Strange, But True
By Stacey Small
The strangest thing happened to me the other day. I received the nicest email from an airline sales representative, who introduced himself to me and told me that if I ever need anything just to let him know. Say what?
While it struck me as odd that a rep from a major U.S. carrier would take the time to send such an email to an independent agent at home like myself, it also came as quite a pleasant surprise. After all, I do book many tickets on this particular carrier—often in the front of the plane and often overseas. So that most likely was the reason for the personal introduction, which occurred when he learned of my alignment with one of his top accounts.
The myth that agents cannot make money selling airline tickets officially been debunked. In an ever-tightening economy, one in which we’re all working harder than ever to provide our clients with the best service and the most for their money, it’s essential that we look at all potential revenue streams. As I noted in a previous column about my decision to switch host agencies, researching the best host for your needs is more important now than ever.
One of the key things you need to ask when interviewing a potential host is this: “What kind of airline commission contracts do you have?” If the host agency you’re considering looks at you like you’re crazy when you ask about airline commission contracts, chances are pretty good they’re not getting any of the “just checking to see if you need anything” emails from the major airline reps.
I bring all of this up for one reason—money. The truth is, if you align yourself with an agency that produces a high share of revenue for an airline, you can be looking at some serious income. In fact, something I didn’t know until very recently is that airlines not only still pay agents commission, but they also pay more than what used to be the standard 10 percent. But they certainly don’t pay these commissions to every agent or every agency out there, as used to be the case. The top-dollar commission contracts are reserved for the airlines’ best agency partners.
Trust me when I tell you I earned more booking one business-class ticket to London the other day than I did on a week-long honeymoon that took months to plan.
Granted, I’m not suggesting that all home-based agents should affiliate only with the biggest hosts or those that book a ton of flights (often for major corporate accounts). But if you find yourself in a situation where airline commissions aren’t part of your host agency’s compensation package, you might want to ask the agency owner to consider forming an alliance with one of the big agencies that does benefit from airline bookings.
Smaller agencies or independent, unaffiliated agents that take the time to approach the bigger agencies as potential partners will likely find that such a partnership will benefit all involved. I regularly hear agents and agency owners discussing this—and have learned that a number of such partnerships already exist.
How does this work? The smaller agency processes its airline tickets through a point person at the larger agency, and the higher bookings dictate the outcome. The airline is happy to have the business from one of its key partners, the larger agency can keep a percentage of the commission earned, and the smaller agency or independent agent earns money they’d otherwise have never seen.
Common sense dictates that the more revenue share that’s booked, the higher the commissions that are typically paid. But you end up benefiting by earning commission from a source you thought had cut agents out of the loop long ago.
To be honest, that’s what I thought ever since hearing the words “commission cuts” back in the mid-1990s. But take it from me: there’s serious money to be made booking international and sometimes even domestic airline tickets, though of course it varies by carrier. There’s even more serious money if you book premium-class tickets.
In this economy, we all need to get serious about finding new revenue sources, and partnering with host agencies that major airline reps actually take time to email and visit on a regular basis is one way to start.
Become An Independent Travel Agent Today
PR: 
LD: 
I: 
Rank: 
C: 
Nice article. It's good to see that some independent work at home agents are doing well.
ReplyDeleteThank You