Leaving Flight Centre: your options and what to check first (2026)

If you’re leaving Flight Centre or another retail chain, you have three realistic options: move to another employer, go home-based under a host network, or open your own accredited agency. Before you resign, read your notice, restraint, confidentiality and training-repayment clauses, and plan to build your new business from your skills and reputation, leaving your employer’s client database where it is.

I’ve been in travel since 2004, bought into an agency in 2009 and have run a host agency since 2013. I now run Niftrip, so a lot of the people I talk to are where you are: good at selling, tired of targets, and wondering what the alternatives cost.

One agent on Reddit who spent seven years at Flight Centre before seven more as an independent called it “the best training ground to learn everything you need to know”. You’re leaving with skills the rest of the industry wants.

What are your options after Flight Centre?

1. Another employer

   1. Take a job Corporate TMC, independent agency or network head office. 2+ years and GDS skills for most corporate roles
   2. Wage Often plus commission or bonus. No up-front cost; your clients belong to the employer

2. Home-based network

   1. Join a host agency 2 to 3 years at most networks; a few take newcomers
   2. Commission, less a split Or fees, or both. $0 to $1,495 joining on networks that publish it
   3. Your clients Yours, on the networks that publish a position

3. Your own agency

   1. ATIA accreditation Finance, insurance and training criteria
   2. Commission and fees Less all your costs. ATIA $250 application plus $750 + GST a year at under $1m turnover, plus set-up
   3. Your clients Yours

Should you move to another employer?

If you want a steady wage while you work out what’s next, yes. The usual moves are into corporate travel (travel management companies such as CTM and FCM), a smaller independent agency, or a head-office or support role. It’s the lowest-risk move, though you’re still building someone else’s client list.

How much experience do home-based networks want?

On their own pages, most want what a couple of years in retail gives you:

If you have less than two years behind you, it’s worth staying a bit longer or moving to another employer first.

What do home-based networks cost?

These are the published terms, ex GST unless noted:

Say you’d sell $500,000 a year at a 10% average commission. Before joining fees, Niftrip would leave you $43,812 and Your Travel Centre’s Budget plan $38,909:

Other volumes and rates are in 100% commission vs a split, and how to weigh support, technology and contract terms is in how to choose a host agency.

What changes when you go from employee to running your own business?

There’s no base wage. You earn when your clients travel, and TravelManagers says it takes 12 to 24 months to build healthy revenue. You’ll need an ABN and handle your own tax and super. With no walk-ins, your clients come from people who already know you, referrals and your own marketing. In return you set your prices, choose your niche and have no store targets.

For most experienced retail consultants the hardest part is the first six months of income, so plan for it before you resign.

What should you check in your contract before you resign?

I haven’t seen Flight Centre’s current employment contracts, and terms vary by role and by when you signed, so read your own for these:

If you’re planning to go home-based in the same area and the same product, an hour with an employment lawyer before you resign is well spent.

Can you take your clients with you when you leave Flight Centre?

Here’s how I’d want an advisor who worked for me to approach it:

• Leave the database alone. Don’t export, photograph, forward or copy client records, enquiry lists or booking history from your employer’s systems.
• Don’t announce your move to clients while you’re still employed, and don’t use work email or phone to do it.
• Hand over properly, and check your restraint before you contact anyone afterwards.
• Build your own audience. The Reddit agent I quoted above said to build your social media before you leave. Being known as a travel expert under your own name is yours to take.

If a former client looks you up and asks you to book their next trip, that’s their choice, though your restraint clause may still say something about it.

What happens to the bookings you made at Flight Centre?

They stay with Flight Centre, and your colleagues will service them after you go. Any commission or incentive you’re owed on them is a matter for your pay policy and contract, so ask before your last day.

Leaving a host network later works differently. At Niftrip, bookings in progress stay with the agency until they’ve travelled, you keep servicing them and still get the commission, and there’s no monthly fee during that run-off.

Should you open your own agency instead?

You can. There’s no travel agent licence in Australia, so you’d meet ATIA’s requirements and pay $250 to apply, then $750 + GST a year under $1 million turnover.

My view: going straight from a retail store to your own accredited agency is a big jump. Most people do better spending a year or two under a host while they build a client base, then deciding. I’ve covered the detail in do you need a licence to be a travel agent.

Which option suits you?

My view, after watching a lot of people make this move:

• If you need a guaranteed wage, or you have less than two years’ experience, move to another employer and keep building skills.
• If you have two or more years, you’re confident selling without walk-ins, and you have some savings, go home-based. Choose on total cost at your realistic volume, the exit terms and whether you can trade under your own name.
• If you’re already turning over well and want your own supplier agreements, look at your own accreditation and a co-op.

The details

Where these figures come from

Where I quote a network’s fees or requirements, they come from its own website, checked on 20 October 2026.

Why people leave

Flight Centre gives a lot of people their start. Plenty of others leave because of the targets, the hours and the walk-in volume.

Jobs with another employer

Recent job posts in the main Australian travel jobs group on Facebook asked for two or more years’ experience and GDS and mid-office skills (Amadeus, Sabre, Kudos, Tramada). Work-from-home roles as an employee exist but are rare: MTA’s head office and a few small agencies have advertised remote consultant and assistant roles, and most “work from home” travel work in Australia is self-employed. Work from home travel agent in Australia explains how that works.

Experience and Flight Centre’s own channels

Envoyage is Flight Centre Travel Group’s own independent channel, with about 1,800 Australian advisors and agencies in FY25. It doesn’t publish its Australian fees or split. Travel Associates’ independent advisor page is written for consumers and has no route to apply.

Two years in a front-line selling role is also what ATIA accepts in place of formal training under its accreditation rules.

Running your own business

• Suppliers pay commission on their own schedules, so you need savings to carry you while bookings build.
• Networks such as MTA require you to be registered for GST.
• Under the Fair Work “whole of relationship” test, a genuine contractor arrangement should look like a business, with your own clients, hours and costs.
• You decide which suppliers to use, whether to charge service fees, and how much time to spend on each client.
• Your niche can be cruise, touring, luxury, family, corporate or whatever you’re best at.

Restraints and clients

Restraints in Australian employment contracts are generally only enforceable to the extent they’re reasonable, but what’s reasonable for your clause is a question for an employment lawyer. If you’re restricted from soliciting clients for a period, respect it.

When you hand over, brief your colleagues on every open booking so your clients are looked after. Being known as a travel expert among friends, family and community is part of the audience you build. Doing it properly protects you and your reputation in an industry where everyone knows everyone, and your new business ends up built on clients who chose you.

Bookings made as an employee belong to your employer. When you leave a host network as an independent, bookings in progress often stay with the network until they travel, so read how each network handles it.

What ATIA asks for

• an ABN
• accountant-prepared financial statements
• a separate client account (unless you’re a sole trader, who follows separate ATIA Board rules)
• professional indemnity insurance
• a complaints policy
• training or two years’ selling
• the fee: $250 to apply, then $750 + GST a year under $1 million turnover.

If you want to issue airline tickets yourself, you also need IATA accreditation. Once accredited, you can join a co-op such as Travellers Choice, which requires members to buy a minimum of 200 shares at $5.

Next step

If you’re weighing up the home-based route, switching to Niftrip explains what moving across involves and what it costs.