(Heads up: Of course we know there are two sides to every story. This is the “pro” side. Stay tuned next week for the “con.”)
When your niche is entertainment travel and your clients are ultra-high-net-worth, there’s no option but to sell air, says Ted Bradpiece. And he doesn’t really mind. It’s just another call or two a month he has to take late at night or on the weekend—and it pays as much as many travel advisors earn in a year.
The owner of Explorer Travel Services in Santa Clarita, CA, Bradpiece figures he has earned about $50,000 so far this year in air commissions and fees (and sold about $2.5 million in total travel). He sells air alone or as part of a larger trip, charging $75 for international tickets, $50 for domestic and $40 for ticket changes—and sometimes earns as much as $1,500 or $2,000 net per ticket.
And it’s not all that hard to do, he says. A member of the Serandipians consortium, he books all his air through a Nexion GDS and handles all the service himself.
“Booking air can be a pain, but any booking can be a pain – and it’s worth it,” he says. “In the ultra-high-net-worth entertainment market, you have to be full-service and flexible. The principal and his family usually have a private jet, but the others in the entourage book their air through me. My clients call me on weekends for anything they need; that’s often when they are planning their next trips. They don’t want to tell their story to a lot of people; they don’t want to work with anyone else. They want to tell it to me and have it fixed.”
In return, he says, they follow his rules: “We do not allow clients to book cruise line air; we book it ourselves, even if they are just flying to Miami. We insist they go in the night before. And we try to get clients to book fully refundable tickets, so if they cancel at the last minute I still get the commission.”
Dream Vacations franchise owner Lainey Melnick agrees there’s money to be made in selling air. And she is happy to go for it.
The top producer for wholesaler Select Air/CruiseLink for the past two years, Melnick sold about $100,000 in airline tickets just through that one supplier in 2023—and “a whole lot more” through other consolidators, as part of land packages, and direct with the airlines for groups of 20 or more.
“Nobody likes to sell air but I really feel like it is a service to my clients and I’m more on top of things,” she says.
Melnick turns each booking over to an in-house, full-time hourly employee who handles only air. “She works from the minute I book air to make sure the reservation is set up correctly, to handle any special needs, the seats, the passport information. It’s not very time-consuming,” she says.
Then she tries to use suppliers who give her clients a 24×7 emergency line, so the client can call them in case of any issues. She always recommends travel insurance, whose emergency service lines serve as back-up for in-destination issues.
“It’s a very organized process,” she says. Clients get an online itinerary that includes all the emergency contacts to call in case of a problem, and her staff goes through a checklist to make sure nothing falls through the cracks. “It’s very rare that I have middle-of-the-night emergency calls. Like everything, the more you do it, the easier it becomes.”
Luxury travel advisor Barbara Khan at Journeys by the Book also is happy to offer air booking as a service to her clients; she charges $69 per ticket. Just recently, she booked two tickets to Portugal in premium economy on Delta for about $2,200 each and made the fee plus commission of $270 for about 10 minutes of work. For a group of five flying United to Hawaii, she booked one-way tickets instead of round-trip, so she could earn almost $100 per ticket on the return.
“Sometimes I have been up at all hours, but it’s rare,” she says. For those late-night calls, she relies on an after-hours service, “a major plus for me AND my clients. There is a charge for that, but it’s worth it.”
Being a self-described control freak, Cohasset Travel president Kim Kellar can’t even imagine not having GDS booking capabilities, she says. “It’s a life-saver when clients are stranded and the airport queues are 400 people deep and phone hold times can exceed an hour.” She partners with two consortia that allow her to bridge her system to theirs, so she earns “quite nice” commissions and still controls the reservations.
And even beyond the commissions, Cynthia Hayes of Hayes Executive Travel is in it for the fun of it, she says. “I love booking air. I’ve been on Sabre GDS for 30 years and have experience with the others. It can come with its challenges, but it’s a fun wheelhouse for me because I love booking domestic and international travel. It’s nice to have control of certain aspects of the booking and we can manipulate certain itineraries that may not be bundled together if you do it online. And there is definitely money to be made. If you can prove that are doing a certain volume of air alone with certain carriers, it’s worth having a conversation with them.”
Diane Bower, at Cruise Planners franchise CruzDiva Travel, books premium and business class air only, all of it through consolidator Cook Travel. “Last year I cleared six figures on air alone,” she says.
Silke Eze at Eze2Travel last year earned more than $50,000 from air alone. She has a GDS and charges $50 for each domestic and $75 for each international ticket. “It’s a learning curve and, yes, it comes with having to service these bookings,” she says. “And words like ‘hurricane’ and ‘snowstorm’ often mean long hours. But like anything else, it’s part of the job. My clients are grateful that I can help way faster than them holding for hours on the phone with the airlines.”
At Travel Edge, meanwhile, travel advisors can book air for clients through the agency’s proprietary booking system without having to learn the GDS, says Ken Neibaur, “and we back it up with full support for exchanges and refunds at no cost to the agent. We also have an Air team that provides quoting and ticketing services for agents. We love air!”
Don’t call us a wholesaler—but rather “a concierge airfare booking service for travel agents,” says sales manager Daniel Diaz at Regal Wings. “We are 100% human,” he says. “We research, hold, book airfare, and offer post-booking services and a 24/7 emergency service.”
The priorities of travel advisors have changed over the past couple of years, Diaz says; these days it’s less about commissions and more about peace of mind. “With unpredictable travel situations, advisors are choosing services like Regal Wings for our reliable support—like handling cancellations smoothly, speeding up refunds, and offering true 24/7 human assistance for in-travel emergencies. It’s our focus on certainty and service that helps advisors take care of their clients, so they can feel confident knowing they’re backed by a team they can trust.”
Sue Ball, owner of Sphera Travel, agrees that she isn’t into selling air for the commissions—but she is in it for the money.
“My philosophy is simple: if my clients don’t make it to their vacation, I don’t get paid. So one of my top priorities is ensuring they arrive at their destination smoothly,” she says. “It’s essential for travel advisors to not only sell air but also be proficient in it. Having a strong grasp of codeshares, ticketing rules, and waivers is crucial.”
And if anyone wants an air-only booking, she’ll do it for $100 a ticket.
Cheryl’s 40-year career in journalism is bookended by roles in the travel industry, including Executive Editor of Business Travel News in the 1990s, and recently, Editor in Chief of Travel Market Report and admin of Cheryl Rosen’s Group for Travel Professionals, a news and support group on Facebook. As an independent contractor since retiring from the 9-to-5 to travel more, she has written regular articles about the life and business of travel agents for Luxury Travel Advisor, Travel Agent, and Insider Travel Report. She also writes and edits for professional publications in the financial services, business, and technology sectors.