A Vacation.com agency that specializes in international tours and cruises, destination weddings and religious groups.
I have been a travel industry professional for over 40 years serving, teaching and leading. As an airline employee for 12 years, I performed every function from loading bags to processing freight shipments to supervising ticket counter activities. The last 6 years with the airlines I developed sales and managed staffing at several government and military locations in St Louis.
Later I managed a staff of 11 leisure travel agents for American Express at two offices simultaneously in St Louis. While there I earned Management Excellence awards in 3 consecutive years. Among my accomplishments, I planned the travel arrangements for the first US radio broadcast in Russia by KMOX, a major radio station in St Louis,
I then moved to the business travel side of American Express, ultimately managing accounts at 6 onsite travel accounts with 25 employees in 3 states with over $30 million in sales. During that time I planned and staffed 3 new travel offices from the initial stages to the Grand Opening of each.
In 1995, I purchased Advantage Travel and converted it from a sleepy local agency with one other full-time agent to a busy agency with 4 full-time agents, one part-time agent, and four outside sales agents. The focus of the agency changed to include international tours and cruises, and group travel for corporate meetings, destination weddings, and missionary travel. In 2001 after the 911 attack, I had to use my years of experience to help stranded clients in several situations. In one case I booked a Budget truck rental for a corporate client stuck in Illinois with no car rentals available. In another, I booked a car rental for clients stranded in Vancouver after a cruise so they could get to Seattle for a TWA flight to STL after I had booked the last 2 seats available on that flight. The cruise line had told them they couldn't get them home for another two days. One of the clients was going to start a new job the next day.
That mix of business still is the focus of the agency, but now I work from my home, allowing me to be available more hours and with greater emphasis on service. I now can take late night urgent calls for clients like the one I received after Typhoon Haiyan in late November 2013. I was able to get a church group rerouted when they couldn't get help from the local airlines or agencies in the Philippines. I was able to prove the motto "Without a travel agent, you're on your own."
For the last 20 years, I have also served as an adjunct faculty member at a local community college. During that time I have taught several hospitality and travel courses to hundreds of students. My office is lined with memos and tokens from appreciative students that I helped to enter the travel industry.
Last, I have been blessed to see much of the world and appreciate the beauty and culture that exists all over. My joy is to help others experience that, too.
To faithfully serve our clients and our God ethically and morally
Travel services to include:
Airline ticket sales
Domestic and international tours
Cruises
Weddings and honeymoons
Church and missionary travel
