My Ex wants me to invest in a home based travel agency?

To the person that asked “My ex girlfriend is trying to recruit me into investing in a home based travel agency. Is this legit?”

Good question. After examining the firm’s web site I’d say no. They are not really interested in helping your make money from selling travel. Their focus is to get you to recruit new members to join their network and you’ll be compensated by the volume of associates you recruit. It appears to be a classic multi-level marketing scheme rather than a home based travel sales program.

If you are interested in selling travel agent then you may want to participate in a “Taking off as a Home Based Travel Agent” workshop that Ohio University is sponsoring at the new Proctorville Center on April 16th, 23rd & 30th. Call my office at 740.533.4559 or 800.626.0513 for more details.

Other excellent sources of information can be found online at www.intrepidtraveler.com. They have a home based agent resource center and offer many free or valued priced reference publication. Another good source is the National Association of Commissioned Travel Agents located at www.nacta.com.

Avoid being scammed, do some solid research and yes you can actually profit from selling travel!

Florida Spring training baseball & car

Just returned from a Florida spring training baseball & golf trip and want to share some thoughts:

• Expect to pay $5.00 to park at any of the ballparks.
• A soda runs $4.00, a beer in the vicinity of $6 bucks and an Italian sausage sandwich in the range of $7.00.
• If you want to order your baseball ticket in advance you can expect a 20% surcharge added to the base cost of the ticket.
• Speaking of surcharges my $149.00 rental car ended up costing $208.00 with all the fees and taxes.
• Golfing values were found at golf407.com & golf813.com. We saved anywhere from 10% to 35% off of cart & green fees.

Still a great experience for fans, young and old!

Add a spring training trip to Florida or Arizona to next year's travel calendar.

On the road

The travel professor has hit the road for some spring golf & baseball in the sunshine state of Florida & will be away from the net for a few days. I'm going to try and use the computer in the hotel lobby during my getaway.

Some "good" airline news

After a few months of nothing but bad reports abouts airline ops, a little bit of "good" news came into effect on March 1st 2007.

The limit on lost, damaged or mishandled luggage has been raised to $3000.00.

A small victory for air travelers!

Bumper sticker humor & football road trips

Spotted this one on the bumper of a 72 VW Karmann Ghia the other day and just had to share it with you all.

"Be Kind to Your Travel Agent. Get Out of Town!!"

And speaking of travel agents, Marshall's football schedule was just announced, so now's the time to plan and reserve that football/vacation road trip.

The Travel Professor already signed on to a fall journey up to the land of a thousand lakes; Minneapolis, MN. It's a shopping trip for some at the Mall of America and a chance for me to watch Ohio State play the Golden Gophers of Minnesota. It's the weekend of Sept 27th-29th and there may be some space left on this shopping/football excursion so check the tour listings published in the Sunday edition of the Herald Dispatch.

Travel & Leisure magazine ranks Toledo Ohio museum #1

Break out the travel atlas or dust off the road maps and plot a course for the city of Toledo, a Lake Erie port city located in Northwestern Ohio. Regardless of your line of march from the river cities it’s a straight shot north once you reach I-75.

“Why a road trip to Toledo?” you’re probably asking. A visit the new Glass Pavilion is the answer. This new structure was recently ranked by the high profile publication “Travel & Leisure as the “new design” award museum for 2007. Rated numero uno or number 1 the article also included a quote influential design guru Kate Spade: “This new building alone is a reason to go to Toledo, a place you might not otherwise visit.”

Visit the “T & L” website @ http://www.travelandleisure.com and browse the awards category. For more travel information on Toledo go to http://www.dotoledo.org. I suspect that you might be surprised at what’s available in this region for a weekend getaway. Art, culture, sports, history & more await the curious traveler.

Travel card scams

Here’s the travel professor’s response to the person asking about getting a travel agent id card and then traveling free.

Yes I’ve received those slick advertisements promising free or discounted travel offers. All you need to do is complete their application and return it along with a fee; generally a fairly substantial one and you are a qualified agent. Or so the marketing materials state! They will send you an “official” travel agent identification card that is a very good look alike item but not the real deal. This credential while looking official only qualifies you as the recipient of having been scammed.

There are some very legitimate programs for home based and/or part time travel agents but rewards are based on your productivity and actual travel sales. We actually are offering a class this spring term on “becoming a home based travel agent” so contact me at the university for additional information.

Now back to the scams and some things to look for:

Claims that you will receive discount or free travel are almost always scams. Think about it. If all anyone had to do is buy a phony travel agent ID card to travel at a discount, why would anyone pay full fare? Suppliers just aren't that stupid.

A reward program (cash) for recruiting other people into the scheme. Once again, if you make money recruiting people, it is probably not something you want to get involved with unless you want to recruit people.

Outrageous claims like "We are doing so much cruise business, we are going to buy our own ships", "We are revolutionizing the travel industry" or "We are growing so fast we are going to become the largest travel organization in the world". If the company is new (less than 2 or 3 years old), be very cautious.

The person that you are talking to sounds somewhat like they are involved in a cult situation where some person involved in the organization is the "industry guru" or somehow perceived to be the most important person in the travel industry.

Remember there is no free lunch but there are travel rewards out there for people who want to earn them.