Respectfully, Ginnis did not do anything wrong. What we sometimes forget about commission based work is that it is double sided. Sometimes, we do a little work and reap large rewards. Other time we do a lot of work and get nothing. It might have been nice if Ginnis has called back and said that he wasn’t using her services, but its hardly mandatory.

In any event at worse, Ginnis failed to provide a courtesy. That is hardly the moral equivalent of lying, cheating, and stealing, which is what the travel agent did.

@Stephanus

Again, the limitation of commission work. TAs generally only get paid for closing the deal. That the arrangement that they have with their clients. If TAs want to get paid for doing groundwork, that’s fine, that’s the arrangement that they should make with their clients. But it doesn’t work to get upset when the client acts fully within the confines of the contract to his own benefit.

In fact, in my own industry we are seeing the exact same thing. Clients taking advantage of the 1 hour free consultation and never returning to hire the attorney. Rather than complain, many of us just started charging for the one hour, with the proviso that it would be credited towards the retainer fee if we were hired.

My experience as a (now retired) law enforcement officer is that people that get caught are seldom breaking the law for the first time.

I think it was good reporting and maybe other dishonest TA’s will take note.

Shady transactions and crooks seldom look good under outside observation. Thanks for shining the light.

I remember when I was a consultant and my company used Travel Agents to book my flights, I would sometimes research the schedules and ask the agent to book the flights for me (mostly because we were required to use the agency). I didn’t ask that the agency reimburse me for researching it. I even asked her to book me an upgrade using my upgrade certificates.

I think an appropriate way for Liberty to handle this is for the agent’s name to be listed here. Let the customers decide if they would like to use that particular agent in the future.

Thanks Chris for the followup!

I an shocked that Liberty is “only” making the agent give the commission back as well as the future travel credit.

Ron, Chris wrote that Liberty also gave Mr. Ginnis a $100 voucher…coming out of the agent’s pocket.

The travel agent should be disciplined if not outright fired. The agency should audit her bookings to see if a pattern of dishonesty presents itself. If so, then termination is the only solution. If not, then some appropriate punishment neesd to be mete out, if for no other reason than to discourage her and others from such behavior.