Tuesday, September 19, 2006

Lihat lah, Dunia....


Finally, after 8 years of working moderately hard, Malaysia Airlines decided that we are worthy of an 'Outstanding Sales Achievement Award'!!!! This award really belongs to my entire staff, without whose effort, this accidental travel agent would have called it a day many, many years ago..

I called myself the accidental travel agent purely because I have never thought that I would be counting airticket stocks each morning, 6 days a week, as a career. Being married to an airline staff, with free annual tickets to do my personal travels, my most meaningful participation to any overseas trip thus far was holding on to the boarding pass handed over to me at the airport by dear Papa.

After leaving a Government job, I set up office in my own bedroom, with only a desk and a laptop hooked online to a stockbroking company. I buried myself thick in serious stock market investment and very soon it appeared like it was a battle between myself against the ticker. After 6months, and a fattened bank account, I became an isolated person. I waited for papa to come home each day to brag about my daily haul and if he failed to show any expression of being impressed, I would start a quarrel.

Papa suggested that I should go back to seeing the world. I started meeting friends again. To make a short story long, one dear friend requested if I could help him manage his fledgling Travel Agency. I asked to buy it over instead, and in 2 weeks I was the owner of a business I knew next to nothing about. Papa nearly had a heart attack!!!!!

I went for a short intensive course in an effort to equip myself and only then started to familiarise myself with the AIRIMP codes, using Alpha, Bravo, Charlie for A,B,C instead of Apple, Bola and Cacing!!!!...ha,ha,ha....
I learnt the structure of a fare ladder, calculated the maximum & minimum permitted mileage and created airlines routings worldwide, within 2weeks.
I obtained a Certificate in Travel Trade with a Credit and could now arrange for your trip to the North Pole.

Fast forward 8 years later.....What do you know, the national airline has kindly concurred that we are one of the Outstanding Achievers amongst Travel Agencies in the country.

Here's hoping to a more profitable business in the years to come......

11 comments:

Mat Salo said...

Hi Kak Irma! Someone just asked me to chk out yr blog - good stuff coz' it did elicit quite a few chuckles out of me. You can view mine at matsalo.com - just don't tell my wife what you read in there tho'. A bit risque la. Yup that 'Visitor from Ostolia' on yr freeneo thingy is me - long story, I'm in Indonesia but my satellite link is in Perth. To whet yr suspense a little, I believe we might've crossed paths...hmm small world! Happy writing and good luck in yr bizness! (How on earth do you do it - superwoman or what?)

Mama Rock said...

mama irma, congratulations and here's to many more awards to come! cheers!

mama irma said...

Dear Mat Salo,
Thank you for finding the time to write me a comment. I have since removed the counter which detected the origin of my visitors simply because my daughter laughed and did not believe that someone from Palestine read my blog!!...How do our paths crossed though? Did you try to apply for an AP from MITI? (joke!)....

mama irma said...

mama rock,
Thank you for your kind wishes. Shall I aim for the CEO of the year next?

Kak Teh said...

mama irma!!! tahniah, tahniah ! tahniah! I wish I have yr strength and intelligence and perseverence!

mama irma said...

Kak Teh,
Thanks a lot for your support and encouragement! Those qualities that you mentioned, you easily have them all!!!!!!!

Unknown said...

MamaIrma,
Tahniah, tahniah

Jo Kontan said...

Mama Irma !!

Huge Congratulations !

You don't believe what I've just done. Besarkan gambar tu dengan harapan dapat tengok nama company tuu.

Mebbe next time, kalau beli tickets boleh dapat humungous discounts, mentineing I know Mama from Blogland. Bley ?

Salam Ramadhan Al Mubarak.

mama irma said...

Jo,
Sorry about having to remove the company's name from the trophy. Nanti kalau nak travel, just type in your request in any of the comment boxes, I will certainly get back to you.

mama irma said...

anasalwa,
Thank you!

Cherry said...

i just joined the airline 2 yrs (less 1 month ago). from my observation, they are really scrutinizing the TA nowadays. so if you got the award, you really superb lah. btw does yr TA do ground travel arrangement to HK or Istanbul. seriously ... pls email me ninuknoviati@gmail.com . cepat eee .