Call it menopause, mid-life crisis, whatever, but I am considering giving up my management-level salary in the corporate world to do travel planning full time.
I find myself feeling like I'm not doing what I was meant to do in my job/life and could spend hours and hours planning travel. Anyone have any experience with this? Where do I start?

There have been several threads on variations of this - if you look you will find a lot of good info.

The topline seems to be that it's difficult to get started and the pay is minimal (starting the same place as the burger flippers at McD's). Also - travel benefits are not nral what they once were - unless you are sell a ton of product for a tour company or cruise line.

(I used to have a really good travel agent at AmEx - 12 years experience - but she quit when she was divorced - because she needed to support herself. Before that her income had been her clothing allowance.)

A dear friend of mine is a travel agent with a very successful travel company. She has told me on several occasions, there are very rewarding days, but more times than not, there are frustrating days where she has felt like throwing in the towel.
The rewarding days come about once a week when the cute little couple comes in to plan their honeymoon, or the couple celebrating their 50th anniversary wants a nice getaway;
but most of her days are spent dealing with irritating people (like the man that insisted he knew the precise count of electrical sockets in his ship's cabin). She says you are blamed for weather and for bad food at the restaurant, even if you didn't recommend the restaurant! When the trip goes well, you are an angel to the client. When it goes bad, even if it wasn't your fault(like weather or food) you are the total blame.
She said she loves her job, but she's developed an enormous amount of patience and a strong stomach!

ttt

Hi bbjj, I tried being a TA for one year after I sold my business. Fortunatly I did not need to live off the income from my TA business.

Yes it was fun sometimes, but I agree with everything that has been posted here. It is not all fun and games. The public can be very demanding and sometimes borders on ridiculous. I think people that use TA's are not the typical traveller like we have here on Fodor's with experience and good common sense.

If you can afford to give up your salary, if you have tons of patience, if you can afford this career change than I would say go for it. But I would encourage you to have a clear picture, by doing lots of research first, before you take this big step. Best wishes to you.

Do you mean Travel Planner as in itineraries and all or just a Travel Agent who books things?
I think Travel Planning sounds great..as long as no one came home complaining

"... as long as no one came home complaining." I'm reminded of a few hotel recommendations I've made to friends over the years. They are so certain our tastes are identical and fail to adequately describe the level of luxury and/or amenities they just have to have. I love planning our own travel, but I think planning for others would be difficult.

Imagine planning a trip for someone on these boards there are a few that I would be so afraid of, if they had a bad time and blamed it on me LOL
bbjj, have you traveled that much? I would imagine someone who plans travel for someone else has to be very well traveled themselves. Which would be a great way of learning your job
good luck on your decision~

I remember last January during a bad Kona storm where it rained here on Maui for days on end, I was in the Safeway and I overheard two women talking about the horrible weather. One said "My travel agent said NOTHING to me about this rain. She'll sure regret that when I get home." I felt bad for all of the visitors who were here that week, but I felt even worse for that poor travel agent!

I USED to do travel planning/TA. I still have my own agency, but I do not book any more trips. I also do not need money...thank god, because it is not enough to live on and certainly not worth my time. I cannot express any more thn what tcapp posted. Being an experienced traveler myself, I thought I had a leg up, being I have been to ost major airports, most cities, islands etc...
Most days, you will be on the phone getting prices then contacting your client, waiting for them to get back to you, then they change their mind, then oh by the way, I need to use a different air carrier on the first leg because I have points, then the air does not jive...and there it goes. Most people will use you as a price guide, as you will be one of two or three agents and/or internet agencies they call to insure the best price. you will spend days of work and phone calls for nothing. If someopne books then cancels...nothing. I thought it looked like a fun hobby-planning trips for happy people. Guess what, they will waste your time for $50 as most people shop price, not value. When you do give them the best "price", thye will call you upon their return and coplain that other people had MORE than they did. It's a lose/lose situation. The only good thing about it is my travel agency is a great write off, since it is a loser against our other business.

Now instead of trying to plan other people's trips for a whopping $100 comission, I play golf instead.

Also, commissions are paid AFTER the client has checked out. So if you book a 7000.00 vacation today and they are going 8 months from now, your comission will be paid in 8 months. Also not everything is commissionable, so you have to red the fine print. As a new agnet your commission rate will be lower as it goes up the ore you sell, so you might be looking at 5%. There is also no comission on airfare.

I would only recommend this if you have a pile of patience and an even bigger pile of money and a lot of time to waste for nothing.

Did you try to do travel planning part-time (weekends) first? You may be surprised to learn what this job is really is.

I have to agree that to start from scratch with either just travel planning or as a travel agent, you will not earn enough to make a decent living. The only people who can do that are the owners or managers of large, well-established agencies -- OR, people who have excellent contacts with many traveling groups. For instance, I have a friend who makes a business (but still not a living) by planning trips for various church groups. She started with only a couple of contacts, then slowly expanded by word of mouth and an occasional advertisement. If you could find a niche like this, and if you have a lot of the right contacts, you might make a go of it after a slow start. Good luck if you go for it.

I have to laugh at this one. I tried travel planning as a little fun-part-time-just-want-to-do-what-I-love-and-make-just-a-little-money type of thing.

What a joke on me it turned out to be. NO ONE wanted to pay, but everyone wanted my advice, planning skills, contacts, etc. etc. One "client" didn't even pay me for overseas phone calls!

I am, like so many others here, my family and close friends' travel planner. I've found other work to do in travel related ways, and that is working out ok. I found I had to stick with my skills that got me money in the first place, and translate that into something travel related.

I ran a travel agency and can confirm that there are rewarding days, but they are few and far between. The money is made from selling 'holiday packages' and point-to-point air tickets - for minimal commissions. My area of expertise - itinerary planning - was generally not something people paid for. It was more a 'hook' to gain clients' interest and confidence, so they would then buy their airfares and accommodation through you. I've heard of agents trying to charge a consultancy fee for such planning, but generally clients won't buy into it. I now plan itineraries for family and friends - it's also very rewarding, and an interesting hobby.

tuscan- that tune sounds familiar!

I love the brain-pickers, that take all your knowledge and info, then book it on their own. The only way around that is to charge a consulting fee to pay for all your time....but that isn't even worth it. Also the perks /discounts for travel agents are almost no longer exist...which was one of the great things about it.
There really is no need to use a TA anymore and besides, many credit cards offer travel services so you get a personal travel agent with membership.

I guess the OP gave up the idea.

The closest I can think of as a travel planning career that offers a decent (and dependable) salary would be event planning for a pharmaceutical/medical device corporation or medical education agency running symposia around the world. For that, you would do all the "regular" travel arrangements--hotels, restaurants, etc.--or liaise closely with the company's regular travel agency, as well as overseeing room setup, AV services, "meet and greets" for course faculty, etc. It's a LOT of work, long hours, and the clients are demanding and expect top quality. But you do get to travel a lot, stay in 4 or 5 star hotels, eat at good restaurants, and arrange some interesting special events (esp. if the company does a lot of corporate funding of the arts).
It's a specialized field and you would need to work your way up.
If that kind of travel planning appeals to you, contact the travel planning department of the nearest big pharma/medical device company and ask if you could come in for an informational interview (better still, treat someone from the department to lunch at a nice restaurant) to get their advice (but DON'T try to manipulate it into a interview for a job with them). Ask them what kind of training and experience you'd need, what the related trade magazines are, professional societies, etc.

I have a similar question re: travel writing professionally. How great would that be? Anyone done it? Where to start?

Hi Maureen, go over to the Europe board...I topped the "Is Anyone Here a Travel Writer" thread for you. Travel writing discussions seem to pop up on the Euro board more than any other.

BT- A friend of mine used to do sometning like that. She worked in Manhattan, and made about 50k. She also went to college for this (4years), and took a few years to work her way up and make 50K. She quit about 8 years ago...now we play golf together.

Thanks, BTilke, I'll look it up. I have a Masters in Journalism, worked for 15 years as marketing/advertising communications manager for a large corporation, but have been raising my kids for the last 10 years. I'm thinking of dipping my toes back into the work world-- somebody stop me!