travel consultant

travel agent

software engineer

team leader

manager

Flight Centre Travel Group

Flight Centre has a cult-mentality and utilises many clever psychological tricks on their staff. I would highly recommend watching a documentary available on YouTube called 'The Slave Circle' for an excellent insight into the manipulative world of companies similar to Fligh Centre. It resonated with me and if you have worked at Flight Centre it probably will you too.

You are glibly informed during your training to get used to 'flightmares' as it is so common for employees to have crippling night terrors as a result of working for the company. This is because errors are deducted from your earnings. While my largest error only totaled $800, colleagues of mine were battling against debits of up to $8000. 

Arriving to work at 8am is mandatory and it is rare that you leave before 6pm. The culture within the workplace is that you do not take lunch breaks. On average, taking into consideration the hours I worked and the money I earnt, I was earning about $14 per hour. 

The spiels that you will be met with are rehearsed, and drummed into management so hard that they have truly drunk the kool-aid and believe the rhetoric they spew.

The training that Flight Centre offers is not real training. It is not about business, structure, or the art of selling. It is all about 'The Law of Attraction'.  The psychological consensus amongst experts is that this does not work and it can actually be extremely harmful. 

This training is mandatory, and not only does it mean you are away from your desk for a full day, but it is purely to top up the mind conditioning that Flight Centre relies on to keep you working hard.

Your desk is NOT your business, you are NOT in charge. You work for a company and you are obligated to do what they want. Do not listen to upper management that say you earn what you want. This is exactly what pyramid schemes say too.

Don't even think about heading into a monthly one-on-one with an area leader with researched, logical, business ideas or plans. The internet is proving competition? LAW OF ATTRACTION. The socio economics of this region has fallen? THINK POSITIVE. I am not even joking here, (and I really wish I was), but once I was told to skip into work. The saddest part - I did. Unsurprisingly, it did not impact my sales.

You will be told that you will receive free travel. I was personally offered 6 that I was aware of, but there were dozens of others that I heard about second hand. In my 3 years with the company I received 1. The others were turned down, on my behalf, by my Team Leaders (another pyramid scheme terminology), due to the fact that each store was consistently understaffed.

This is because staff retention rates are extremely poor. Poorer than fast food employees, bar tenders, waitresses. Think about that for a minute. This means that the consultants (not the 'Team Leaders' because they need to make that commission too) are consistently training new staff, which is even more time out of your potential earning time.

Alcoholism and weight gain is so common within the company that it is flippantly joked about. The 'Flight Centre Spread'. If you believe that this is a positive, fun, 'party' culture, then let me tell you - the party has to stop eventually and you will find yourself fat and reliant on alcohol.

Alcohol is a prize. If you get top sales - they give you a bottle of wine. Don't want wine? It's chocolate. 

Every month you must give up an entire night (Sometimes hours away from your store) to attend a 'buzz night'. This is generally at a sad pub with poor quality food, and the cheapest of alcohol packages freely flowing. 

Before getting into this cult please truly consider the hours you will be working with what you are likely to be making. It is a VERY small percent that is making the figures the brand will sell you on during the interview process. 

I am now a professional sales representative that has worked in corporate sales and managed large areas. I excel at my job. I work hard. I earn good money. At Flight Centre I was earning $14 an hour.

Don't drink the kool-aid.

A Typical Day:
8:00 am - Morning meeting / Destination Training / Product Training
9:00 am - Check Emails
9:30 am - Do monthly job (Bank Rec, Banking, Eftpos, Marketting)
10:00 am - 6:00 pm - Take enquiry / Make bookings via Phone, Email and Walk Ins
6:00 pm - 9:00pm - Finish any incomplete tasks and bookings. The store was so busy that nothing could be complete during the day unless the client was sitting in front of you.

I learnt so much about the world, time management, the operations of a business, bank reconciliation, how to work in a team, how to hit daily targets with personal strategies, everything and anything about airfares (my specialty), the competition around me, what stress feels like, how to deal with and resolve complaints/problems, how to be successful and help the business make more and more profit.

I was assistant manager so I helped with the store management. It really showed me how stressful management can be in a fast paced environment. I handled it very well and always led those around me. My sales figures were very, very high and everyone in store aspired to be as successful as me taking on board all advice I had to offer.

My co-workers were all very different from each other. Those with a positive attitude were much more successful than those with a negative attitude. I got along great with everyone but felt the social pressure in store was very intense. Everyone wanted to associate with each other all the time, even though we worked so many hours together everyday. It was very hard to achieve work life balance in this environment.

The hardest part of the job was trying to complete daily tasks during work hours as I was constantly interrupted with unexpected tasks and clients coming to see me without notice. This could not be controlled and led to me working lots of overtime.

The most enjoyable part of the job was the competition with KPI's and feeling success when I had just finished a great month. I was extremely driven by the sales aspect of the job and almost became addicted to making money! The free travel and incentives was also fantastic.

Flight Centre is like the Woolworths of the travel industry.  You are but a number and if you aren't performing within two months of starting they will start to performance manage you out.   No matter how many years experience you have, you will be put on a traineeship so they can justify the minimum wage. 

If you are in an extremely busy store, then financially you will survive.  You don't get paid overtime for weekend shifts or public holidays.  There is an expectation that you do unpaid overtime weekly but in more cases on the daily. As its a sales role, they believe you will be compensated accordingly.  

Management have their own goals to achieve so mentoring is minimal if they aren't on track.  Your co-workers are also your training buddies so if they're available then help isn't far.  Watch out though - cause if you make a mistake you 100% have to pay for it out of your commission!  (yes that's your take home pay down the drain).  

Free trips happen but you have to be the best selling consultant to be eligible.  So don't expect one for a couple of years. 

Mobile phone:  There is an expectation that you give out your OWN mobile number so customers can call you 24/7.  They claim they will compensate you for the costs but they don't. 

Workplace culture: Work hard to achieve goals, and if you haven't then it's frowned upon and Management will begin to micro manage you. The once a month out of hours get togethers are fun.  

Most enjoyable part of the job is you get to talk to customers about and build their dream holidays.  But you get that at any travel agency. 

Good:  Do It Yourself training modules.  If you have the time (so I'm talking in your own time - not in work) be sure to do the online training modules because you'll learn a lot. 

Given all I know now, I wouldn't consider them as a first preference - look beyond and get a base salary you can live off

It started off amazing and while I loved helping people with their travels I was overwhelmed by the high expectations. They compare every store as the same which means if you are in a small store with not a lot of walk in you are penalized. Famils (free trips) to explore products with tour companies etc are refused if you haven't made over 180k every month for 6 months. What is meant to be a reward to understand the product is refused if not succeeded this amount. Again very hard in a smaller circumstance, to which all shopping mall stores receive the constant trips. Area management in Brisbane was appalling, with judgement, sexism and ageism. Area management would constantly pull down the team leaders and give backhanded comments in front of staff to undermine them. 

You only earn 1% commission based on the 180k you can earn more on how many components you sell, however this is worked with the system to make it difficult for people to actually earn. So while FC are making millions on the backs of each consultant you aren't earning anything above $3000 unless you sell over $250k. These are much harder targets to reach when you are competing with online. 

I only got 2 weeks of training and then onto the floor, I was meant to get floor training and had not received any. This was during the reopening of the world during COVID which meant it was super busy and understaffed.

Take the job at the risk of high stress, losing sanity and working with people who have severe depression, anxiety or mental disorders.

I enjoy working at FC for the most part - my team is fun and highly supportive (including my amazing team leader), the customers are mostly really nice and there is a lot of potential for growth and development. HOWEVER, the base pay is extremely low, we only get 1% commission, and educational trips are never guaranteed. The hours are long and some days you will not make a single sale, even though I'm working in an inner-suburb store. I am struggling on this pay, and therefore have to start looking elsewhere. 

A typical day at work: reach office at 8.30am, set up for the day, have a team meeting about figures and sales targets (which are somewhat unrealistic) and then get straight into bookings. Lunch break is 30 minutes, but we can take it at any time and no one tracks how long you actually take. The day finishes at 5.30pm but often I see my team stay past that time to finish bookings. I value my work-life balance too much to stay past the time I'm required to be at work so I'm out at 5.30pm on the dot. 

What I've learnt: SABRE, Helio, flight rules, tours, cruises and packages. 

Management: Haven't had much communication with management but I've also only been in the role for a few months.

Workplace culture: I'm lucky my team is so supportive and friendly, but I know not every team is like that. 

Hardest part of the job: The pay and low incentives, also the long hours, and some days not making a single sale. Customers will put you through the ringer to make big bookings for them then disappear without a trace - all part of the industry though and not FC's fault.

Most enjoyable part of the job: making peoples holidays a reality, and seeing people excited about their travels!

I have been with Flight Centre since March and its been an up and down trip, I personally love my job and my co workers can be fun and entertaining! I do believe though the targets we are made to reach is kind of unrealistic and don't know who to approach about this without fear of loosing my job. 

I work in a more quiet store and having the target of $55,000 in bookings with $5,500 in commission in a month when our store only has between 1-3 people walk in per day (some days ZERO) or only a handful of phone calls is making it harder as being new I don't have a database like other consultants, We are expected to have every booking at a $300 + Commission which can be hard if people only want just Flights or Accommodation as some don't offer that big percentage in Commission. 

I know of a few people in my training who has left after so much stress from the company but take it from me someone who has really bad anxiety and mental health you just need to not stress and take your time! They cannot fire you if there isn't bookings there to make or cant reach a number!

I will say with my mental health my TL has been better with me and has offered to let me leave to see psychologist appointments when needed and has been fantastic having me off work for multiple deaths in 2 weeks so some staff do care you just need to work with them as well to get a good solution.  

Just please PLEASE I beg head office and the Area leaders and TL'S just give us more realistic figures and would be more easier to achieve!  I do hope to see an email within the next week of a new improvement!

Being able to work at Flight Centre you need to possess the skills of multi- tasking and the ability to work in a high pressure, high stress environment. I am happy to say I did have those skills and feel very accomplished during my time working for Flight Centre.
I thoroughly enjoyed my time with the company and having a 'work hard play hard attitude' is also a must. 
The most enjoyable part of the job was definitely planning clients dream holidays, some as small as a weekend away in Sydney, to honeymoons in the Maldives and large European and American adventures. No matter how big or how small all were special and important to the client and I definitely understood and appreciated this. 
I had a large repeat client base and a majority of my business was repeat client base which is the best feeling to know clients want to come back to you as they appreciate your time and effort into their holidays. Rapport building was and still is my strongest point in anything I do.
The workplace culture was general great and working as a team is a must, and although not all clients that sat down with you were 'your client' it was essential to help them out just like they were your own, which did happen most of the time during my time at Flight Centre.
Overall I loved my time working here, I think the only downside is the work life balance as you would generally work a lot of overtime, late nights and weekends.

The business doesn’t care for anyone who isn’t a leader in head office and most certainly doesn’t give a flying **** for anyone in stores (regardless of brand). People are miserable, teams are flat out and employees are simply walking. The company is renowned for paying well under market and if you think you’ll get more think again. The perks they offer? You won’t get them. They don’t exist. There are SO many young people. Im not saying they’re not good at their jobs but I know cheap labour when I see it. The kicker here is this feedback has been delivered pretty consistently to the leaders yet do they have not and will not do anything. You’ll find once working  in any role that those in the grander roles will be flown business class around the globe to gallivant around doing “planning days” at the expense of the business but you’ll be left to rot and expected to perform unpaid overtime. Professional development? Forget about it. No investment anywhere, you’re expected just to make money out of thin air and then get persecuted if that doesn’t happen. If you value your career, you won’t go anywhere near this business or its brands. I’m not another disgruntled employee, this is just another honest take. This place was great to work for until it wasn’t.

was there for more than a year, I saw managers come and go, I saw lots of other staff come and go. 

Management and corporate would see the high turnover, asked what the problem was, then ignored the answer. 

The payment and commission structure was setup in a way that you only get 1.5% of what you put through the till, so if you sell a $100 flight, you personally get $1.50  thats it. Their base wage is minimum wage, doesn't matter if you mark it up or over charge the customer, your percentage doesn't change. 

So you try you hardest to get sales, to book travel, to learn all the systems and work with all the suppliers.... only to have long hours and poor pay. I worked out that my average hourly rate (for the hours i had to do) was actually 15/hour because if you only do the hours on the roster than "you aren't doing all your work". 

This is on top of the mandatory drinking, yes, mandatory. They would hold every single monthly meeting in a pub, club or RSL, there would be open tabs and even the "prizes" for doing well was wine or spirits. There was more than once that staff were drinking before the store even opened.

About the only positive thing I can say Flight Centre is that it showed me why people are turning away from flight centre and booking online, because it is a blatant rip off and the big sign out the front saying "from $99" is actually never $99 - straight out false marketing.

I enjoyed my time working in Flight Centre for the most part. Most people start with the company by completing a two year traineeship with ongoing training throughout (which was also how I started in the company)

The base pay is low - even for that of a traineeship, so be prepared to also rely on your monthly commission (which has a minimum monthly target you must hit after 12 months in the company) or find another job with a higher base pay!

The hardest part of the job is definitely the long hours sitting at a desk (I found this had a big effect on my mental and physical health) - especially on the quieter days/weeks and the pressure to hit targets even in these quieter times.

It is definitely important to be aware that this is primarily a SALES job. Although it is great to be able to help people plan these amazing trips you will be judged on your performance in the company mainly by the numbers you are making, and if you are comfortable and confident doing this you will likely do well in the company.

Overall, I enjoyed my time with Flight Centre. If you go into the job with the right attitude and knowledge of what the job actually entails (it's not all free famils and happy customers haha) you will likely have a better outlook to stay in the company.

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