Bill Coyle has become an essential travel industry resource with over 30 years of experience leading his own brick and mortar travel agency, serving on several agent advisory boards, and advocating for travel advisors on a national level with the American Society of Travel Advisors (ASTA). His experience empowers and educates KHM Travel Group’s agents as the Vice President of Agent Engagement. As KHM Travel Group’s first-ever Limelight Award recipient for going above and beyond, Bill brings a spirited passion for travel in all his professional endeavors and continues to book travel for his longtime clients. Read the rest of this entry »

AA’s hard stance on pushing direct bookings, which included no longer offering frequent-flyer points to travelers who don’t book direct, apparently has backfired. AA cut its revenue and profit forecasts In its quarterly earnings call yesterday, and today watched its shares tumble 18%—the biggest fall since Covid.

As a result, American will be forced to cut its capacity growth for the rest of the year by about 8% and part ways with chief commercial officer Vasu Raja, who headed the strategy that encouraged travelers to bypass travel advisors and other third parties.

“We know we’ve dug ourselves a hole in this second quarter, and our operating earnings are going to be off by a couple of hundred million dollars. We’ve got a lot of work to do to recoup that,” said American CEO Robert Isom.

Indeed, ASTA in August filed an unfair trade complaint against American with the US Department of Transportation, accusing the carrier of causing “substantially higher air ticket prices for consumers and frustrated travel management companies” by pushing agencies to use AA’s NDC direct-booking technology.

The announcement comes just days after AA’s May 1 deadline, after which it said it would award AAdvantage miles and loyalty points only to customers of “preferred” agencies, meaning those that have a 2024 incentive agreement or American NDC channel, and use it for 3% of sales by April 21, 50% by October 31 and 70% by April 30, 2025.

Be careful what you ask for, ASTA.

The new US Department of Transportation (DOT) regulations offer many benefits to travelers, including some for which ASTA has long been lobbying. But at the same time, they hold some pitfalls for unwary travel advisors, ASTA said last week.

Still, though, travel attorney Tom Carpenter told TRO, taking a few cautionary steps can help keep you out of trouble.

“First off, the sky is not falling,” Carpenter says. The initial proposed rule would have required all agencies to issue refunds, even if you did not take any money from your client. But the rule that actually was issued only requires agencies to issue refunds if you are the “merchant of record” on the ticket transaction Read the rest of this entry »

Last week, after ASTA responded to American Airlines’ move to deny frequent flyer privileges to customers who are not booking through its New Distribution Capability (NDC), I had the good fortune of speaking with William McGee. He is one of the top authorities on airlines, and a consumer advocate in the never-ending battles between airlines and the public they are mandated to serve. There is no better way to get clarity on airline issues than to speak with McGee Read the rest of this entry »

It’s been a record-breaking year in the travel industry—but as 2023 nears an end, travel advisors who sell the Middle East are wondering about the possible fallout of the Israel/Hamas War. Some already are feeling the pinch as suppliers shift itineraries, customers try unsuccessfully to cancel—and travel advisors and their commissions are caught in the middle. Again.

“I have been fighting with Regent since they announced my clients would not be going to Israel and Egypt—which was the whole reason for their trip—and put Greece in its place,” says Samantha Hamilton at Ultimate Vacations. “My clients have already been to Greece and have no desire to go back Read the rest of this entry »

If there’s one thing Lisa Watson knows after 19 years in the travel industry, it’s just how much there is to know. On Valentine’s Day, she launched a project she hopes will help travel professionals by pulling all that information together in one giant free educational resource.

FyndTravel—”where travel pros belong”—has been her mission since 2018, when she left Oasis Travel Network to go out on her own. Interrupted by Covid, she launched a beta of the FyndTravel website in 2022, and took it live just this month.

Once again, the ASTA Mid-Michigan annual supplier event was a great success. This year the event was held at the Detroit Yacht Club. Read the rest of this entry »

Those who have never participated in the production of an “event” would almost certainly be shocked at the enormous energy and coordination happening “behind the scenes.” The promoters of any given gathering share a goal with the attendees in wanting more than an “event” – they want an experience. Read the rest of this entry »

Part 1 of a 2-part series on staffing. If you have a tale to share for Part 2 about where and how you have found new staffers, email Cheryl at crosentravel@gmail.com.

From Cheesecake Factory to Starbucks, across cruise lines and hotel chains, every US business suddenly seems to be overbooked and looking everywhere for potential new hires. And travel agencies are no exception.

The phones are ringing and the long wait times on hold with suppliers eat up precious hours of travel advisors’ days. On top of that, many are calling in sick as Covid takes one more swipe at the travel industry, and many more are out of the office on their own long-postponed vacations, at training sessions they have put off for months or years, or on one of the abundant number of fam trips offered up when things were slow.

“Staffing is the number-one issue everywhere,” says Alex Sharpe, and the biggest concern of the attendees at Signature Travel Network’s quarterly Owners Meeting in New Jersey last month. “And hiring is the #1 opportunity Read the rest of this entry »

After unrelenting pressure from travel industry organizations and trade groups, the Biden administration on Friday decided to lift the inbound testing mandate that has been in place since January 2021. Read the rest of this entry »

After months of isolation that have made people long to reconnect, a number of industry players are launching new services designed to bring travel advisors—from top sellers to brand new entrants—together in new and unique ways.

The biggest is The 1000, an ambitious effort to find, honor, and support 1,000 of the nation’s top-producing travel advisors (think $1.5 million minimum in annual sales).

Founder Jeff Sirota—whom many know from his past life on both sides of the industry, at Protravel and at Small Luxury Hotels of the World, now a partner at hospitality representation company J.MAK—says leisure salespeople have such a broad customer base that it’s “really difficult to drill down in a sea of advisors to find the top producers.”

Often salespeople “blindly comp or do favors for” advisors who win awards from their consortia, Sirota said—“but when Read the rest of this entry »

The House of Representatives recently amended and passed the Relief for Restaurants and Other Hard Hit Small Businesses Act of 2022 which, among other things, would help in the revitalization of small businesses with the impact of COVID.

The American Society of Travel Advisors or ASTA, a global advocate for travel agents and advisors, in a statement last week lauded Congress for the passage of H.R. 3807.

If passed by the Senate, the impact would be to offer additional COVID relief to those gravely affected by the pandemic. H.R. 3807 provides funding worth $13 billion as grants to small businesses hit hardest by the COVID-19.

“The travel industry was the first hit by the pandemic and will be one of the last to recover,” commented Eben Peck, ASTA Executive Vice President, Advocacy. “According to recent ASTA member surveys, the average travel agency revenue levels are still down 71 percent compared to 2019. In addition to advocating for dedicated support for travel agencies, ASTA has consistently championed an industry-neutral approach to pandemic relief, where the businesses most severely impacted by COVID receive priority in obtaining financial assistance. This bill does exactly that, and we commend House Small Business Committee Chair Velazquez and Rep. Dean Phillips for their support for this comprehensive approach.”

Under H.R. 3807, small businesses must have a labor force of not more than 200 and a revenue loss of at least 40% from 2020 to 2021 in comparison to 2019. Other entities that could apply for the grant are self-employed individuals and independent contractors which the revenue loss criteria.

The maximum grant for a business, independent contractor, and a self-employed person is $1 million with the revenue loss calculated by diminishing the loss amount by any previous grants received by the applicant via the EIDL program and the Paycheck Protection Program. The law also dictates that those hit hardest by the pandemic are prioritized. If the business or applicant had an 80% or greater loss on revenue, they receive priority.

The Senate has not yet passed its version of a similar bill. Peck stated that “ASTA strongly urges Senators to adopt a similar industry-neutral approach instead of pursuing legislation where winners and losers are cherries picked by Congress across the varying sectors affected by the pandemic.”

Anita has been in the travel industry for over 28 years. She founded the host agency Ticket to Travel in 1993, which was merged into KHM Travel Group in 2020. Her voice has been one of inspiring the at-home advisor with books such as “How I Made a Small Fortune as a Home-Based Travel Agent”, and “From Home-Based to POWERHOUSE! – Marketing Strategies to take your Travel Passion to Profit”. Anita is currently the Vice President of CCTO (California Coalition of Travel Organizations), and the Vice President of Industry Relations at KHM Travel Group. Read the rest of this entry »