About Coastline :: History

At Your Service Travel Advisors, your local travel agency….

Back in 1968 At your Service Travel Advisors was the new kid on the block.  For those who remember the days before airline regulation ended, selling an airline ticket was like selling any other fixed commodity.  Only, in the case of airline travel, the price was set, the product was structured and as with all travel agencies doing business in the late sixties, you lived by your level of service and your quick knowledge of geography.  “Sure, Mrs. Smith, I know where Kalamazoo is.  Would you like to buy a ticket on Pan Am or Northwest Orient?”

You were right, Mr. Dylan, these times are a changing.  Airline regulation is only a distant memory.  Airlines have come and gone over the years (remember Pan Am, TWA, PSA, Air Cal, Piedmont, Hughes to name just a few), as they were quickly forced to compete amongst each other, not only by price, but more importantly by service.

Much like our partners in the airline industry, the local travel agency also found itself having to compete for customers.  During the years of airline regulation, so long as you could show you were financially sound, (backed by huge ARC bonds), any Tom, Dick, or Harry could start and run a travel agency.  Many did.  In the hay day of travel agencies, there were well over 30,000 locally owned and operated travel agencies in the US.  Now, there is less than half that amount.  Is that a bad thing?  Well, I guess it is for the half that are out of business, but for those who had the foresight to change, then business has never been better.  Competition is good for any industry.

The most important attribute of competition is that it weeds out those who can’t or won’t keep up with the times.  When deregulation began, we watched in horror as friends and colleagues in our industry closed up shop.  They were not prepared for the new emerging technology, nor were they ready for the fierce competition that ensued.

The Internet was some thing that your grand kids played with when they should have been outside playing ball.  I can remember vividly this very stuffy gentleman telling me at a cocktail party that “all this Internet talk was a bunch of nonsense.”  Though I don’t know for certain, but I bet you a free one way airline ticket to Podunk Iowa, that that gentleman is probably selling shoes at a local Nordstrom’s right now.

COASTLINERS WAS BORN …

In 1990, we were fortunate enough to partner up with, at the time, one of the largest banking institutions in California.  Coast Federal Bank approached us about creating a travel program for their bank customers.  If we agreed to take on this new partnership, we would have to change our name to reflect our new relationship.  Thus, At Your Service Travel Advisors became Coastliners. 

The deal was, if you opened up a new checking account, you would receive a voucher on Northwest Airlines for anywhere they flew for  $229.00 round trip.  Wow, what a deal.  Coast Federal Bank opened up thousands of new checking accounts, and the newly named Coastliners grew and grew and grew…In the five years that the program was in effect, Coastliners sold more airline tickets to fill the Rose Bowl twice!  Needless to say, that’s a lot of tickets.

But as all good things eventually come to an end, Coast Federal Bank was purchased by a bigger fish, and Coastliners was put to bed.  But, since most of our new customers knew us as Coastliners, we figured we would somehow try to keep the name alive.

COASTLINE TRAVEL ADVISORS IS BORN…

In 1997 At your Service Travel Advisors, DBA Coastliners, now began operating under the new name, Coastline Travel Advisors, Inc.

If you recall, 1997 was at the brink of the new Internet wave.  At the time, I remember seeing studies that “in the near future, more than 5% of all airline tickets will be purchased on the Internet.”  5%?  Try 75%  in less then 10 years, the Internet has completely changed the landscape of the local travel agency community.  The handwriting was on the wall, even back in 1997.  If you wanted to continue focusing on selling airline tickets, then you might as well get the moving van warmed up because you’re not going to be sticking around for very long.

Brick and mortar stores closed, and up popped Virtual Travel Agencies.  No longer were people stopping by to visit their local travel agent.  Business was being done on the internet and on toll free phones not only on a national scale, but on a global platform.  Reservations come to our office from all over the globe.  New Zealand, Hong Kong, Japan, the UK, Mexico.  You name it, we’ve done business there before.  The old adage of looking for business in your back yard?  Well, I can’t seem to figure out where my back yard is.  New York?  Florida?  Puerto Rico?

Coastline Travel Advisors, Inc. is committed to offering the very best of the best. Be it in our level of service, or our knowledge of the world, our job is to make sure your vacation, or your business trip is hassle free and worry free.  When someone contacts us for information on travel, we don’t just stop at finding the lowest fare; we find out what there is to do in your destination of choice.  What is the easiest, most cost effective way to get you there?  And, once you are there, what are the things that you simply cannot miss? 

One of the smartest moves we ever made was joining Virtuoso.  Virtuoso is the leader in luxury travel.  On any given Crystal cruise, nearly 35% of all the passengers onboard are part of Virtuoso.  That is a staggering amount of business, and with numbers as large as this, the airlines, cruise lines and tour operators definitely take notice.   Need an upgrade at the Four Seasons?  If anyone can do it, we can.  Just the passing mention of “we’re with Virtuoso” will get us AND YOU amazing results.  That crummy room with the bad view will undoubtedly end up going to someone else.  I can’t tell you how many times that a five star cruise line (Crystal, Silversea, and Regent) has called us and said “Hey, we’ve got a balcony room unoccupied.  Would you like us to upgrade your clients for free?”  Believe me, it happens and if that 5 star cruise line is going to call someone first, 99% of the time, it’ll be a Virtuoso agency. 

In a nutshell, that is a quick bio of Coastline Travel Advisors, Inc., née At Your Service Travel Advisors, née Coastliners.  We hope you decide to give us a chance of creating a trip of a lifetime for you and your friends and family.  Our staff is dedicated to giving you the service and attention you deserve.

Best regards,
Jay P. Johnson
President