A Day in the Life of a Travel Agent

Today I am thinking I should share a bit about what being an agent means to me.   I feel like now especially there are a lot of people calling themselves travel agents but they are not really putting in the work.   They think they can just call themselves a travel agent and they will instantly get to travel more or make a ton of money and it is easy.

I am always honest when people say to me your job looks like so much fun and I will reply that while it might look like it's all fun there really is a lot of hard work involved.   It is like running any other business you get out what you put in.   I have always put a lot of time and love into doing what I do and I feel like I do get that back.  At the same time it took me a lot of years to get to where I am now. 

  It is a constant learning experience.  For me it is very important to stay on top of any news or situations that might be happening that could affect my clients.  I also want to stay on top of everything that is new and I want to learn all I can about places I send my clients.   I generally find that I feel better sending my clients to somewhere I have experienced already which is also why I do travel a good bit.   I had a client tell me once that the agent she had used before me had never been on a cruise and never left the country so she didn't really think it made sense to use an agent that had no experience traveling.  

  When I started out back in 2001 I was a Disney specialist and I mostly sold Disney vacations.  I always stayed on top of all things Disney, heck I even moved to Orlando only a couple years after becoming an agent.   I loved knowing that the advice I was giving was based on what I knew firsthand.   As I started to shift to being a cruise specialist it was important for me to get on as many different ships and visit as many ports as I could.  I like to get to know the areas around many of the main ports cruises use to start and finish.

  It would be impossible to know everything about every ship and every port in the world but I am also honest when I don't know something I will say that and I will do my best to find the answers I need.   I love the challenge of researching something new but at the same time I also know my limits.   It has taken me a long time to say to myself there are some trips that it just doesn't make sense for me to try to put together for that client because I just am not familiar enough with what they are asking for but I will try to find an agent that would be better to help them.  This is why I also love that I have a small team I work with plus I belong to a bigger group of agents that I can connect with.

 A typical day in my job could consist of so many different things like a flight cancelation or delay where I need to help the client sort out the next step, or a phone call from a cruise line telling me a client hasn't arrived at the port yet, or a cruise line letting me know their new ship is going to be delayed and they are now cancelling 3 months worth of sailings.   Those are bigger challenges but most days it is smaller things like helping a client choose an excursion, or watching a webinar that is teaching me about something new, or quoting trips.  Even when I am traveling my typical day still consists of working on things like answering emails or phone calls and making payments.  Even just the trip itself is work as I experience new ports and new ships all so I can bring the knowledge back to my clients.

Over the years my business has had some bumps but for the most part I have been very lucky to weather those storms and learn something from every challenge.  Travel agents don't get free travel and it isn't a get rich quick kind of job and you really do need to be available for your clients pretty much all the time.  I think a good agent has to be someone that loves to travel and loves to always be learning.   There have been days where I have been ready to quit and then there are days where I can't imagine ever doing anything else.   I love connecting with my clients and helping them make memories so that will always outweigh the bad days.   It isn't always easy and it isn't always fun but I feel very lucky to have found a job that I have a passion for and allows me to meet so many wonderful people.   I have some clients with me for almost 24 years and it has been very special to me to get to be a part of their family memories.