Unlike other agencies, FC will have you act as an accountant, receptionist, and sales person on top of being a travel agent. Most companies have these as separate roles. You'll easily see what should be an 8 hour workday end up being 12+ hours since they have you wearing so many hats.
Computer systems are archaic (think 1980s-level) and frequently freeze or break down.
The cheaply made uniforms. (On top of other things make you really feel like you're part of a cult.)
Having to be dishonest with customers in order to make a livable wage--marking up fares above the public/commercial price available to anyone. Base salary is much lower than any other agency. Turnover is high since staff leave for other agencies after finding out how much they start at. For such a big company, the commission structure is very low (unless the company is receiving it on the back end and employees don't see it). To use an example, for most airlines you're lucky if they offer 5% commission. On a $500 ticket, that would be only $25. Unlike other agencies, FC actually charges the agents to print tickets--something that IS your job. So, for that $25 that the airline pays out, FC charges you around 4% in "credit card fees," so you lose $20. You would think that would leave you with $5, but then you're hit with FC's $10 ticketing fee because you're not ticketing a preferred airline. So, you now OWE FC $5 that would come out of your paycheck to issue one ticket. Yes, FC charges customers a service fee on tickets, but that also gets reduced by "credit card fees." (How else do most people pay for airline tickets?) By nickel and dime-ing its employees that they say they value so much, FC forces its agents to mark up fares in order to survive.
How is it a problem? If you have a customer who has a ticket they think is, say, $800, but it's really only a $500 ticket, that can create BIG problems later on if the customer has to have changes to their ticket made by the airline. We've had customers stuck at airports because they unexpectedly had to fork over a few hundred dollars extra at the airport because their tickets were marked up.
FC has already been caught doing it repeatedly in Australia and the UK and it continues to be a problem. (Just look up the various news stories and law suits on Google.) It's somewhat heartbreaking because this could have been such a great company but it's the employees who suffer for what corporate does.
