Perks of the Job

The perks of being a travel agent are finally starting to pay off they're sending me on a cruise! At the end of November I'll be setting sail on Holland America from Port Canaveral for a couple of days. It's a special trip for travel agents, so we'll actually be going on a cruise to nowhere for 2 days. The really exciting part is that it will be on a brand new ship, the ms. westerdam. This ship just started sailing in Spring of '04. Holland America is also a pretty elite cruise line - fancy smancy.
This will be my second 'business trip'. I got to go to Minneapolis earlier in October for a training seminar. Basically in this business the more places you go to, the more you can build up your business. You can always sell something that you've experienced better than you can sell something you know nothing about except what you've read in brochures & on the internet.


A lot of people think that you pay more using a travel agent (that's what I thought before I worked here), but you actually get their services for free because tour companies, hotels, car rental places etc. all pay us commission. The only exception to this rule is on plane tickets that aren't in a package because airlines decided a few years ago that they weren't going to pay travel agents commission - hence the $35/ticket service fee that we have to charge.
Speaking of my new career, if anyone is planning any future trips feel free to give me a call or leave a comment on the blog & I'll call you when I'm @ work. I'm looking forward to planning all of your future vacations!