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IATA Number
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is excerpted from:
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THE HOME-BASED TRAVEL AGENT
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A Newsletter
for Those on the Cutting Edge
of the Travel Distribution System
http://www.hometravelagency.com
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What you
Need to Know About IATA Numbers and the IATAN card
"When I become a home-based agent, will I get my IATAN card?"
"How
do I get an IATA number?"
In spite of
covering this matter on my web site, I
get a steady stream of such questions. I try to answer them but some
people still don’t seem to "get it." One wrote back,
"So if I buy your course, will I get my IATAN card with it?"
Sigh.
So let me
try to clear up what I believe is a basic misunderstanding about how
this all works.
The IATA
Number and Selling Travel
An IATA number
(sometimes referred to as an ARC number or an ARC/IATA number, just
to confuse you) is simply a unique identifying number that distinguishes
one accredited travel agency from another. Most importantly, an IATA
number lets an agency sell airline tickets. There are other travel
products that, technically, an agency can sell without an IATA number
but the ARC/IATA indentifier system has become so well-established
that most suppliers find it convenient to track their agency vendors
by IATA number. It’s also a convenient way for a supplier to
get a rough idea of who is a "serious" travel agent and
who isn’t. Of course, there are a great many travel agents without
ARC or IATA numbers who are highly serious and impeccably professional,
but that’s another issue.
The key to
the home-based travel revolution is that it is possible to have the
benefits of an IATA number (that is, be able to sell travel products)
without having an IATA number (and the storefront premises, bonding,
overhead, reporting burdens, and all the other things that go along
with it).
You do that
by forming a relationship with a "host agency" as an independent
contractor. In effect (although this is not the legal term for it),
you are "renting" the host agency’s IATA number and
using it to make bookings with suppliers. The "rent" you
pay is a portion of the commission earned on all products you, the
independent contractor, sell using the host agency’s IATA number.
Many host agencies also charge an upfront fee to new independent contractors;
some also assess annual "membership" fees.
In other words,
you don’t actually "have" an IATA number in this arrangement
but you have the use of one, which is in many important respects a
better deal. As I just mentioned, by using a host agency’s ARC/IATA
number you avoid a lot of expensive overhead. And if you follow the
advice I give in my home study course, you will pay only a modest
"rent" in the form of the host agency’s share of the
commission. It’s a real win/win situation. And, as a completely
independent contractor (with the accent on "independent"),
you can deal directly with any supplier that is willing to deal directly
with you – another topic covered in the course.
There is another
way to get a sort of "limited use" IATA number. A number
of new options give you a number that takes the place of the "pseudo-ARC
numbers" that have long been given to independent non-ARC agents
by suppliers. (These new options, as well as pseudo-ARC numbers are
discussed in the home-study course.)
The difference
is that this number is issued by IATA. It is not quite the same as
the ARC/IATA number that your host agency has. For starters, you can’t
use this number to book airline tickets; for that you still need the
industrial strength ARC-IATA number of your host agency.
Does this
make sense for you? It’s hard to tell. In theory, it makes it
easier for you to establish direct relationships with suppliers, but
I have been showing home-based agents how to do that for years. It
may turn out that suppliers will prefer these IATA-blessed identifying
numbers over the pseudo numbers (often composed of the agent’s
phone number) that they used in the past. Time will tell.
The IATA
Number and Travel Agent ID
Unlike the
IATA number, the IATAN card is not used to book travel. Instead, it
is a little laminated plastic ID card with your picture on it that,
in theory, "proves" that you are a travel agent. Also, in
theory again, the IATAN card is an open sesame to all sorts of wonderful
travel benefits.
True, some
fam trips are open only to those with IATAN cards. But the best fam
trips go to people who produce bookings. And if you’re producing
bookings for a tour operator or cruise line and follow the simple
strategies I provide in the course for raising your profile with your
suppliers, then you will get your fair share of fams.
The IATAN
card has been oversold, in my opinion, and many newcomers to the industry
have exaggerated expectations about what it will get them. Yes, it
can gain your perks and open doors, but you have to have some industry
experience before you will be able to distinguish truly good deals
from those any savvy travel shopper could get.
I also think
many prospective home-based travel agents confuse the IATAN card with
those "travel agent ID cards" that you get when you sign
up with some host agencies. This is especially true of so-called referral
agencies (known pejoratively within the industry as "card mills").
But it is also true of some other types of host agencies. The fact
is ANYONE can issue an ID card that says someone is one of their "associate
agents," "independent agents," or "members."
And it’s probably no accident that many travel agencies who do
issue such cards design them to look quite a bit like an IATAN card.
Like it or
not, the fact is that these cards can sometimes get their owners perks
similar to those available to owners of the IATAN card. That is less
true today than it was several years ago. The supplier community has
done a good job of educating its employees to recognize and distinguish
among the bewildering array of "ID cards" floating around
out there. Still, it happens.
Unless you
find an unscrupulous agency owner (and there are no doubt a few out
there), you cannot simply "buy" an IATAN card. You have
to EARN it. How? By selling travel, of course. After you have been
in the business six months and can document annual commission income
of $5,000, you are eligible for the IATAN card. Any agent who is serious
about making a go of being a travel agent will have no trouble reaching
this modest level of earnings. If you are funneling all your business
through a single host agency, it will be easy to document your earnings
level. If you are doing a lot of business directly with suppliers,
documenting your earnings level can be a bit trickier, but it can
be done.
Once you qualify,
you will have to pay a fee. (How do you think IATAN makes its money?
And why do you think they make such a fuss about theirs being the
only "real" travel agent ID?) Fortunately, the fee is modest.
Summary
To sum up,
then, an ARC/IATA number identifies a travel agency. If you want to
"get" one all to yourself, one that will let you book every
kind of travel product including air, you have to set up a storefront
agency. That’ll set you back anywhere from $75,000 to $150,000.
A newer breed of IATA number identifies you as a non-ARC agent, but
will not allow you to book air and is not absolutely needed (so far)
for booking non-ARC products. If you’d simply like to "use"
someone else’s IATA number to collect commissions on travel products
you otherwise would not be able to sell, that is easy to arrange by
hooking up with a host agency as outlined above.
The IATAN
card is a form of industry identification that requires meeting certain
minimal standards of industry longevity and earnings. It is important
to some, meaningless to others. If having an IATAN card will boost
your ego and you qualify, go for it. Otherwise concentrate on selling
travel and building your business. The longer you are in the industry,
the savvier you will become about how the perks – the real perks
– work. Once you’re a seasoned pro, you’ll be in a
better position to know if an IATAN card makes sense – FOR YOU!
All of this
is explained in great detail in our home study course. To order it
today, CLICK HERE.
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