how difficult to become an at home travel agent?

[minnieandmickeymouse]

I am curious if it's hard to become a travel agent out of your own home? And HOW do you become a travel agent?

TIA

 

[hellokitty86]

I've been wondering the very same thing!!! I think it would be a fun job!!

 

[hlbtimes2]

The hardest part is sorting thru the info. You will find many, way too many, places that want to sell you the job. Which is really not a travel agent job at all. Its a pyramid set up. Everyone gets a discount on travel if they can get their friends and family to buy into the plan. Watch out for those! ITs not what you want to do. There are also other ones that just want you to sell special packages, and you dont really book the travel. You find someone to buy the package and someone in an office books it.

I'm not sure if there is really a good way to become a "true" agent at home. I know that when I went to travel school years ago, the rules for getting an office registered with an IATA (I think that was the letters) number and all that were very strict. Strict enough that you wouldnt be able to just do it out of your house with out being an agent at an agency.

I guessing your best bet would be to go thru travel school. I've heard AAA offers a pretty good one. Then get hired on with an agency that will let you work from home. You might have to work from an office for a while first.

 

[wdw4us2]

You might want to check into Global Travel. While they do try to get you to get other people to sign up, it's not a requirement. You are able to book travel as you received an IATA number which enables you sign up as an agent at various places like Disney, Universal, etc.

Here's a link to their site:

http://www.globaltravel.com/global-travel.asp?source=7-gt_1-YYr2KVNbTs74xxn0X2glff557C2KwsvMI

 

[minnieandmickeymouse]

You might want to check into Global Travel. While they do try to get you to get other people to sign up, it's not a requirement. You are able to book travel as you received an IATA number which enables you sign up as an agent at various places like Disney, Universal, etc.

I have checked out their site actually before I posted this thread. I am just very nervous about if they are legit? I am not looking to get rich, just a little extra income would be nice.

Is there anyone on these boards that work for Global Travel?????

 

[Chicago526]

I'm a travel agent, but I work in an agency. Here's what I know about it.

You can be a travel agent at home. You need to sign up with a host agency, this allows you to use their IATA number to book with the various travel companies and airlines. They'll give you access to their booking engines and a certain amount of support. How much support will depend on what host agency you use and what agreement you make with them, and the level of support will determine how much of your commision you split with them. The more support, the less commision you keep. As you get more experiance and need less help, you should be able to change your agreement to reflect that and keep more of your earnings.

In all setups I've seen, you are considered self-employeed, meaning you pay both sides of Social Security and you have to pay your own taxes (they don't withhold them for you). You may also need to get your own Errors and Omisions insurance (it's like malpractice insurance for travel agents)as your host agency may not cover you under their own policy.

You also need your own equipment, a good computer, broadband internet access, a dedicated phone line for buisness, and a fax machine.

And remember, you work on commision, so you don't get paid until AFTER your clients come home from a trip. Unless you get lucky and your first few clients are last minute bookers, you may not see your first commision checks for 3 to 6 months. You also work for free a lot, as people you make quotes to don't always actualy book anything.

You should have a lot of knowledge about a lot of aspects of the travel industry, not just Disney. You may want to limit yourself to being a Disney specialist, but, especially in the begining, that is also going to severly limit your client base. Many, many people book WDW trips on their own without the help of an agent. Heck just look at these boards! This means you need to know all about cruise lines, including all the places they cruise to and how cruise bookings work. You also need to know about the most popular vacation spots like Las Vegas, New York, London, Paris, Italy, Greece, Austrailia/New Zealand, and any place else you frequently hear people say "they dream of going to one day". You have to be the expert, that's why they are comming to you and shouldn't have to look up basic information in a Frommer's guide book when they ask you questions.

If you're interested in being a travel agent for free and discounted travel for yourself, you may be disapointed. First, you have to be a full time travel agent to get those discounts (your host agency has to send proof to IATAN or CLIA so you can get your i.d. card). Second, the discounts ain't so great these days, and "free" pretty much doesn't exist. And the discounts may only apply to YOU, and not your family traveling with you.

I'm not trying to discourage anyone, it's a great job and being able to work from home has benifits all it's own. But if you dream of making high five figures every year and traveling for free everywhere you go, well, you've picked the wrong industry!

 

[binny]

OK a few things.

I'm a home based TA. I love it but it is NOT for everyone.

1) check your local and State laws to find out what types of licensing you need. Some States are very strict

2) get some training, whether it be from a host agency or an actual B&M storefront agency. You can also check into some community colleges some still offer travel courses.

Agree with most of what Chicago says ( as usual ) with the exception of the host agency. I don't have one. I think you should get one if you have no training but if you've ever been in this industry you can do a lot of reading and studying and maybe find someone to mentor you.


ps. OP are you the one who emailed me earlier? Just curious if so I did answer you.


There is a great thread on the Budget board that goes through the ups and downs of being a TA. Both home based and storefront. I think its called " Disney Specilaist" or something like that do a search for Travel Agent and you should fin it easy enough.



one more thing RUN away from Global Travel. At leats that one that is known as GTT there IS a legitimate Global Travel but that is not it~ ANYTHING that promises "money in you sleep" and especially " Travel for free" is a scam. Like Chicago says, the benefits and discounts are rare and *should* be for producing agents. There are a TONNE of these "card mill" agencies out there and Ive made it my personal mission to "out" them all LOL.
YTB is another one to RUN from.