Becoming Disney Travel Agent

[Kristine Luengas]

Hello! I am very interested in becoming a Disney travel agent whether that be independent or for a company. Is there anybody here that can send me down the right direction? I have been doing my research and would just like some more help. I am a full-time college student who only has classes for three hours on Tuesdays and Thursday so I have plenty of time to dedicate to this! Thank you in advance!

 

[gottalovepluto]

Welcome!! If all you want is “how to become a Disney TA” I’m sorry. This is not what we do here. But if you want opinions on the idea...

Ok. Being a TA is a thankless, time consuming & expensive endeavor. You say you’re a “full time student” with 6 hours of classes a week so I concur you definitely have the time for this. You have lots of time on your hands, but remember time is money. The opportunity cost you face is what else you could be doing with your time. It’s easy to get sucked into planning trips and re-booking trips and not realizing that the amount of money you made divided by hours spent was WELL under what you’d have made working a minimum wage job. Hopefully you don’t need to actually make money? Because if you do RUN. Do not walk. RUN away from this idea. You need to either launch your own agency *faint* or get hooked up with a current travel agency that sells Disney with whom you will work a deal to become an agent (this can involve paying them money and/or then paying them parts of your already small commissions). Unless you’re dedicated to making a go of it and you don’t need to make money and you can afford to lose money- don’t do it. If you can check off all 3 of those boxes my hat is off to you and I honestly wish you the best of luck.

As for the thankless part of the job... yes, you’ll have clients who had amazing trips and loved you. You will also have clients who had you plan every freaking aspect of their trip who at the last minute re-booked with Orbitz because they found out they could save $10. You will have clients who come back literally screaming on the phone because X ride was down or the weather sucked or the housekeeper was rude or heaven knows what and it’s 100% your fault. That is not emotionally easy to deal with even after you get “used to it”. And after you’re used to it you will lose some of that happy Disney feeling when booking new clients as you wonder are they going to hate you? Be jerks? Hang you out to dry after making you research a million things and 50 quotes to save $$? It jades a person tbh. Food for thought.

(Who am I to have such down downer thoughts? A voice of experience. Some who haven’t been slammed as hard will say it isn’t as soul sucking as I make it out to be but they will concur it is time consuming and there is little profit to be made until you become A Big Guy.)

 

[wendow]

I agree with the PP. I do work as a Disney TA. It's a TON of work for very little money. I do not even advertise myself or seek out work because I feel it's just not worth it most of the time. Commissions with Disney are so small for the amount of work.

I work under my aunt ( a very experienced TA) and she warned me up front how many people would pick your brain and get all the info they could from you and then go book elsewhere to save a couple of bucks. So true! This is the norm sadly. If you go into this, do it because you love helping people and for no other reason than that.

 

[_19disnA]

There is a similar thread on this topic from a few weeks ago. Might search for that since the same things got discussed by several others. If you are new to online forums, it would be best to not use your real name as your screen name. Nothing wrong with trying to be a travel agent if you want a hobby. However, if you are looking to make money while in college, you might do better just to get a part-time job.

 

[chalee94]

Here is the thread. No need to start another one.

https://www.disboards.com/threads/b...l-agent-salary-and-business-question.3575765/

 

[MillauFr]

I still don't understand why Disney doesn't cut the commissions for travel agents to zero. Then the agents can charge a fair price for their travel planning services.

 

[kaytieeldr]

Travel Agents typically don't charge for their services (eccept plane tickets) so Disney not paying commissions would be a serious hindrance.

If Disney were to eliminate commissons, TAs would need to charge more than the public rate in order to get any revenue, and customers would rebel.

Every aspect of the travel business (except, again, airlines) pays commission to the sales people aka Travel Agents.

This m9ve would 100% lead TAs to steer customers a2ay from Disney and to plsces where they're on an even 0laying ground.

 

[MillauFr]

Travel Agents typically don't charge for their services (eccept plane tickets) so Disney not paying commissions would be a serious hindrance.

If Disney were to eliminate commissons, TAs would need to charge more than the public rate in order to get any revenue, and customers would rebel.

Every aspect of the travel business (except, again, airlines) pays commission to the sales people aka Travel Agents.

This m9ve would 100% lead TAs to steer customers a2ay from Disney and to plsces where they're on an even 0laying ground.

Travel agents are working for free. The slave wages that the commissions pay are a joke. I admit I am part of the problem. My perceived value of the services that the Travel Agent provides is zero. Just look at all of the people booking cruises with Costco. Is anyone booking with Costco because they are getting "service" from the travel agent???? NO The only reason anyone books with Costco is to maximize the discount they receive. This has decimated the small Travel Agents that actually provide a real service. No one is willing to pay them for their professional service that they provide.

 

[wendow]

Travel agents are working for free. The slave wages that the commissions pay are a joke. I admit I am part of the problem. My perceived value of the services that the Travel Agent provides is zero. Just look at all of the people booking cruises with Costco. Is anyone booking with Costco because they are getting "service" from the travel agent???? NO The only reason anyone books with Costco is to maximize the discount they receive. This has decimated the small Travel Agents that actually provide a real service. No one is willing to pay them for their professional service that they provide.

I understand what you are saying. The commissions from Disney are not near enough for the work I put into each trip. When someone comes to me to book their WDW vacation, 95% of the time, they are a first time guest or they haven't been in 10 years or they are a large group. In all of these cases, they hopped on the internet and got very overwhelmed looking at WDW resorts, meals, pricing, FP, etc. Honestly, I would too these days! My clients are never the person who goes annually or every other year and is just looking for someone to do their booking. I wish! That would be a breeze lol My clients are always looking for me to figure out where to book them based on their budget, help them figure out MDE, make room requests, set up DME, book meals, book FP, help with a TP, give them every tip I know, etc. And many times they are texting me questions the entire time they are there, which is kind of fun honestly, but still, it's like I'm on-call every time I have someone there. And you're right, no one wants to pay for this service. They love it but they also love that Disney is paying me for it.