I’m the first to admit that us Travel Agents don’t make it easy for our non-Travel Agent friends to hang around with us. Being part of the travel industry means you’re also part of a huge cult (no, not just the Flighties), full of weird and wonderful people who are an influence on our personalities, habits and even the way we speak.
We’re pretty normal by ourselves or in pairs, but when three or more Travel Agents gather outside of work for a BBQ, birthday or bar mitzvah and someone starts to talk shop, we can become unbearable to any ‘non travel industry folk’.
So if you and your colleagues find yourselves segregated and sequestered by the rest of the gang at your next social function, think about how many of these things happened.
1.Using GDS lingo in conversation
While incredibly dorky, yet sometimes hilarious, dropping GDS lingo into conversation would be pretty not funny to non Travel Agents (NTAs).
You may have done this when you confirmed your need for another drink by yelling “KK that stubby mate” across a crowded courtyard or bailed on your friends hitting the club with a group chat text saying “I’m HXing guys”.
2. Comparing work trips
It must be amazing for NTAs to sit there and listen to us harp on about which famil we took in the past year was the best.
“Hawaii was great, but there were soooo many hotel inspections” says Cindy. Meanwhile, Cindy’s NTA bestie Karen is grinding her teeth behind her thinking that she would happily take a free weekend in Surfers Paradise in a hostel without complaint.
3. Giving unsolicited advice
Travel is a fun thing to talk about and is easily one of the top banter subjects at gatherings, so when NTAs find out they’re amongst Travel Agents they will usually bring up a recent or upcoming trip – big mistake.
This poor soul will be spend the next however-much-liquid-is-left-in-their-cup being peppered with statements like:
“Have you paid for it yet?”
“Make sure you take insurance”
“Yeah, they’re alright I guess”
“Why did you book online?”
“You’re dead to me”
Then the business cards come out and everyone makes jokes about how they’ll beat their mates by a dollar.
4. Obscure airline facts
We might think that our knowledge of airlines is impressive and a few geeky NTAs actually might as well, but most won’t give a rat’s arse about Etihad’s new route into Addis Ababa or which US airline decided to start serving peanuts again.
That joke about pointing to a random plane in the sky and proclaiming, “Oh, QF4583 is running a few minutes late today” is played out, stop it.
5. Complaining about work functions
There aren’t many industries that take you out on a work night and get you absolutely s#$% faced.
So when we have a whinge about being hung over at work on a Thursday whilst our friend copped a written warning for yawning at their desk, we might come off a bit annoying.