Travel Agent card

Nicole, where did you get this info from? Do you have an email that you can forward to me?

Thanks!

Dawn

Okay I'm confused, is the agency Joystar?

Terri

Terri, I think Joystar is the agency that did not get chosen b y Coastal but would like to be exclusive to WCYS. I may be wrong but that's how I took it.

The system is Joystar. Hope this helps!

Thank you Terri and Nicole for your information.
I can't wait to try it out. I have been occasionally been able to get the "travel industry" rate (which is the travel agent rate). I don't have an IATA card, but they sometimes let me get away with showing my airline ID card. I know the discounts are very good so I am looking forward to becoming a part of this.

Susan

Thanks Vishal!!

Terri

You are very welcome Susan. How did you get an airline Id card? Just curious.

Thanks,
Nicole

Nicole,
Susan is a flight attendant.

Oh, I was wondering?? Makes since now!! Thanks for clearing that up.

Nicole

Terri,
I noticed with the free program that Joystar offers you have to be a travel agent with 2 years experience. Is that the one that you joined? Also, if there is a special way we are supposed to join since we are Coastal members how do we go about doing that?

Terri,

I don't feel comfortable posting the actual web address just because I would hate for someone that is not with coastal to go in and sign up under coastal but if anyone wants to email for the address, I will be more than happy to give you all the address. Sorry bout that.

Nicole

Hey, just wanted to let everyone know that I got an email today from the travel agent company and we, as Coastal members are not eliglible for the free agent program. Sorry about the confusion. I think someone mentioned that earlier on this board. I received an email from them today. If you have any questions, please let me know!

Nicole

Really? I thought a few people had already signed up for the free program with no problems.

Hmmm...I hope something will be posted on the training site soon.

I'm confused....

It's true--I signed up yesterday, but got an email today saying that as Coastal members we are not eligible for free.. Must have 2 years travel experience.

I have over 12 years travel experience with the Hyatt Corp, Forlow Tours, Budget car rental I guess thats why I was able to have the free program. So which one is the Coastal one??

Whichever one is Coastal's program get it, this is truly one of the best HOST agencies I ever seen and well worth whatever the cost.

I have seen the training videos, the vendors they are associated with, trust me this one beats the ones I seen in the past.

Coastal really needs to clarify all this for everyone!!

OK, folks, I just talked to a lady named Emily at Joystar. If you want the particulars of signing up just email but I will share with you a couple of things I learned. They do NOT give you an IATA card like InteleTravel does. You can only get an IATAN or CLIA card after you have booked $5,000 worth of travel with them and that is a per year number. She said that companies that do give you the IATA card are "card mills" and are not respected by the travel industry. Personally, that is the main reason I joined Inteletravel is to have the IATA card and to be able to get the FAM trips if I want them. Plus, it's $26.00 a month where I am paying $7.50 a month right now for a site and membership with Inteletravel. I do not book travel for anyone and I don't really plan on spending money on advertising to start booking travel so, at this moment, I see no reason to sign up with Joystar because it's almost like stepping back a step to not have the IATA card. Even if my "card mill" IATA card gets me a littel discount it's worth it to me. What do you guys think?

Thanks Harold but I prefer staying with JoyStar because I do want to sell travel and they have better deals than Intele for the general public AND fam trips for agents.

Some of their vacations start at $99, you can get better air fares with them because of all of their consolidators and their training videos, marketing training, leads etc are fantastic.
I guess you can say I am sold on JoyStar.

Unlike you that only has to pay $7.50 because you are grandfathered in I believe Intele is more for the rest of us for less.

And I knew about their reputation as a card mill, reputation is everything in this industry. They don't give you the card but they allow you to use their IATAN number and CLIA number when booking which is all the "card" is, it is actually using the host agencies IATA number. You get your own card with your own number when you sell $5,000 BUT actually all you need is the number, and Joystar allows you to book using their number just as Intele does.

Again just my humble opinion.

Terri

I understan, Terri. I agree with you. For you Joystar is a great option. The site is WAY nicer that inteletravel and it's obvious that they are more professional. Let us know how it goes. If I ever get to the point I want to book travel I will DEFINATELY go with them. It's nice to have a real travel agent like you to ask questions to also. Thanks for all your tips and I know I'm not the only one on this forum that feels that way.

I've chosen to stick with inteletravel.

Jay NaPier