There aren’t too many rules to being a travel agent. You just need to sell lots of travel, look after your clients, and not get too wasted that you sleep past your alarm and fail to be at your desk by 9am.
Well, those are a few of the main ones.
But there are others too – they’re just not written down.
Yet don’t for a second think that they’re not as important, because although no one commits them to official company policy, they do guide the minds and behaviours of pretty much all travel agents around Australia, if not the world.
Here are the five unwritten rules that travel agents live by…
1. THOU SHALT ALWAYS SEEK AN UPGRADE
Whether it’s asking for an upgrade to Business Class on your flight to Singapore or seeking to have your room upgraded to the ocean view suite in Fiji, travel agents must always live by this rule.
Try organising it weeks before you head off, or just turn up in person and turn up the charm – just do it!
2. THOU SHALT NEVER TURN DOWN A DRINK
It doesn’t matter if you’re teetering on the edge of inebriated annihilation at the end of long night, or if it’s 8am on the first day or an epic famil – never ever turn down a drink – EVER!
Booze is the lifeblood of the travel industry, and you should never turn down this holy sacrament.
3. THOU SHALT NOT HOOK UP WITH A COLLEAGUE
Although it is totally fine for a little inter-store cross pollination, intra-store intimate exchanges are simply not on.
Break this rule at your own peril!
4. THOU SHALT NEVER STEAL ANOTHER AGENT’S CLIENT
There’s a code of honour that you should never, ever, EVER, break as a travel agent, and that’s stealing another agent’s client.
Not only is it just bad karma, but it’s apt to make things hella awks at your next industry event, because trust us: the other agent will know what you’ve done – they always do…
5. THOU SHALT NEVER STOP TRAVELLING
As if this unwritten rule was ever in danger of being violated!
As travel agents, travel runs through your blood, and it really is as they say – once a traveller, always a traveller.