"Earmarked" isn't an award. It means a travel agency has made a certain amt of sales (high) and attended continuing education classes.
There is a lot more to it than that, actually. There are rules & guidelines in order to qualify. They “level up” in status so to speak based on sales, yes but they also get perks based on sales. They are also supposed to be following a code of ethics.
I found a little information online about being an Earmarked Agency. It has this:
If you click on their avatar it says New York.
No business is required to join BBB as it's a for profit organization. In NYC, hardly anyone joins.
Yes - that’s true of the BBB everywhere and a little-known or understood fact. Belonging to the BBB is purely a marketing tool and as an organization, they are not objective in their representation and have no actual enforcement power in dispute resolution beyond what their members agree to. It’s meaningless, really.
It's destined to go the way of the dodo - I doubt very few consumers under the age of 50 even have an awareness of the BBB. Rating and review platforms on-line carry the day now, and few of us anymore make buying decisions without googling the company.
I don't know how a customer would know information about agents that the poster talked about. My guess would be a fired agent or associated with one.
