Pet Travel Blog

The media is reporting that this summer has been the worst on record for the travel industry. Passenger complaints are up, airport delays are off the charts and airline employees are disgruntled and angry. In 1992 the airlines decided to begin to cut travel agent commissions and within 24 months they cut them completely. This in my mind is where it all began. I started my career with Eastern Airlines in 1984. At that time 90% of all bookings and reservations for the airlines were made by pet travel agents. We were told to “be nice to the travel agents they are our largest source of revenue”. Now some 23 years later the ‘travel agent’ is an oxymoron. The airlines cut travel agents completely out of the distribution and service process and ASTA-the American Society of Travel Agents-completely dropped the ball by not lobbying for travel professionals and taking a stand that if the airlines were going to cut revenue streams to agents the traveling public was going to have to feel it too. Instead travel agents tried to make it without the commissions and virtually eliminated their own profession in the process. The airlines need travel agents! When flights are canceled and passengers need information, they need to be able to contact a professional immediately for help-cell phone, text messages, and email messages work great. Calling 800 numbers and/or waiting in long lines are not working! If the airlines are not willing to pay for this help, the traveling public is not going to get it and things are not going to get better. In the long run the amount the airlines can pay to compensate the travel agents is nothing compared to completely going out of business.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 21st, 2007 at 2:15 pm and is filed under Pet Travel Agents, The 'business' of a pet travel agency, Comments by Barbara. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.