The other airlines are holding off to see what happens, but don't worry, they'll follow suit. Delta has admitted to losing a billion dollars in the last year and are quite frank about squeezing every penny they can get out of anyone who goes near them. They don't care about their clients, they just want their money back. They are passing on the cost of doing business to the traveler in every possible way: they aren't lowering fares at all, they have reinstituted heavily restricted fare rules (not staying a Saturday night will cost you a bundle), and they expect travel agencies to charge the clients the commission. At the risk of being tedious let me remind you that travel agencies handle 85% of all ticket transactions according to the American Society of Travel Agents and every other source who tracks this stuff. If all the airlines in the U.S. stop paying commissions ASTA expects thirty percent of all agencies to go out of business overnight.

Air travelers, I'm sorry. Welcome to your new world. It's online or on the phone listening to that dreadful hold music for ages if you want to buy an airline ticket from here on out. Of course we'll still sell you a ticket as long as you are willing to pay the service fee, but we know this is the end of relying on airline ticket sales for any significant income. Starting Monday we'll be focussing much more heavily on vacation travel. Good thing we started to move in that direction more than a year ago.

My short term goal is to remain employed through the end of the year, and I believe that's an achievable goal. I'm not in immediate danger of losing my job since I'm a leisure specialist already, meaning I sell tours, packages and cruises. I'm good at it, too, my numbers are excellent. My agency should weather this new phase of the industry pretty well since leisure travel is a large percentage of our work already (I'm up to my ears in Hawaii bookings at the moment -- I must have a dozen in the works and more people calling every day). We'll have to raise our fees with our corporate clients, and I'm pretty sure I'll never sell a Southwest Airlines ticket again since the fee would be about half the cost of a normal ticket from here to L.A. or Las Vegas, and who in their right mind would pay that? But I think we can make it. More importantly, my bosses think we can make it. When September 30th, the end of the fiscal year, rolls around we'll know if we were right.

Tomorrow, by the way, marks my fourth year with The Agency That Never Shuts Up. If I make it five years it'll be the longest I've ever worked consecutively for one company. I'd like to achieve that goal, too.

My grand plan to take an exotic fam trip this year is still in place since this may be my last chance. Next year? Next year I'll probably be working part time if I'm working at all. It's hard to predict the future, but I have as secure a situation as possible under the circumstances. No one is surprised by this development, it's been obvious for a long time that the airlines can't wait to stop paying us to do their work. They're too incompetent to manage their finances and too cheap to staff their reservations centers adequately, but all they can think about is getting something for nothing. So I really have only one thing to say to Delta.

Fuck you, too.

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