BaltACDVery, very few of us have gotten to this point in our lives on the same path that we had charted out decades ago. Life Happens and things change. Add
Very true, originally wanted to be an Executive. My first out of college job was working in technical support of the Executives at GM. Yes, they had security details, yes they had access to private jets and company paid for chauferred Cadillacs, even a private elevator system so they would not have to mingle with the commoners on the way up to their office.
What brought it home to me was the freakin hours they put in. For all practical purposes most of them were like monks dedicated to the company, with small apartments (with kitchenettes) attached to their offices. Their travel schedule would always overlap Saturday mornings or Sunday evenings as well. The Executive on whose staff I worked was in the office before me and left hours after I did. The guy lived in D.C. and still does. GM would fly him on their jet from DC to Detroit early Monday morning and back again late Friday night. That's what did it for me, too much personal time sacrifice for me to be happy in that job. Hell even today, my current home is in the flight path of the helo for HP Services (or whatever it is called now....formerly EDS). That damn thing flies overhead early Sat morning and Late Sunday night and is a constant reminder that I made the right choice. The grass is not necessarily greener on the other side even though it might appear to be.
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"A stranger's just a friend you ain't met yet." --- Dave Gardner
BaltACDAnd for all we know, you may have benefited in missing the flight and staying there.
It was really hyperbole. I was going through to Australia and could have accommodated another week or more. But it was sure an indication that having someone watching your travel progress (and not just getting a commission as middleman for good-old-boy ticketing networks) was a valuable service.
Overmod... I well remember lying calmly out by the pool at a resort in Mauritius, to be told by a hotel employee that we'd just had a call from our travel agent in Manhattan that the airline's schedule had been changed and the once-a-week flight, booked in advance for months, was leaving from across the island in about 3 hours. I might still be there if she had not thought to call and let me know...
I well remember lying calmly out by the pool at a resort in Mauritius, to be told by a hotel employee that we'd just had a call from our travel agent in Manhattan that the airline's schedule had been changed and the once-a-week flight, booked in advance for months, was leaving from across the island in about 3 hours. I might still be there if she had not thought to call and let me know...
And for all we know, you may have benefited in missing the flight and staying there.
Very, very few of us have gotten to this point in our lives on the same path that we had charted out decades ago. Life Happens and things change.
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
CSSHEGEWISCHTravel agents seem to be a vanishing service what with the availability of online reservations for just about everything, including package tours.
Many busy people don't have or won't take the time to run online tools to make their own reservation or find their lowest mix of price vs. QoS. Many other people simply aren't computer-literate or computer-friendly enough for the learning curve and inevitable hassles, foibles and bugs of online ticketing. Amtrak's current reservation 'service' has a number of bugs-that-are-supposed-to-be-features that make it infuriating to do a number of common vacation-planning things, and you can see from the OP's examples that there are people in his own experience who benefit from 'assistance'.
Whether or not Raymond, or anyone, could actually make a living, let alone a killing, out of these services is less certain. As an adjunct to an effective concierge service, it's almost a no-brainer... but I don't think Raymond would be particularly effective running a concierge business on that level. (I would like to be proven wrong about that.)
Travel agents seem to be a vanishing service what with the availability of online reservations for just about everything, including package tours.
Geez, I got two more families of co-workers setting up reservations from KC on the Chief for vacations to LA and San Diego. Have my Aunt riding the Milwaukee to Fond Du Lac Amtrak Thruway bus once a month. Sister now wants to take the Texas Eagle down to Dallas for Christmas to visit. I should be getting a commission for all this. I wonder what it takes to get to be certified as a travel agent?
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