The travel agency business has become a challenging one, as of late.  Its hard to figure out who is what, why should I use an agent, and is my agent even a good one.

My very FIRST job was as an intern/outside sales agent with Village Travel in Decatur, Illinois.  I was able to learn the tricks of the trade from Ms Kay Penn, a very well respected agency owner who also had a travel school in our hometown.  She and her agents taught me the right way to operate an agency and be a travel agent.  Back then, you had to go to a travel school and pay a lot of money to earn the trust of the traveling public.   This 2 year experience then led to migrating over to the airline business, where I started working at the ticket counter & ramp for United Express.  I climbed the ranks of the airline & became a supervisor and trainer, then was offered a job in Florida to manage the stations (airports) and help with the reservations system of a small airline, Florida Coastal.   I was part of the team that helped grow FCA – managing the fares, relationships with travel agents, other airlines, and sales & marketing efforts.   I moved over to Chalks, where we sadly had a crash and many of us continued with little or no pay to keep the airline operating.   We sadly finally ceased operations and I ended up with another US based regional, Vintage Props & Jets and oversaw their reservations system, pricing, and stations in the Florida Keys.   Sadly the economy went downhill, Bahamas traffic dried up and we also had to shut down.  I landed on my feet at Mokulele Airlines & would commute to Hawai’I from my Florida home – where I held a Director position for many years.   Employee travel was put under my belt, and Hawai’I law required a person with travel agency experience head it up, so that’s how I got back into the travel agency business.    The agency survived multiple ownership changes at Mokulele and we expanded it outside of Mokulele to then oversee travel for 4 other airlines; we were saving one airline over $45,000 a month in travel expenses because of our tricks & travel hacks.

My ex boss at Mokulele asked me to oversee the transition of an airline purchase in Juneau, Alaska – and I then moved to Alaska in 2009.  I realized the company needed a local and worked my 6 months (as promised) and went back to work for Mokulele, while maintaining the travel agency.

The travel agency continued to grow as we maintained travel for 3 airlines at the time, and a final ownership change at Mokulele resulted in me working even less hours for the new company.  At the same time, COVID had happened (while I was on a cruise!) and airline & corporate travel came to a dead stop.

Faced with a significant commission recall, no business, and payroll – I didn’t realize my future was staring me in my face.

See, I didn’t leave Alaska when I was done with the Alaskan airline.  I stuck around.  I fell in love with Juneau and Southeast Alaska and maintained an office at the Merchant’s Wharf, located in downtown Juneau.  Because we were a corporate travel agency, we turned away leisure business that somehow found us.

But with Covid lingering, we were able to pivot the agency into today’s Alaska Travel Desk.   Myself & my staff were all avid travelers – considering we had airline benefits for years and most of us were full time airline staff for a while; and we started using our tricks of the trade to help the public.

Working and managing corporate travel for years meant we know how to find the BEST rates, the best options, and have been thru significant travel challenges: as agents, we can help avoid hiccups on your trips and solve problems quickly because we’ve been there!

Today, we are aligned with Travel Edge, one of the leading luxury travel consortias, and still use native Sabre (blue screen) like back in the old days.  We still run airline tickets like we did in 1996, we keep an eye on flights for you, and when things do go wrong – we save you HOURS UPON HOURS of time from being stuck on hold with the airlines; if we book your flights, we can also fix them in minutes.

Alaska Travel Desk is still entrusted by airlines & even cruise lines, Chambers of Commerce, and other companies with their travel.    And I hope our experience will earn your trust.

Anyone can go online and book.  But every single travel company (airline, hotel, cruise line, etc) makes sure to hide pertinent and important information – things we have at our finger tips.   This is where we differ from “side gig” travel bookers who claim to be agents – we are there to FIX things when they go wrong, we advocate for you during trouble spots, and we can fix things.   Leave the stress to us, not your spouse!   I treat your money like its my own and will always make sure you get the BEST value!

 When you use me & Alaska Travel Desk, you are ensuring a perfect trip and cruise vacation.