Your Stories: From cabin crew to AAAs winner, Sean Buckley reflects on his career in travel

Barrhead Travel’s Northwich manager talks to Andrew McQuarrie about his career to date, which includes triumphing at the Agent Achievement Awards

Q. What’s your most memorable moment in travel?
A.Winning the Leisure Manager of the Year award at the AAAs this year. After everything we’ve gone through, with Thomas Cook collapsing, Covid and taking a long time to open our store and all the hard work that went into it, to get that AAAs recognition for myself and the team was a really proud moment. I was up against some highly talented managers from across the UK.

I joined Thomas Cook in Altrincham as assistant manager and the cluster manager role became available, so I did the central Cheshire cluster just before it collapsed

Q. Can you tell us about your career to date?
A. I went to college to study travel and tourism, but after 9/11 lots of people left the course and it closed down, so I got a job with Thomas Cook as a trainee travel consultant in the Northwich store. That was when I was 16. I did two years there and progressed to assistant manager of the Wilmslow store. After that, I went to the airline as cabin crew for 10 years, working my way up to cabin manager, before going back into retail. I joined Thomas Cook in Altrincham as assistant manager and the cluster manager role became available, so I did the central Cheshire cluster just before it collapsed. Then I came to Barrhead, where I’ve been for about four years.

We’ve taken on three more staff to get us through peaks so there are 10 of us now, which is pretty big considering we’ve only been open for 18 months

Q. How’s the Northwich store performing?
A. It’s really busy. We’ve only been open since April 2022, so we’re the newest Barrhead branch in England, but we’re the busiest. We’re 30% up on last year, which was a good year for us. We’ve taken on three more staff to get us through peaks so there are 10 of us now, which is pretty big considering we’ve only been open for 18 months.

Q. How has recruitment been?
A. We’ve been lucky on this occasion, but recruitment is a struggle. People who left travel during Covid are hesitant to get back into it. They’ve settled into the jobs they moved to during the pandemic.

We’re also putting together a lot of long-haul tailor-made itineraries for customers who want something special. Touring and adventure is growing, too, and we’re doing a lot of family holidays

Q. What are your biggest sellers in store?
A. Cruise is a huge part of our business at the moment. We’re booking a lot of Asia and Australasia sailings with Celebrity Cruises. We’re also putting together a lot of long-haul tailor-made itineraries for customers who want something special. Touring and adventure is growing, too, and we’re doing a lot of family holidays.

Q. Have you seen any booking trends recently?
A. There have been a lot of multigenerational families travelling on special trips. They’re doing more long-haul or bucket-list destinations. And more people are booking two holidays – they’re booking one big holiday and then a city break. So even though there’s a cost-of-living crisis, they’re not stopping booking holidays – it’s just getting busier and busier.

Looking at what people will be booking next year, there are going to be even more bucket-list trips so we need to hone in on that and get US experts in store as well as touring and adventure ones

Q. What are your plans for 2024?
A. I would like to grow the business by 30% again, so we’re getting all the peaks campaigns ready. In January and February, we’re hoping we’ll be extremely busy. Looking at what people will be booking next year, there are going to be even more bucket-list trips so we need to hone in on that and get US experts in store as well as touring and adventure ones.

Q. What was it like joining Barrhead after so long with Thomas Cook?
A. It was quite scary because I’ve always known Thomas Cook and its ways of working, so coming to an independent felt like starting from scratch, but it was definitely the best move. The flexibility here is brilliant and Barrhead really does look after its people.

It was quite scary because I’ve always known Thomas Cook and its ways of working, so coming to an independent felt like starting from scratch, but it was definitely the best move

Q. What are you doing for your 40th next year?
A. We’re going to the Maldives for two weeks – it’s always been on my bucket list. I can sit on the beach and relax for two weeks, but my other half likes to be active so it’s never been a destination he wanted to go to, but with it being a special occasion he’s given in! We’ll be staying on Cocogiri Island Resort, a small boutique island with only 40 rooms and we’ve got a water bungalow. I’m looking forward to the beaches and snorkelling. We’ll also be going to Disneyland Paris right after my birthday.

What was it like being cabin crew and how has it helped you as a travel agent?

Being cabin crew was brilliant and a completely different way of life. You could be doing a few trips to Palma in a week but then last-minute it could get changed and you could be going to Canada or the Caribbean and spending a week there. When you’ve got time off, you can do anything you want so you can see all the sights. It’s a really good way to travel the world. You meet so many types of people on board and you hardly ever work with the same person as there’s so many of you.

My time as cabin crew has helped me massively since then. As crew, I spent quite a lot of time in Canada because we did a lot of Canadian Affair flights. It’s a huge country and there are lots of different itineraries you can put together, so it’s helped me loads as a travel agent because we’re a Canada specialist. I would say about 20%-25% of our business is Canada. At Thomas Cook Northwich we didn’t really get Canada enquiries, but after coming to Barrhead and advertising ourselves as a specialist, we do get a lot more and we get different clientele in.