As I close my year of “Travel Agent Diaries” a bit of reflection is in order. What did I learn? What did I like? What did I dislike? What the hell happened to the year anyway? It seems everyone is doing a top ten list, so why not me?
Here are ten things I learned this year:
- Airlines have sucked the enjoyment out of flying like a fat kid with a jelly donut and a straw.
- Working too much has killed my golf game.
- Thank god for the gate supervisor at Ft. Lauderdale. His eagle eye spotted my “oversized” carry on (it had grown almost 2” with stuff I was bringing home from a cruise) and made me cough up $25 to Delta to check it. That extra 2” saved us all from a horrible crash as my over size bag would have brought the plane down for sure.
- Do I need a passport to go to Hawaii? I was asked this question no less than 3 times this year! No, but get a damned passport anyway!
- If all these airlines “value the travel professional” then why do I receive emails to my personal account that say “available only on-line?”
- Despite the TSA feel ups, the greedy fees, the delays, cancelations, oil spills, volcanoes, engine fires and more, people still love the thought of travel.
- “My friend said…” or “I saw it online…” are two of the worst phrases you can hear in this business.
- It seems when it’s my turn to answer the phone in the office, I have someone who wants airfare to LAX. While everyone else’s calls are for around the word cruises and luxury tours of Europe.
- I still get a warm fuzzy feeling when I hear back from a client that their trip was “wonderful” or “great” or “super.”
- There are much worse things to be other then a travel agent.
Have a great 2011 everyone and I will see you in 2011 as part of “Agent Perspectives”!
Graig Wilkins (odd spelling and all) is now a travel consultant for Morris Murdock Travel in Utah. He still specializes in Disney destinations worldwide. He can be reached at gwilkins@morrismurdock.com
