It comes amid recent concerns raised by agents on social media.
Speaking at the Freedom Travel Group conference last week as part of a panel session on trends for 2019 chaired by TTG, Faremine’s head of sales Chris Oakes was met with applause when he said the flight consolidator “won’t work with [pyramid sellers]”.
Such models involve recruiting members via a promise of payments or services for enrolling others into the scheme.
Oakes told Freedom delegates: “Homeworkers are growing, and your threat is the pyramid seller-types coming in with people who are not travel experts.
“You guys [have to] stick to your guns – do what you do really well and, as a scheduled flight specialist, we’ll support that. We are a family-owned company and we want to work with independents like you guys – we won’t work with them.”
He added: “We want to work with companies that have a really good moral compass.”
Phil Gardner, sales and e-commerce director, Thomas Cook UK and Ireland, said operators should not “let anyone sell their product who doesn’t know what they’re talking about”.
“That’s not the same as saying ‘don’t come into travel’,” he added.
“In fact, the homeworking community is a great example of a good option for a newcomer and that’s where organisations like Freedom come in, because our responsibility is to help train someone like that.
“It shouldn’t be seen as big companies blocking new entrants – it’s a very simple responsibility of wanting anyone who is effectively representing your product and brand to know what they’re talking about. That’s why it’s a concern.”
Meanwhile, Freedom interim boss Matt Harding emphasised: “We don’t want any kind of pyramid scheme – recruiting people who aren’t in travel and charging them to be a travel agent. That’s not what we’re about. We need to protect our industry.”
