Not That Kind of Travel Agent

Sandy and I have been organizing our lives lately. We updated our estate planning documents and changed my life insurance policy. The new insurance company sent a out a woman to take my blood and urine to make sure I am not a risk to keel over and die on them. This was no worry to me as I am not taking much medication, am not using illicit substances, and am generally in the peak of health. There was one small worry of a more immanent nature: I am a fainter. For some reason, when I have blood drawn I tend to get all woozy and sometimes if it is done roughly I faint.

As usual when faced with one of these procedures, I informed the lady of this tendency of mine. Generally, if I can lie down and relax, and the technician is gentle, I do fine. This lady had in her mind that chattering non-stop would help me relax. She asked me what I do for a living, and I informed her I was becoming a travel agent. She got very excited and fumbled through her bag looking for something as she told me “I am becoming a travel agent too!”

She began to describe something familiar from my past. She was involved in a multi-level marketing company that markets itself as a travel company. Years ago, an acquaintance had pitched a similar MLM to me. They gave her a card that identified her as a travel agent which was to be used to get discounts that travel vendors offer to real travel agents. In essence if one pays these companies, they help one commit a low level fraud. None of them are really about selling travel.

I tried to deflect the conversation to another subject to avoid telling this woman she was involved with something shady. She would not be easily deflected! As she was preparing to draw my blood I was subjected to a poorly reconstructed re-hash of an MLM pitch. Make lots of money! Get free travel! Get discounts! I was getting annoyed not relaxed. At one point she insisted I check this thing out, even after I had told her quite directly that it was probably not legitimate. I promised her I would do it, if she would cease speaking during the remainder of the procedure. I was not able to totally relax, but at least I didn’t faint.

When I looked at the web site on her card, I saw not a travel booking site but a pitch for making money and getting travel perks. After clicking through the MLM pitches I did find a booking engine of sorts. I selected Cruises in Alaska in June. Only one cruise came up! Every major cruise line has at least one ship in Alaska throughout June, so this was not much of a travel booking site. I googled the company name and the names of all the principal founders (their names were prominently listed on the web site). It was not hard to find message boards where these people’s past MLM failures were being hotly debated. It was apparent they had all been involved with similar ventures that had been shut down by lawsuits from the legitimate travel business.

Like any other real travel agent, I have taken many hours of training and devoted myself to working full time at the business. After some months of this training, working, and internship, I applied for and received an IATAN card. This identifies me as a travel agent to travel vendors when I ask for a travel agent rate. Bypassing this process by buying a membership in a “card mill” to get discounts on travel is fraudulent. I sent the misguided woman an e-mail telling her so.

There are some legitimate MLM businesses out there. All involve selling real products, or real services of quality. There are none selling travel. Travel consulting is a complex, intricate, knowledge intensive process. As much as I have learned in the past months, I still find myself saying “Hey Judi, how do I…” frequently. I have a wise and experienced mentor, and a support system from my host agency and Virtuoso. I have a network of outside mentors I have met through both organizations to learn from. We are not selling products, but are helping people navigate their way around the world. Sometimes we have to find a way to bring someone home as you will learn in my next post.

Next time: “Houston, we have a problem…”