Travel Agent’s Lament

Regarding Louise De Carl Adler’s letter complaining about her travel agent (“Lodging a Complaint,” Aug. 22): Let’s consider that no matter what the price of the airline ticket, the most that a travel agent can make from commissions on a sale (with only a few exceptions) is $50 for the U.S., Mexico and the Caribbean, and $100 for all other destinations.

If a client wants the travel agent to assist with car reservations and wants to use any discounts, i.e., AAA or AARP, the usual commission is 5% to 8% of the basic rental rate (for a three-day rental of $24.99 per day, that’s about $5). Most hotels in Las Vegas offer such cheap deals that a travel agent nets about $5 per night, based on a $50 average rate per night. (For London, it’s a whopping $15, based on a moderately priced room of $150.)

Would you work for these amounts of money? How long do you think it takes? Try it sometime, all of it: air, ground, hotel, suggested day trips, etc.

After 25 years-plus in this business, I can say that most of the valued agents are still hanging in there, out of the sheer love of travel and the desire to help others. I would suggest you find one of them after your eyes are exhausted from searching the Internet for that elusive “great deal.”

CARLA B. OLSON

Studio City

Letters Annex

* More letters to the editor appear today on L10.