---
title: "Reservation and Transportation Ticket Agent and Travel Clerk"
description: "Make and confirm reservations for transportation or lodging, or sell transportation tickets. May check baggage and direct passengers to designated…"
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/reservation-and-transportation-ticket-agent-and-travel-clerk"
last-updated: "2026-08-23T15:56:39.581Z"
---

# Reservation and Transportation Ticket Agent and Travel Clerk

**Category:** Office and Administrative Support · **SOC code:** 43-4181 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 43-4181.00

Make and confirm reservations for transportation or lodging, or sell transportation tickets. May check baggage and direct passengers to designated concourse, pier, or track; deliver tickets and contact individuals and groups to inform them of package tours; or provide tourists with travel or transportation information.

Also advertised as: Airline Ticket Agent; Airport Sales Agent; Customer Service Agent; Reservation Agent; Reservationist; Reservations Agent; Reservations and Ticketing Agent; Station Agent.

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $44,390 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $21.34/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $32,140 to $78,150, with the middle half between $37,850 and $59,640
- **Total US employment:** 118,710
- **Typical entry education:** High school
- **Preparation required:** Little or no preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone 1-2: Very Little to Some Preparation Needed"
- **Projected growth:** +2.8% over 2024–2034 (BLS EP, 2024–2034)
- **Annual job openings:** 14,400 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 43/100 — a NueCareer heuristic over O\*NET work activities and context, not a BLS or O\*NET figure

## Pay

National wage distribution, BLS OEWS, May 2025, across 118,710 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $32,140 |
| 25th | $37,850 |
| 50th (median) | $44,390 |
| 75th | $59,640 |
| 90th | $78,150 |
| Mean (average) | $49,630 |

### Pay by state

The 15 highest-paying states, by median annual wage. The cost-of-living-adjusted column divides the state median by that state's BEA Regional Price Parity, so the columns answer different questions: the first is what the job pays there, the second is what that pay buys there.

| State | Median annual wage | Cost-of-living adjusted | Employment |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| MI | $60,220 | $62,588 | 1,980 |
| MN | $60,090 | $60,930 | 2,160 |
| CA | $49,420 | $44,635 | 10,580 |
| WA | $48,520 | $45,340 | 2,970 |
| GA | $47,860 | $49,702 | 5,880 |
| IL | $47,850 | $47,870 | 7,080 |
| NM | $47,850 | $51,891 | 600 |
| OK | $47,340 | $53,892 | 920 |
| DC | $46,550 | $42,356 | 100 |
| CO | $45,960 | $44,599 | 3,650 |
| AK | $45,870 | $44,813 | 1,000 |
| KY | $45,840 | $50,844 | 1,860 |
| AZ | $45,710 | $45,403 | 3,020 |
| RI | $45,420 | $44,408 | 210 |
| HI | $45,020 | $40,946 | 1,590 |

37 more states with published wage data are omitted here. The full table for all 52 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/reservation-and-transportation-ticket-agent-and-travel-clerk/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/reservation-and-transportation-ticket-agent-and-travel-clerk.

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 131,900 in the 2024–2034 base year to 135,600 by the end of the cycle — a gain of 3,700 jobs, or +2.8%. About as fast as average: 2.8% against 3.1% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 14,400 openings a year are expected on average, counting openings from growth as well as from workers leaving the occupation permanently. Source: BLS EP, 2024–2034.

## How to get in

- **Typical entry education:** High school diploma or equivalent (BLS Employment Projections).
- **Preparation level:** Little or no preparation — O\*NET's preparation band for this occupation is "Job Zone 1-2: Very Little to Some Preparation Needed".
- **Related work experience typically required:** None.
- **Typical on-the-job training:** Short-term on-the-job training.

### Education people in this job actually hold

O\*NET surveys incumbents, so this distribution describes who is in the job today and can differ from the BLS entry requirement above.

| Education level | Share of workers |
| --- | --- |
| High School Diploma | 75.2% |
| Some College Courses | 12.2% |
| Less than a High School Diploma | 9.3% |
| Associate's Degree (or other 2-year degree) | 2.2% |
| Post-Secondary Certificate | 0.6% |
| Bachelor's Degree | 0.6% |

## What the work involves

- Answer inquiries regarding information, such as schedules, accommodations, procedures, or policies.
- Confer with customers to determine their service requirements and travel preferences.
- Determine whether space is available on travel dates requested by customers, assigning requested spaces when available.
- Announce arrival and departure information, using public address systems.
- Provide boarding or disembarking assistance to passengers needing special assistance.
- Examine passenger documentation to determine destinations and to assign boarding passes.
- Assemble and issue required documentation, such as tickets, travel insurance policies, or itineraries.
- Check baggage and cargo and direct passengers to designated locations for loading.

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Active Listening — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speaking — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Reading Comprehension — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Critical Thinking — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Writing — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Monitoring — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Mathematics — importance 2.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Transferable skills

These are the skills that carry into other occupations, and they drive the related-occupation and career-change rankings on this site.

- Service Orientation — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Social Perceptiveness — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Persuasion — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Coordination — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Judgment and Decision Making — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Time Management — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Complex Problem Solving — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Negotiation — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- Customer and Personal Service — importance 4.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- English Language — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Computers and Electronics — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Public Safety and Security — importance 3.7 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Transportation — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Geography — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Oral Expression — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Comprehension — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speech Recognition — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speech Clarity — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Written Comprehension — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Information Ordering — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

## Who it suits

O\*NET rates every occupation on the six Holland (RIASEC) interest areas, on a 1–7 scale. This occupation's strongest areas are Conventional (C), Social (S), Enterprising (E).

| Interest area | Score (1–7) |
| --- | --- |
| C — Conventional | 5.54 |
| S — Social | 4.39 |
| E — Enterprising | 4.08 |
| R — Realistic | 2.12 |
| A — Artistic | 1.32 |
| I — Investigative | 1.00 |

### Personality fit

These scores are **derived by NueCareer**, not published by any government agency: they are cosine similarities between a personality type's trait profile and this occupation's O\*NET interest and work-style ratings, expressed 0–100. Treat them as a starting point for exploration, not as evidence that a type belongs in a job.

| Type | Fit score (0–100) |
| --- | --- |
| ESFJ | 89.8 |
| ESTJ | 78.3 |
| ISFJ | 76.9 |
| ENFJ | 66.3 |
| ESFP | 63.5 |

Best-fitting types: ESFJ.

## Related occupations

O\*NET's primary related occupations, in its own ranked order.

- [Travel Agent](https://nuecareer.com/careers/travel-agent) — median $50,160
- [Flight Attendant](https://nuecareer.com/careers/flight-attendant) — median $63,580
- [Passenger Attendant](https://nuecareer.com/careers/passenger-attendant) — median $37,720
- [Baggage Porter and Bellhop](https://nuecareer.com/careers/baggage-porter-and-bellhop) — median $37,080
- [Counter and Rental Clerk](https://nuecareer.com/careers/counter-and-rental-clerk) — median $41,300
- [Hotel, Motel, and Resort Desk Clerk](https://nuecareer.com/careers/hotel-motel-and-resort-desk-clerk) — median $35,070
- [Bus Driver, Transit and Intercity](https://nuecareer.com/careers/bus-driver-transit-and-intercity) — median $59,050
- [Dispatcher](https://nuecareer.com/careers/dispatcher) — median $50,340
- [Travel Guide](https://nuecareer.com/careers/travel-guide) — median $38,120
- [Cargo and Freight Agent](https://nuecareer.com/careers/cargo-and-freight-agent) — median $52,260

## Sources

- **O\*NET** — O\*NET 30.3 Database, May 2026. https://www.onetcenter.org/database.html
- **BLS OEWS** — BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. https://www.bls.gov/oes/
- **BLS EP** — BLS Employment Projections, Table 1.2, 2024–2034. https://www.bls.gov/emp/
- **BLS OOH** — BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2024–2034 edition. https://www.bls.gov/ooh/
- **BEA RPP** — BEA Regional Price Parities by State, 2024. https://www.bea.gov/data/prices-inflation/regional-price-parities-state-and-metro-area

---

This bank includes information from the O\*NET 30.3 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). O\*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. NueCareer has transformed the data by joining it to BLS wage and projection data and deriving facet, personality-fit and AI-resilience scores. BLS and BEA data are public domain (17 U.S.C. §105).

O\*NET content is used under [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). How these figures are sourced and derived: https://nuecareer.com/careers/methodology

JSON representation of this page: https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/reservation-and-transportation-ticket-agent-and-travel-clerk