Kill the Gorilla!

By Rusty Pickett, MCC, ECC

AARP’s new partnership with Travelocity, detailed in John Stone’s recent article in Travel Trade News, “New AARP/Travelocity Program Axes Travel Agents,” may seem like a slap in the face to many of us.

Fellow HBT columnist Mary Brutcher suggested that AARP members write to the leadership expressing their feelings, which is certainly an excellent idea. I disagree, however, that this may be bad for business. If we think through the issue, this may turn out to be a golden opportunity for future client relationships with “mature” travelers.

Like many of us, I am AARP-eligible, but routinely discard my membership applications. For me and many other “baby boomers,” AARP’s positions, views and lobbying efforts do not represent what I believe in. Their decisions about travel purchase for their membership further reinforce my opinion.

If you correctly analyze the comments from AARP and Travelocity as recorded in the above referenced article, you can see that we have a great opportunity as professional sellers of travel to help AARP members satisfy their travel dreams, filling the service void created by their leadership.

According to Barbara Foelbar from AARP, “We learned that 77% of AARP travelers have Internet access and use it regularly to research and book their travel plans.”

This isn’t news! All of us expect our clients to research travel options online, and many of these folks are likely to book air and simple hotel arrangements through Internet booking engines. This does not say that these same folks book complex tours, multi-city vacations and cruises online.

Although I would say a majority of my clients say, “I found this on the Internet” when they called, most of my AARP-eligible clients and others prefer to use this information only as a starting point for research. They know that I have many other options, offers and specials available that they most likely have never seen and many that are only available to a travel agent.

Mary Kate Smither from Travelocity stated that “[AARP] will train [its membership] on how to use the [booking] program.” This, again, is a poor decision by AARP. If this comment is correct, folks with little knowledge of the travel industry, other than personal experience, are going to train millions of member travelers on how to find travel online. They must feel that the impersonal Internet is far better than the personal, knowledgeable, service-oriented relationships that we all develop with our clients.

Foelbar continued, “[Our justification for using Travelocity is] so that members will have one convenient location (both online and via a tollfree number) to search for and book great travel deals.” This sounds exactly like what we do — and do better.

Using our Web sites and tollfree numbers, membership in consortia, plus personalized service backed up by knowledge and experience, we all offer the kind of service AARP wants for its members — and to a much greater degree than any online gorillas do.

Foelbar also stated, “Travelocity positions itself as a company that is an ombudsman for the consumer in the travel industry. This ‘customers first’ philosophy is very much aligned with AARP’s mission.” This is nuts! Travelocity is an intermediate supplier of travel, nothing more. Travel agents are the “ombudsman.”

If there is a problem with travel arrangements from the ultimate supplier, professional travel agents are the only client ombudsmen who are ready and able to take on issues and get results for clients with travel companies.

I dare say that Travelocity’s customer service department will not write a letter to the president of a travel supplier on behalf of only a single individual client complaint — as I and many of you have done on more than one occasion — and gotten results.

As one of my AARP-eligible clients told me a while back, “After 30 years of traveling, this is the first time I have ever felt ‘pampered’ by a travel agency. You definitely have great personalized service.” That is precisely what we are about.

Use this AARP deal to your advantage. Inform your clients that you are the “ultimate search engine.” Tell them you can offer spectacular savings through consortium preferred supplier arrangements and “level playing field” fare pricing from many cruise lines — and that you also offer the highest level of customer service. By doing this, we can kill the gorilla.

Steve Borne from Globus and Cosmos, an exceptionally strong supplier supporter of NACTA and home based agents, has seen through the shortsightedness of this AARP decision and told it like it is.

“Our reason for being there is to attract AARP members to our brand through agents and otherwise there is no other reason for us to be there,” he said.

Maybe if the AARP leadership attended a Travel Trade CRUISE-A-THON and learned of the special relationship between the best suppliers and professional home based travel agents, they could make an educated decision on what’s best for their membership.

Russell (Rusty) Pickett is a retired career Naval officer. He has a BS from Yale University and an MBA from Charleston Southern University. As a home based agent, he founded Shellback Cruises, a cruise-oriented agency based in Charleston, SC, in 1999.