Why you should book with a Travel Agent during and after COVID 19
Out of any industry in the world, the travel industry was hit the hardest. Most travel agents, tour guides, flight attendants, tourism board members and so
many others that I know have lost their jobs and have been made redundant.
Working in the travel industry is a world of its own. A year in the life of an agent means making peoples wild dreams come true everyday, it means living a
life of freedom and designing your own life. It means exploring new places and getting first hand experience around the world of destinations, hotels,
airlines, tour companies, excursions, cruises, etc. so you can give the best advice to your clients. It entails working long, often unpaid hours to make sure
that you are providing the best service to your clients and being available for any bumps in the road. For clients, it is having someone in charge of your
dream trip that wakes up everyday with a passion and love of travel. We feed off of seeing new destinations, learning new things, finding amazing deals,
exploring new accommodations and seeing our clients pictures and smiling faces when they return because of what we built for them. We take pride in
our abilities and our knowledge and we are constantly in training and in touch with suppliers around the world to ensure that we have the latest
information.
Being a travel agent is not a job, it is a lifestyle. You live and breath your work, you think about it when you go to sleep at night and wake up in the
morning. It is a part of your heart and soul and for so many of my coworkers and friends, their lifestyle and livelihood has been taken by COVID 19.
There are different ways that travel agents make money, some get paid a salary, some work strictly on commission. Working for myself, I strictly get paid
commission from suppliers when clients book with them through me, this is how I make a living.
When a lot of people go to work, no matter what they do, they get paid at the end of the day. When I go to work, I do not get paid until a client books a trip.
The commission levels are vastly different between vacation types and suppliers.
Westjet announced that they were providing refunds for anyone who had their travel cancelled, starting from the beginning of the pandemic. While this is
wonderful news, as we always want what is best for our clients and we fight tooth and nail to get them what they deserve, and I, myself had travel booked
with Westjet that was cancelled; a refund means a recall in commission.
What this means is that any time a supplier refunds a client, our commission that we made for all the work we did, is actually invoiced back to us and
collected by the supplier.
What do you mean invoiced and collected by the supplier?
As a client, in June 2019 you booked a trip that was set to depart April 2020. I worked on this trip and was paid by the supplier by way of commission for
my time as would happen in any job.
Fast forward to March 2020 when COVID 19 came crashing down on the world and all suppliers began cancelling their trips. Agents were now working
tirelessly trying to maneuver the uncharted waters of COVID 19, sitting on hold for endless hours trying to get in touch with suppliers to find out what
their ever-changing policies were. Agents were dealing with panic running through their veins about what this meant for their job, their livelihood, their
clients, travel and the world. It is hard to describe the emotions that were felt trying to do everything in our power to make sure all of our clients trips and
funds were secure.
I waited on hold with one supplier, for one trip, for over 3 hours just to be told they weren’t sure how they were going to deal with this unheard of
overtaking of the industry. Client’s were rightfully nervous about the outcome of this and agents had to comfort them and tell them everything was going
to be okay, when we ourselves were not sure if we could believe that. We put on a brave face and hid our fear.
At one point, at the beginning of the pandemic, I had American clients that were vacationing in Iran when COVID struck and they had asked me to help
them get home as things were ramping up. It was becoming harder to keep track of what the policies were for airlines and entering countries. I sat for
hours, checking each country, each border and airline to find my clients a way out of Iran and I watched in horror as borders surrounding the country
closed by the minute.
All of this work and dedication of keeping track of borders closing and suppliers cancelling was not a part of our pay cheque. There was no pandemic pay
for independent agents that substituted the lack of travel money flowing through the world. However we were able to get mostly credits for our clients for
future travel and not having to deal with bankrupt suppliers was a relief.
After the initial shock of the pandemic, there were still cancellations to deal with, there still are up until this day and there will continue to be.
The pandemic has lasted a lot longer than the travel industry may have predicted so some suppliers have now made the decision to refund these credits
to clients. As I said earlier, this is great news (and I get a refund too!).
However, this means that the pay cheque that an agent received for the trip that our client booked back in June 2019, that we were paid for over a year ago,
is now be invoiced to us and collected back from the supplier.
For all of this work, every single minute that was put into building and curating your perfect vacation, if commission recalls happen, will have been for $0.
Now with agents out of work, they will receive invoices for their hard earned money from this year and last year to be paid back. On top of that, we have
to work behind the scenes to actually get those refunds back to our clients.
Think about that for a moment. You do a job, get paid, life is good. All of a sudden you have to deal with an unprecedented and extremely stressful
situation, for days, weeks even months, for no pay. Months down the line that original pay cheque you got is recalled and you have to give the money back,
THEN you have to continue to work and fill out paperwork for possibly thousands of clients.
This means, days, weeks, possibly over a year's (depending on how much you have booked Westjet) worth of work was done for free and an agent could be
faced with invoices to pay back worth thousands of dollars, when our industry has collapsed and there is no work.
There is also the fear that other suppliers will follow in Westjets footsteps and offer refunds, then what do we do? Pay back a years salary?
This is by no means Westjets doing, this rule has been in place since I started in the industry, however yearly you may see a few cancellations and have a
commission recall. This is a monumental situation where we are all fighting to stay afloat and if Westjet did let all agents keep their commission, what
would this mean for them? It is a double edged sword and I personally do not know the solution. If the airlines receive a bailout, then that could help let
us all stay financially balanced but no one can predict the future. If the airlines are going to receive a bailout, with taxpayers money, which includes my
tax money then there should be a contingency in this bailout that they do not recall agents commissions. I think this would be a fair solution for all
parties involved but we will all have to hold our breath and see what happens.
This is not a poor us statement, other industries were hit hard as well and so many people around the world have been affected and are suffering. This is a
plea, an explanation as to why, with all of our hearts, when travels resumes, we ask you to book with a travel agent. So that people like me can go back to
doing what we love and people who have been made redundant can hopefully have their jobs open back up. If there is demand in the travel world, we will
have to respond by hiring people back.
I feel that there is such a fear of speaking about how travel agents earn their money but with the current situation of the world, I think it is time for agents
to speak up and show people what is really happening behind closed doors.
When the day comes to travel again and you are deciding what to do, contact your local travel agent, they will appreciate it more than you know.