Meet Laurie Reitman: The RX Was Travel
by Judy Jacobs /Being a doctor and a travel agent have more in common than one might think.
Just ask Laurie Reitman, a former emergency room physician and university director of student health, who has found an encore career in travel.
Reitman worked for six years as an emergency room physician in St. Louis before becoming the director of student health and counseling at Washington University. When her oldest daughter became a teenager, she knew she had to spend more time at home.
It took two years of discussions with her husband, who feared that if she “retired” they wouldn’t be able to travel they way they used to, but in the end “that’s what gave me the idea to be a travel agent,” she said.
Reitman contacted her local Virtuoso agency to see if they thought it was a good idea. Agency president Nancy Stein, a former dentist, agreed and Reitman signed on.
Transferring skills
Reitman’s skills as a doctor have served her well during her decade-long career with Ladue, MO.-based Aldine Travel where she specializes in luxury vacations.
“I loved the customer service aspect of medicine,” she said. “At Washington U. I ran an office of 50 physicians, nurses and support personnel. I dealt a lot with customer service issues when someone had a complaint or an unusual medical problem.”
Reitman said she was convinced skills of that kind would transfer easily to the travel industry.
What did Reitman learn as a doctor that makes her a good travel agent? –empathy and compassion for those who encounter an array of problems when they travel.
“I genuinely feel bad for clients when they have an adverse experience, whether it’s an ill family member and they have to come home or everything from lost luggage to misconnects,” Reitman said.
Learning the ropes
Learning the travel business was also akin to taking continuing medical education courses, she said.
“I did a lot of reading and took a lot of courses online and became a specialist in the areas of the world and the cruise lines that interested me,” said Reitman.
“I learned a lot from the other agents in the office, and Nancy taught me how to do Sabre. It’s just like medicine. You have to keep up with the changes in the industry, the new programs and new suppliers.”
What surprised her most during her initiation into travel was her peers.
Reitman has met a lot of fascinating people from all walks of life and discovered that for many, like her, travel is a second career. During a recent fam trip to the U.K. she befriended an agent who used to be an attorney.
24/7 service
Reitman doesn’t work 9 to 5 but she makes herself available to clients 24/7. They have her home number, and although that’s a challenge, it’s not all that different from what she did as a doctor.
“I know my clients appreciate it, and that’s why I’ve grown a fairly large number of luxury travel clientele in a rather short period of time,” she said.
“Being detail-oriented, having the work error free and taking notes is crucial for a physician, and those skills are transferrable to the travel planning process.”
She credits some of her success to getting travel arrangements right the first time, an essential when dealing with her clients. Sixty percent of them are doctors and the rest are executives.
At home in travel
Although still associated with Aldine Travel, Reitman now works from home having moved to Plano, Tex. where her husband took a job as chief medical officer at a hospital.
Her oldest daughter, who graduated from college in January, has attended Virtuoso Travel Week for the past few years and has been helping Reitman create itineraries and deal with clients.
She’s exploring opportunities in the travel industry and may follow in her mother’s footsteps.