Let me start by saying that I am not writing this to bad mouth any person. The people I have worked with are very nice; it’s Avoya’s process and that training leaves much to be desired. I have been with Avoya for five weeks now and can say that this agency is not a good fit for me as a new travel advisor. I have so far paid Avoya $600 for both a sign-up fee as well as two monthly fees. What I have received in return is about 100 video lessons on their booking system, Agent Power. I have an MBA and retired in April after a hugely successful career in sales, so I think it’s fair to say I’m a reasonably intelligent person. The Avoya videos are basically filled with an overwhelming amount of information overload so I have printed out the corresponding PDFs (and have gone through another $100 on ink cartridges and paper in the process) just to have a written “set of breadcrumbs” to refer to. I was very up front before signing up that this would be a part time job for me, but part time won’t get you through the four waves of tutorials on their booking system before you are in the hole for a lot of money in additional monthly fees. After that you move on to suppliers and specializing before you see a lead. Half way through the program a short video is slipped in essentially saying most of the leads are worthless which is what some others have stated in their reviews. If I could get my $500 fee back I would be on to one of the smaller boutique host agencies in a heartbeat as I know Avoya will not be my forever host agency. However, I am not throwing out $500. Six of my friends are pursuing a career in travel advising and we each selected a different host agency to train with…different in size as well as affiliation with consortia. We are comparing what you get for your money in terms of human interaction, mentoring and training so that we can help other people make better choices when they select a host agency to join. Avoya is a large agency and has been around awhile so there are people who gel with their way of doing things. I feel like a small fish in a big pond here; someone they are collecting money from in exchange for rote videos and a veiled threat of not being kept on after a certain period of time. I am going to ride their training out so I can at least do a fair comparison with the training my six friends are getting at other agencies. The silver lining is I will have a tax write off in March for all the money I have spent without being in a position to earn a dime.