Preferred Travel & Co. just celebrated four decades in business — a rarity in an industry that has largely been replaced by Travelocity and other online price aggregators that allow travelers to self-book flights, hotels, car rentals and vacation packages.

The company was founded in 1984 by the ever-enterprising Wilma Boyd, former chief interviewer of flight attendant applicants for Trans World Airlines. She operated the Wilma Boyd Career School, teaching about opportunities in the airline industry, before retiring to Naples with her husband.

Preferred Travel, which she and Earl Hodges founded in 1984, has survived not only the advent of the Internet, but the public’s fear of flying after Sept. 11, 2001, the collapse of international travel during COVID and bad economic stretches.

The secret is having the confidence to expand when other companies are squeamish, and to double down on customer service during crises when one’s travelers need help getting home, said Olga Placeres, the company’s manager and chief financial officer. She joined Preferred Travel when Preferred bought Uniglobe Travel in 1989.

“I was the controller at Uniglobe at the time, and I came with that merger,” she said.

It was a time when the corporate world bought airline tickets through travel agencies, but soon there was a huge shift as airlines sliced commissions to travel agencies.

“We switched to leisure travel, such as cruise ships,” Placeres said. “We were close to the Port of Miami, so we decided we would refocus and go the leisure route with cruises.”

As part of its focus on leisure travel, Preferred Travel joined the American Express travel network.

“We became a representative agency of American Express,” she said, “so we didn’t do as many airline tickets, but more cruises. And if an AMEX cardholder lost their credit card, they had to come to us to get it replaced. We also sold Traveler’s Checks. We sold a lot of products besides travel that brought clients through the door.”

Placeres became a partner at what would prove to be a tough time — though not because the company wasn’t sound.

“I bought into the agency when Earl wanted to get out of travel industry,” she said. “He sold his shares and I bought them in August 2001.”

That month, U.S. air travel set a record high with 65.4 million passengers. But images of a Boeing 767 and other large passenger aircraft hitting buildings Sept. 11, 2001, crippled the airline and travel industries According to CNBC, U.S. airlines lost $8 billion in 2001 alone. The industry wasn’t profitable again until 2006, and losses topped $60 billion over that fiveyear period.

But Preferred Travel took care of clients first.

“After 9/11, our business was decimated,” Placeres said. “There was no travel. People were stuck in many places, so our focus was getting people home in the next 10 days. We were renting cars for our clients, arranging drivers, doing whatever we could.”

Similar to other travel agencies, Placeres and her staff then had to navigate an industry layered with new security requirements.

“Before that you could walk into a travel agency with cash, without ID, and buy a ticket,” she said. “After 9/11, everything changed. It took a few months for that shift to happen. Then things started to go online.”

Amid the decline in airline travel, Preferred did the unexpected by expanding its offerings, Placeres said. “If you want to survive, you have to keep your eyes on the future. We saw other agencies struggling, one of which had a lot of luxury clientele. In spite of the travel slowdown, we purchased McDaniel Luxury Travel, which books safaris, world cruises and other trips for high-end clients.”

Founder Wilma Boyd retired in July 2019 and handed the reins over to Placeres, now a full partner in the agency. Five months later, In January 2020, the Chinese government quarantined Wuhan and other cities in Hubei Province. When Placeres’ staff learned there was a highly contagious virus in the areas where clients were traveling, they went to work booking flights to bring people home.

“COVID was more intense — because during 9/11, air travel was most impacted, not cruise ships, hotels and other sectors,” Placeres said. “What we learned through 9/11 was incredibly useful through the pandemic. We pulled out our game book from that time. We put some of those systems in place, cut back on staff and did things so we could weather the storm for however long.”

With the cruise industry shut down and air travel limited internationally, Placeres was in the Atlanta airport, which usually has 15 screens of arrivals/departures on display. There were only 7 1/2 screens at work.

“I cried; this is an unbelievable time we’re living,” she said. “Even that was temporary. I learned that the human spirit is all about getting out there and experiencing the world. That will continue, no matter what. It may dwindle during world events, but it comes back — people want to travel.”

In the meantime, Preferred Travel took care of clients whose plans were nixed, securing refunds and rolling their bookings to future dates. Preferred Travel rolled some clients’ reservations four or five times.

Two years later, travel was back on.

“The future looks very bright,” Placeres said. “We survived COVID, downsized to one very large office in Pelican Bay, bought our own building and opened an office in Bonita Springs.”

The company also merged with a couple of agencies that wanted to sell during COVID, including Landmark Travel in Fort Lauderdale, which today operates under the Landmark Travel name as a division of Preferred Travel.

“It’s the personal service edge that has allowed us to compete against the national agencies,” Placeres said. “Unlike the venture capitalist-owned agencies out there, we are focused on the relationship with our clients. That helps us remain independent and family owned.”