How to Become a Ticket Agent
Working as a ticket agent can be an exciting job and segue into a number of travel career opportunities. Every town with a train station, airport or boat harbor employs ticket agents to provide front line support for customers looking to make travel purchases and plan their next trip. The U.S. Department of Labor expects this field to grow by 8 percent in the next 10 years. If you like working with people and can multitask in a fast-paced, often stressful environment, then working as a ticket agent could be the right career for you.
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Instructions
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Know what you're getting yourself into. It's important to visit an airport, train station, harbor or future site of employment and observe the stresses of working a ticket desk before deciding this is the career for you. Besides selling tickets and checking customers in, ticket agents assist travelers with tagging their luggage, seat assignments, travel changes and rerouting canceled departures. This can require a lot of work with computers and customer service complaints dealing with angry customers. Travel can bring out the worst in some people, so make sure you can deal with unhappy people.
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Prepare a resume. It's important to show the hiring company that you possess the skills necessary for the job. Create a resume that highlights past customer service and sales experiences. Your resume should also convey excellent verbal and written skills, basic typing, the ability to use different computer systems and that you understand basic math. Appearance is also important--most companies expect their employees to keep a well-groomed, pleasant appearance.
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Determine where you want to work and approach the hiring department. Most airline ticket agent jobs are located in major airports that serve as hubs for their airlines, but there are other opportunities at smaller airports. Jobs for train travel are located all over the country, while sea travel positions are obviously near major bodies of water. After you've determined which airline you want to work for, email the employment director or human resources department and ask for an application. Since ticket agents are paid well with little education, competition for these careers can be strong. Individuals willing to move around the country (and even the world) for their company have a competitive advantage.
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Tips & Warnings
Consider using employment sites to look for jobs. Besides Craigslist and Monster, many travel jobs are posted on travel industry specialty sites like avjobs.com. This site maintains a large list of potential employers and provides tips, comments and feedback by other travel professionals.
Federal Law requires that you pass an FAA-administered background check and drug test to work in the airline industry. The National Department of Transportation also has federal rules about ticket agent work for ground and sea travel. Past criminal convictions or bankruptcies could be used to block your application for a job in the travel industry.
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