Today had a very good
article in the LA Times by James Gilden. He has taken the same points I have been making for months and has brought them to the people of Los Angeles. Some excerpts from the article:
Whether it's soap or travel websites being marketed, the goal of multi-level marketing companies is to make commissions selling business opportunities to friends, family, even strangers.
In this case, the ones who prosper earn most of their income from the sale of travel websites to other agents, not from the sale of travel itself. In 2006, YTB made 72% of its revenue from the sale of online travel stores and monthly fees and 15% from travel commissions...
...J. Kim Sorensen, president and chief executive of YTB, said YTB had put into place systems to control its agents' requests for FAM trips, funneling them through its central office and verifying the agents were producing travel sales...
...Hewitt made a plane reservation on American Airlines' website, not his own, because "it was cheaper." Hewitt then traveled to his destination and presented his YTB-issued card to several hotels and requested a travel agent rate.
"They just snickered at me when they saw the ID card," he said
