Rick

I don't know if this has been posted before (couldn't find it). My daughter forwarded this to me.

I have been a Travel Agent for thirty Years. This is why we're in trouble!

I had a New Hampshire Congresswoman ask for an aisle seat so that her hair wouldn't get messed up by being near the window. (Was she planning on "opening" it?)

I got a call from a candidate's staffer, who wanted to go to Capetown. I started to explain the length of the flight and the passport information, then she interrupted me with, "I'm not trying to make you look stupid, but Capetown is in Massachusetts." Without trying to make her look like the stupid one, I calmly explained, "Cape Cod is in Massachusetts, Capetown is in Africa." Her response ...(click).

A senior Vermont Congressman called, furious about a Florida package we did. I asked what was wrong with the vacation in Orlando. He said he was expecting an ocean-view room. I tried to explain that is not possible, since Orlando is in the middle of the state. He replied, "Don't lie to me. I looked on the map, and Florida is a very thin state!"

I got a call from a lawmaker's wife who asked, "Is it possible to see England from Canada?" I said, "No." She said, "But they look so close on the map."

An aide for a cabinet member once called and asked if he could rent a car in Dallas. When I pulled up the reservation, I noticed he had only a 1-hour layover in Dallas. When I asked him why he wanted to rent a car, he said, "I heard Dallas was a big airport, and we will need a car to drive between the gates to save time."

An Illinois Congresswoman called last week. She needed to know how it was possible that her flight from Detroit left at 8:20 a.m. and got into Chicago at 8:33 a.m. I tried to explain that Michigan was an hour ahead of Illinois, but she could not understand the concept of time zones. Finally, I told her the plane went very fast, and she bought that!

A New York lawmaker called and asked, "Do airlines put your physical description on your bag so they know whose luggage belongs to whom?" I said, "No, why do you ask?" She replied, "Well, when I checked in with the airline, they put a tag on my luggage that said (FAT), and I'm overweight. I think that is very rude?" After putting her on hold for a minute while I 'looked into it' (I was actually laughing) I came back and explained the city code for Fresno, CA is (FAT), and that the airline was just putting a destination tag on her luggage.

A Senator's aide called to inquire about a trip package to Hawaii. After going over all the cost info, she asked, "Would it be cheaper to fly to California and then take the train to Hawaii?"

I just got off the phone with a freshman Congressman who asked, "How do I know which plane to get on?" I asked him what exactly he meant, to which he replied, "I was told my flight number is 823, but none of these darn planes have numbers on them."

A lady Senator called and said, "I need to fly to Pepsi-Cola, FL. Do I have to get on one of those little computer planes?" I asked if she meant fly to Pensacola, FL on a commuter plane. She said, "Yeah, whatever!"

A senior Senator called and had a question about the documents he needed in order to fly to China. After a lengthy discussion about passports, I reminded him that he needed a visa. "Oh, no I don't. I've been to China many times and never had to have one of those." I double checked and sure enough, his stay required a visa. When I told him this he said, "Look, I've been to China four times and every time they have accepted my American Express!"

A New Mexico Congresswoman called to make reservations, "I want to go from Chicago to Rhino, New York." The agent was at a loss for words. Finally, the agent said, "Are you sure that's the name of the town?" "Yes, what flights do you have?" replied the lady. After some searching, the agent came back with, "I'm sorry, ma'am, I've looked up every airport code in the country and can't find a Rhino anywhere." The lady retorted, "Oh, don't be silly! Everyone knows where it is. Check your map!" The agent scoured a map of the state of New York and finally offered, "You don't mean Buffalo, do you?" "That's it! knew it was a big animal," she said.

Now you know why our Government is in the shape that it's in.

StCirq

I onced called operator assistance to ask for the area code of a town in New Mexico and was told I needed to call the international operator "because that's a foreign country."

Anonymous

This list has been kicking around the internet since at least 1998. But in acquiring the congressperson veneer, it lost the following components:

A secretary called in looking for a hotel in Los Angeles. She gave me various names off a list, none of which I could find. I finally had her fax the list. To my surprise it was a list of hotels in New Orleans, Louisiana, which has the postal code LA. She thought the LA stood for Los Angeles and that New Orleans was a suburb of L.A. Worst of all, when I called her back, she wasn't even embarrassed.
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I had someone who wanted to stay at the Bob Newhart Inn in Connecticut. When I explained that the inn was fictional, the customer became very irate and insisted, "I know it is real, I see people check in every week!"
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Reaity check: Just within the past couple of hours, the Fodors US board had a query about whether a passport was required to go to Hawaii.

huebie

When I was planning my trip to Hawaii last fall, two different major car rental companies told me that they had to switch me to the international division. At least one had the grace to be embarrassed.

Singletail

Odd, isn't it, that some of these "questions" sound very suspiciously like the ones we often see right here on this board!

RufusTFirefly

Of course the orginal list was made up out of whole cloth, but we've all heard or seen real questions that are almost as funny.

Two years ago in Germany when I told a German couple that we had lived in El Paso, Texas, they wanted to know 1) Did the oil well pumps make so much noise that we had trouble sleeping? and 2) Did we have a lot of car problems from driving on the "earthen streets and desert tracks."?

Leona

So what is the point of these little anecdotes? Is it only politicians who ask stupid geographical questions?

Christina

I don't understand the point of this, either, but I gather it was posted by a travel agent to try to prove that they are really smart and that others are stupid, so the fact that they "are in trouble" is not their fault.

ha ha ha, what a joke. They are in trouble because they don't provide a service most people are willing to pay for and because they were used to get a free ride due to monopolies on information and ability to book tickets.

I think that list indicates why they are in trouble, because they are oblivous to their problems and try to blame others.

nytraveler

I'm willing to grant that there are a lot of people whose knowledge of geography is limited to say the least (I once had a secretary who asked me what state Massacusetts is in - and had a chain travel agent insist that the only St Petersburg is in Florida) however, the fact that they should all be members of/associated with congress is even more ridiculous. Nor do I have a problem abusing the intelligence of congress and staff - god knows at least some of them deserve it. However, I have never read a more lame attack - offense as defense - by someone who obviously has no business because they do this instead of their job.

Kavey

Yeah that one has certainly been kicking around the net for years... I used to get sent it often because I worked for a travel company for a few years and people seemed to feel they had to forward any travel industry jokes on to me coz I'd surely never seen them before...

Weird how Hippopotamus has mutated to Rhino since the last time I saw the list!

ira

Then there is the one about the Vice-President who was told he would have to go to Central America, so he booked tickets to Colorado.

djkbooks

As far as I am concerned, travel agents are obsolete. Because, you can do better yourself.

But, my favorite TA anecdote is "Why would I need a Visa to visit Russia when I have an American Express Card?"

wlzmatilida

Hi,

I really AM a travel agent, and yes, these postings have been kicking around for ages (I'd like to think that most of them aren't true)....I used be sent the cruise ship ones, like "what time is the midnight buffet?" and "does the crew sleep on board?" (answer - no, we just have a really long extension cord).

I've been an agent for 15 years and thankfully, no client has ever asked me anything like this, although I will admit many, many are geographically challenged. And YES, even people with access to the internet! I had a guy last week who told me that he wanted to go to Fiji for his honeymoon, and in the same breath told me that they didn't want to fly anywhere after the wedding that was more than 5 hours travel time (I'm on the West Coast). He also wanted to stay "where Tricia and Ryan stayed" and his budget was $3500. Sigh. Sometimes we're a reality check

Christina, I don't think the person who posted it really IS a travel agent, nor do I think that it was an effort to prove that agents are really smart and that clients are stupid. Like anything else, there's good & bad in each area.

And, people have NEVER had to pay for the service of a travel agent. The suppliers pay us a commission, just the way a realtor earns a salary. And we've never had a monopoly on information either - I believe travel /guidebooks have been in existence for quite a while!

DJkbooks, well, believe it or not, we're not obsolete, (at least not yet)!There are plenty of people who continue to use our services. True, you can go online and spend hours researching a trip and going to various websites (and let's face it, anyone can make a website look good); however, there is no better resource than personal experience. I have friends and clients who enjoy doing a good portion of their own trips, there are also people who don't want to spend the time or effort and would rather put themselves in the hands of a professional.

A really good agent can save you time and money; especially if they specialize in a particular area of the world and have extensive knowledge of it, what suppliers to use, how to save money on airfare /routing. After a consultation with a client I can tell what sort of traveller they are and recommend the type of tours they're going to be interested in, and know that some of those "must dos" are something that they actually wouldn't enjoy.

Give us a try sometime -- remember, an agent is working for YOU and has your best interests at heart! Believe me, I take my clients vacations very seriously - in some cases people have been saving for years for their "dream trip", or it's the first vacation they've had in ages -- it's a responsibility that I take seriously and I hope / think most agents do too.

Regards,

Melodie

ira

>...it's a responsibility that I take seriously and I hope / think most agents do too.

Regards,

Melodie <

Amen

SalB

I haven't seen it before and thought it was hilarious. Next time you see a New Mexico license plate, look carefully. It says New Mexico, USA. That's because so many people, including a now infamous congressman, thought it was a foreign country. Wonder if they've thought of applying for foreign aid?!

My husband asked one of his university classes (juniors and seniors) where the Alps were. The entire class sat there stupified. Finally one coed ventured, "I'm not sure but I think it's somewhere in Sweden." I'm sure all these former students are out in the workplace earning excellent salaries and calling their travel agents once a year and coming up with the questions seen above.

Just because you know where something is, don't assume everyone else does. Geography is not taught in the schools any more. Perhaps you should lobby your local school board.

Rick

I posted this because it's funny, nothing more, nothing less. This is not a serious dig against travel agents, politicians or anyone else. Who cares who posted it, it's funny, too many people are taking things to serious, lets lighten up already.

twoflower

Well done Christine for raining on what was, until then, a quite entertaining parade. Fancy not seeing that the fun was in the content and that the occupations of the protagonists were incidental to the exercise (even despite the closing quip about government)!
Wizmatilda has put the record straight, thank goodness, and makes the point well that there's always room for a good travel agent no matter how clever we think we are and what other info sources are available.

ninetta

Hi,
this is a very interesting theme (not only restaurants and hotels forum!!!!), I learnt something.
Thanks to Rick and Ira, and for their serious and deep help.

kaudrey

Rick - I appreciate it too. I had not seen it before, and it is a good morning laugh.

I think some people just need to lighten up.

And, just for the record, although I plan most of my trips myself, I definitely appreciate the help of a travel agent when trying to figure out a difficult itinerary!

karen

P_M

I have received this joke via e-mail several times and it is very funny, although I've never seen it relating to politicians until now, so it has been altered. I do think it's a lot funnier this way, so thanks for posting it, Rick.

To SalB: A few years ago I was going on a trip to New Mexico. I called American Airlines to book, and the agent told me I need to call the international desk. I had to explain to her that New Mexico is a state, not another country. While I'm not surprised that some people don't know this, I was pretty shocked that a person who works for the airlines would not be more familiar with geography.