Interested in becoming a TA

[Carlitarenee]

TA Maureen, thank you very much for the realistic (both positive and negative) aspects of being a TA. Really appreciate it!

[Kristy!]

Thank you so much, Mo! It's super important to know the positives and negatives of a job and I really appreciate you taking the time to educate us. Fortunately a lot of what you said isn't too far off from what I was thinking. The main thing I didn't think about was waiting so long to get paid. That's really good to know as I try to put a plan together for the next year or two.

 

Would you recommend taking a course at a community college or online before applying to agencies or no?

 

Thanks again!

[*Heather*]

GREAT info TA Maureen! That is really really helpful to know.

[sunstarsmoon]

TA Maureen, great info. You are so right, I work for a large "cruise travel agency" and we are all paid commission, they did train me, but basically unless you have a large client base in the beginning you are making little money. I was overwhelmed with the amount of work it takes, I had thought I would just pick up the phone and book the clients, wow how wrong I was. I have a regular full time job that pays the bills and I do the travel part as my hobby.

[*JillD*]

I'm glad Mo posted before me because it saved me a lot of typing, lol!

 

Mo nailed every aspect of the job, there's good and bad, and it is important to know that you do wait a long time to get paid, when you think about how far out people typically book vacations, especially weddings.

 

 

I'm happy to answer any questions anyone has as well, but everything Mo said mirrors what I would have said. Maybe TA Jennifer will chime in as well, I know Tammy won't be around much the next few days.

[KimmyG]

Thanks for sharing your insight. It seems to be a common theme that after pouring your heart into planning your wedding many brides zig zag career paths and look into TA, wedding planner, etc, and rightfully so... we wouldn't be so involved in planning everything if we didn't love it to bits as much as we do!

 

What are your opinions on being a cruise ship TA, for example? Are you perceived as a "specialist" or "limited in what you can do" ?

[Kristy!]

I've been putting more thought into this and definitely want to move on it. What are good, large agencies to get started with? For some reason I keep looking at Liberty but nothing is open in my area. Any suggestions?

 

I would prefer to eventually become more of a destination specialist than a cruise specialist. I know St. Lucia would definitely be one of my areas. Not sure where else yet.

[JenniferSS]

It'll be tough to get an agency to take a trainee on right now- be prepared to knock on alot of doors. If you are serious I'd recommend that you prepare your resume- do as much research as you can into what it takes to be a TA and highlight those skills and personally visit each travel agency to drop it off and get a feel for the place. Also be prepared to be offered a non paying position to get started.

 

There seems to be two things going on right now- agencies that are heavy corporate with some leisure are hurting badly. About half the leisure agencies are hurting badly and the other half are incredibly busy. We're happily one of the swamped agencies.

 

We're also experiencing a time when some of the online agencies are dropping their prices so low on a few products that we just can't compete- in my experience I would not be suprised if these companies are making a last ditch effort to either A) stay in business at all costs and are falling miserably or making a last minute cash grab.

 

We've already seen over the last two years a few online companies (one was a cruise company-can't remember the name) and airlines go suddenly bankrupt- leaving clients stranded and having paid for services that were not delivered. Personally I'd be suprised if some of them are still around a year from now ( of course that is just my opinion and I know nothing about what their true financial condition) But with the other companies we saw about 6 months of LOW pricing before their sudden demise. So I am not really worried about the super low pricing - we'll lose some business in the short term but it's more important that I stay in business for the long haul!

 

At any rate I just wanted to give you a snapshot of what you'd be looking at for trying to get into an agency.

[Kristy!]

Thank you so much for the input Jennifer and Mo. Of course my job completely revolves around Christmas so it's insane at that time, but hey, we make time for the important stuff, right? I'm right in between two AAA offices in NY, so neither one is really commutable (I'm not willing to commute 2 hours each way to NYC anymore, it's exhausting). Maybe I can checkin Jersey or Connecticut. Hmmm. I've been stalking Liberty's website, so we'll see. I like the idea of "volunteer training". Thanks again!

[Kristy!]

I just wanted to revisit this thread to give a big thank you to Mo, Jill, Jennifer, and Christine for their input. Thanks in part to your honest and realistic responses, I've realized that I just want to be a consumer in the travel industry, not an employee. I appreciate you taking the time to educate me and the other ladies who are interested in exploring the world of travel agents! BDW Travel Agents ROCK!!