The deregulation of the travel sector has no doubt made it possible for people to become Independent Travel Agents without having to deal with a lot of red tape and government regulations.
This means that without necessarily having to spend money acquiring a big office, you can stay in the comfort of your home and work on your PC, sell ticket for airlines, even at reasonable prices to passengers, and then make your commission.
Now that many airlines don’t pay commission on ticket sales, an independent travel agent or ticket seller can make some money if it’s worked right.
For instance, there are people called ‘consolidators’ who purchase blocks of seats on international flights at big discounts, off the retail price. They add small profit for themselves and resell them at prices that are still substantially below the regular retail price. They sell the ticket to the host travel agency at a ‘net’ price.
The host travel agency then adds whatever commission they feel they can charge to the price of the ticket and sell it passengers. Assuming that the host travel agency does not get too greedy, the end price usually comes out to be lower than the regular retail price and is a good deal for the client.
As an independent travel agent, you will earn your share of that commission. Because of the high price of most International airline tickets, you, the travel agent, can actually make a reasonable profit for the time you spend working with the client.
This way, you can work towards gradually becoming a big ticket broker.
To further help in guiding you to be coming one, first find out when tickets go on sale. There may also be a pre-sale, in which case you will need a password to purchase tickets. It’s a good idea to search both the pre-sale and on-sale because different tickets may come up.
Find out when tickets go on sale. There may also be a pre-sale, in which case you will need a password to purchase tickets. It’s a good idea to search both the pre-sale and on-sale because different tickets may come up.
Then go to the ticket master page a few minutes before they actually go on sale so you are ready to buy. About a minute before they go on sale, hit the refresh button on your browser to ensure you can buy tickets as soon as they are available.
Then select the amount of tickets you want to buy and search best available the first time around.
Don’t buy the first pair of tickets that come up because chances are you may be able to get something better if you keep searching.
If you can’t get good tickets, don’t get discouraged. Keep practicing and work on your quickness.
