On April 5, we initiated a post in support of travel agents. For many of you this may have come as a surprise since we MAY have given the impression that we have a hard-on for giving it to the travel industry as a whole. Nothing could be further from the truth. We are actually, in our own way, SUPPORTING the travel industry. Hell, we’d shut down tomorrow if travelers received fair pricing and quality customer service…and airlines made a concerted effort to banish what we at Aircomplane.com like to call the Airline A-Hole Quadrangle: attitude, apathy, arrogance, and (lack of) accountability. (A quadrangle is kind of like a hole, isn’t it?)
In the posting, which you can read here later, your Spite Attendant Crew offered four significant reasons why working with a legitimate travel agent could improve your chances for a better travel experience.
And then, the most amazing thing happened. Someone posted a comment to our blog post basically plugging a Multi-Level Marketing company that, from what we can tell, is about as far from what experienced, certified, and proven travel agents do. Now, as several of you can attest, I often pull truly important comments and correspondence from within Aircomplane.com and give them top billing. After all, you are what make us relevant. So, I am going to do the same thing here while fulfilling our mission of protecting you, the traveler, further.
On July 25, 2007, Mr. Terry Zulit of “The Terry Zulit Financial Freedom Blog” posted the following comment:
“I found a way to write-off all my travel, and get my travel agent status. I then can write-off all my travel costs. I made a long post that explains it all here:
http://www.zulit.com/2007/07/24/pro-travel-network-review-to-end-all-pro-travel-network-reviews/ You might be interested in using the idea. Don’t worry about signup with me, but seriously…it works saving a ton on travel per year.
Terry”
Interesting.
First, know how fascinated we are that someone had the balls (if not the brains) to piggyback on our blog with a plug for a Multi-Level Marketing endeavor EXACTLY COUNTER to the points of Aircomplane.com’s editors. Normally we would applaud such chutzpah. This is, after all (and unless you’re on an airplane), a free country. But your Aircomplane.com Spite Attendants decided it was necessary to do a little digging into this dubious ticket to “Financial Freedom” and see what surfaced.
- Terry Zulit is proudly part of a Multi-Level Marketing (travel) company called Pro Travel Network. He must have placed some thought into his business decision because his own blog states, as of this posting, “The Internet income I make still far out weighs the Pro Travel Network income. Pro Travel Network (or PTN) is just another strong income stream for me. I’ve been a marketer for 4 years now, and I’ve looked at EVERY MLM opportunity there is on this planet. (no shit).”
- A little further digging about the Pro Travel Network revealed the following:
o The stock for Pro Travel Network (PTVL) is at about its all-time low. As of this post, it’s trading at about $0.31 from a high of $1.75. It dropped over 40% TODAY. (This chart, courtesy of Businessweek.com basically says that a $10,000 initial investment now leaves you with less than $4,000.
o Here is some Securities and Exchange Commission filing information. Don’t stop until you read “Risk Factors.”
Well, we usually like to make three points about something, but that’s really not necessary. A travel agent named “Jay” with 17 years in the travel agency business did comment on Mr. Zulit’s comment, and you can see that here. Perhaps Jay said it best with “What are your travel credentials? Do you have any certifications, destination specialties, advanced degrees, or have you even taken a travel course of any kind? Your “fad” will last only as far as you piss off your friends with poor service and higher prices. As you continue your jaunt through our sensitive yet resilient industry, lose the title of “Travel Agent.” You are a fraud and only an agent for yourself.”
We don’t know about the fraud thing, but we’re kind of happy we don’t own any Pro Travel Network stock. And we’d like to thank Mr. Zulit for bringing the Pro Travel Network to our attention. It always helps to match a name with a craze.
