Business's that are becoming obselete

Got a client who is a flight centre manager around 27 years old making more money year on year - around 280k per year.

But independent agencies are dead..

 

First world problems lol..

 

280k for a travel agent!? How?

 

Salary + comms + flight centre offer buy in for store managers. She has 10% in a store

 

I don't know why anyone would use travel agencies. These days with the internet it's as easy as going into webjet to compare prices. Find the airline with the cheapest flight and than go direct to that time and date on the airline website and book direct. Cuts out all the middlemen. It would be interesting to see the demographic of the people who use travel agencies.

 

Think; older folks who have refused to embrace technology and change...the ones who still use Bank passbooks, won't have a credit card or an ATM card...and pay all their utility bills in cash, and down at the Post Office or Bank.

 

Sydney's Patrick terminal goes automated, with fewer staff but dancing robots

 

Right. Everybody out!

 

Whats this 'buying online' thing about? I thought everyone stopped paying for online porn back in teh 90's??

Still popular in my industry.

 

Was just down at the shops and the travel agent had one couple in there... old people who still want a human face to deal with

 

There's a whole section still relevant in the corporate travel market.

I still know a lot of younger people who go to flight centre for ease of group bookings - ie everyone just uses the same person to book their latest $1200 travel deal. Sure they could save $100 and book it all online, but the convenience is a valid consideration.

I cringed when a group of my in-laws booked their Gold Coast trip earlier this year - but booking online for them would have been an absolute nightmare considering their limit tech use.

 

A lot of people use their CBA true awards points at flight cente.

 

I wouldn't consider myself old - and do buy online - but after being caught out by webjet I prefer to slip into the travel agency (Flight Centre) and make sure everything is in order ... often, after checking online first, I get flights even cheaper.

My drama with the online booking sites is that - put in that I want 3 adults to fly to X on Y date - and it'll bring up the flights - I choose one - then next thing I know we're booked on three different flights over four days ... !

 

Or worse yet... cheques. God I hate cheques.

People who don't want to research use travel agents, for me that's half the fun of travel but a lot of people don't like to actually learn anything about where they're going in advance.

That said, the only successful travel agencies I've seen are those with large corporate client bases. Some of the others can scrape by and survive but the genuinely successful ones are the ones with the corporate contracts.

I'm not sure how long that will last though, at some point it's got to be cheaper to just hire a staff member to do that stuff than consistently pay a massive premium to get someone else to do it for you, the reason the corporate deals are so good is because the travel agents can just book whatever when price goes out the window so they get to pick the highest margin and commission flights.

 

I wouldn't touch webjet with a barge pole, shonky as hell. I pit travel agents against online, go online, find the best price, then go to the travel agent and get them to match it. You get the good price but with a more reliable agent as opposed to some of the dodgy comparison sites.

 

Complicated itineries with multiple connections. Cruises with airfares at either end etc etc. I think they still have their place even though I haven't used one for as long as I can remember, especially for advice and booking tours etc.

 

I don't mind Webjet for looking at possible airfare options across multiple airlines at different times. I find what I want and then book directly on the airlines website.

 

My friend said he uses it to search...
...then goes to the airlines site to book. So he avoids the fees, hehe.