Julieanne Kohn, CTC, CLS, DS
Julieanne Kohn, CTC, CLS, DS, is the owner of Flying Suitcase LLC and a seasoned Virtuoso Travel Advisor based in Michigan. She has worked in the travel and hospitality industry for 56 years, building a career centered on international travel planning, luxury cruising, and personalized itinerary design. She is a Certified Travel Counselor and a life member of The Travel Institute, reflecting her long-standing commitment to professional development and excellence in the travel field.
Julieanne originally opened Flying Suitcase as an incorporated business in 1976, where she managed a team of 9–10 employees and serviced corporate accounts, including first-class travel arrangements for West Coast business travel. Following industry-wide changes in airline commission structures in the late 1990s, she made the decision to close her agency and transitioned to working with AAA for approximately a decade before retiring. However, her passion for travel led her back into the industry, and she later re-entered the field through a host agency model with Montecito Village Travel under the Virtuoso network.
Today, Julieanne operates Flying Suitcase from her home, where she continues to serve clients who rely on her expertise to turn destination ideas into thoughtfully curated travel experiences. She specializes in helping travelers who know where they want to go but need guidance on what to see and how to structure their journey for the most meaningful experience. With decades of firsthand global travel including more than 40 cruises and extensive travel across Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Americas she brings deep knowledge, practical insight, and personal perspective to every itinerary she designs.
• Certified Travel Counselor, Tourism and Travel Services Management
• Certified Travel Consultant. Certified Leisure Specialist, Destination Specialist
• Neil Blumenthal on Branding
• Leisure Specialist--Spa
• Destination Specialist--Italy
• Heidelberg University - BA, in French, English and Education
• The Travel Institute (Lifetime Member)
• American Society of Travel Agencies
• Cruise Lines International
• International Airline Association
• PEO
• St. James Episcopal Church Grosse Ile, MI
What do you attribute your success to?
The biggest reason that I'm successful is because I love what I'm doing. That's the biggest reason. If I didn't love it, I don't think I would be successful in any way, because you'd be doing it in what I would refer to as a half-assed manner. You really have to be involved in it. I just happen to love the business. I happen to like handling everybody's requests for where they're going, and not everybody's doing the same request, so it's not as if it's boring because of that. Everything is a little bit different. The passion is what's going to keep you fueled and fulfilled throughout the years. If you're doing it for anything other than the passion, it's going to burn you out.
What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
I think for somebody that is just entering the business, they need to find out what it is that's driving them to want to enter it. If it's going to be discounts on trips, I think I would tell them to stay out of it, because you're going to end up burning yourself out since it's not a passion. When I first got in the business, I could fly anywhere in the world for 75% off, and I flew first class because 75% off of first class was less than an economy ticket. That is no longer the case. You cannot do that anymore. What used to be and how it used to be able to be done is not the way it's done now. If I want a first-class ticket, I have to pay for it. There's not even any discounts on it. I can still get discounts on cruise lines and offers to go on familiarization trips from cruise lines, but it's just not the same. It's nowhere near as good as it was. So I don't think I would tell anybody to go into it if that was their driving force, because it's just not as good as it was. It's a completely different world at this point. You really have to love what you're doing to be successful.