What Is A Card Mill?

Back on October 17th, a white paper was created at ASTA defining a card mill. Certainly this was in response to the announcement by Royal Caribbean International to drop several agencies, and ASTA's support of the move.

What I find interesting, is that this white paper has not materially changed over the years. It seems to be the same "MO" for the card mills time and time again. Eventually, they will go away, but in the meantime, they wreak havoc in the industry.

Consumers become alienated and confused. Vendors can feel that they were duped. And of course the traditional travel agents (home based, online, or the "dying" brick and mortar agencies) suffer the brunt of the damage with a huge black eye. The card mill will reinvent and move to another industry and so the cycle begins again. And oh yeah, the ones that buy into the program typically find that the thousands of dollars invested would have earned a higher return playing scratch-off lottery tickets!

YTB has come out with guns blazing with proclamations that they are not a card mill. They are releasing press release after press release highlighting some of the agent-esque things they do--like their 136,000 "agents" selling between 6000 and 6500 cruises a day*, or partnering with a non USTOA listed tour operator for the Summer Olympics, to hanging their hats on a marginally investigated special edition of Travel Weekly where they were listed as a top "agency" in the US. By their actions, one would think that they too are against card mills.

Well, according to ASTA, here are the 5 signs that may indicate a business is really a card mill. So, where does YTB feel it is so different? Maybe ASTA (an organization that is recognized as THE trade association for travel agents worldwide) is just as wrong as Royal Caribbean, Perillo, and IATAN. Maybe Kim Sorensen needs to work a little harder at "legitimizing" this business--and I will say that I feel that the term "legitimizing" is a very interesting choice of words coming from YTB.

1. The cards expressly represent that the holder is a “travel agent” and imply that the holder is actively engaged on an agency’s behalf in selling travel to the general public. Both representations are false and intended to deceive suppliers. (YTB calls then RTAs upon signing up and CRTAs when they attend a class. TraverUs calls them CTAs. Anyone want to venture a guess as to what the "TA" in the abbreviations mean? Would anyone like to guess if the abbreviation is spelled out on a the credential card?)
2. Ads promise glamour and the high life at a bargain, and the chance to make money with little effort. (Has anyone seen an ad inviting you to "Travel Like An Insider" or offering lucrative discounts? Has anyone heard the pitch "For $50 a month, you just point people to your website and earn 60% commission off of their travels. You can earn money while you sleep!"? Heck, Travel Weekly even ran a news story on an agency that was trying to offer this to its clients--mycruisebookings.com. )
3. Card mills’ promotional literature is replete with references to cards or cardholders” status as being “official,” “certified,” “accredited,” “endorsed” and/or “approved,” falsely implying that persons who purchase the cards automatically enjoy good standing with industry accrediting bodies or with suppliers generally. (OK, the gig is up, CRTA=CERTIFIED Referring Travel Agent, CTA=CERTIFIED Travel Agent--as opposed to The Travel Institute's industry recognized CTA)
4. Card mills fail to disclose, or fail to disclose in a prominent manner, that suppliers such as airlines and some large hotel chains will not honor the card at all if presented in support of a request for agent discounts. (Has anyone attended a presentation? While it may be in small writing in the back office, the message is loud and clear that the suppliers are all supporting the program. A presentation I attended even displayed the RCCL and Celebrity logos--and this was two weeks ago.)
5. Card mills may falsely promise to supply “training materials” and agent “support services” that will adequately equip the purchaser to function as a travel agent. (While some MLMs may offer these, it is typically at a substantial additional cost that may or may not be disclosed. The "training" in many cases is not terribly useful in that it is more product presentation from specific vendors and not about the business of selling travel. And in most cases, it is utilized as a stepping stone to a legitimate credential in the form of a CLIA card. The training is usually not required and is attended by a vast minority of the people in the program.)

So, TraverUs, YTB, GTI, et al---can any of these be refuted? In a prior post I was lambasted for saying "it it looks like a duck, walks like a duck and quacks like a duck...well it must be a duck". So, I will say it again....it looks like a mill, smalls like a mill, operates like a mill....must be a mill!

Maybe the next post will take a look at the damage it does to the consumer.

*Apparently we are still not sure of the total nearly two months after the event. One press release indicated 13,000 passengers, but in a release yesterday, Scott Tomer claimed it was 12,000 passengers. But if you ask some RTAs, they might claim it was 45,000 cruises sold, or even $15 million dollars. I am not sure we will ever know, but for now I will go with the official "guess" from YTB and say it is between 12,000 and 13,000 PASSENGERS that either bought certificates or a cruise which will equal about 6000 cruises for the sales team of 136,000.