terrible image in the minds of the paying guests sitting around them.
Maybe it's time for those who find such boorish behavior reprehensible, as I do, to encourage suppliers to step in and curb it before it starts.
To those suppliers who don't already do all or some of the following, I urge you to have each and every travel professional who travels with you or visits your property sign a document prior to departure agreeing that if the agent does any of the following five things, her or she will be charged the full cost of the visit or cruise, be relieved of accommodations and sent to the airport or disembarked at the next port of call to return home at his or her own expense:
- Proactively solicits other guests to take an action that benefits the agent financially.
- Solicits guests to transfer bookings made at the property or onboard to them.
- Openly brags or discusses with other paying guests that they are traveling free.
- Exhibits such openly crass behavior as to create embarrassment for the company or other guests.
- Fails to attend every training session, site inspection or other planned activity without documented medical excuse.
If you agree and feel the urge to send your suppliers a copy of this column and indicate your support for such a plan, please feel free to do so.