Milne Travel American Express
New Website Coming Soon

With a number of years of travel industry experience, some urging from her husband Don Milne, and a loan from Barre's Granite Bank, Marion Milne opened the first Milne Travel office on Main Street in Barre, Vermont on November 8th, 1975. Marion was the owner, and her mother-in-law was her first employee.

Thirty six years later, both the Barre office and Marion and Don are still foundations of Milne Travel. But, there have been many changes elsewhere in the company and the travel industry.

Marion and Don Milne's son Scott purchased a small branch of the business in 1988, and then purchased the Barre branch from his parents in 1998.

Today, Milne Travel American Express operates 10 retail locations and several corporate on-sites with nearly 100 travel professionals employed in six states. The business that started out as a small one-person leisure travel agency has evolved into a diverse company that is among the country's top travel firms.

Scott ties much of the success of the company to its employees. "We are fortunate, I think, that our first employee, was my grandmother. She had just retired as a special education teacher and came in temporarily to help my mom out by answering the phones over lunchtime. She ended up staying nearly 25 years and retired when she was almost ninety. She was great for our business, and Milne Travel was great for her- she enjoyed the work, clients enjoyed her, she got to see the world while she enjoyed a totally different second career."

"I like to think that my grandmother, Catharine, set the tone of how we want to be at Milne; we are very grateful for each other's contributions, we try not to take each other's work for granted, and we have as much fun as we can along the way. "

As Milne has grown, it has evolved. They have weathered several industry storms, and sea changes in the way America does business that have forced many other travel companies to close their doors. While Milne has more than doubled its payroll and the number of branch offices it operates over the last few years, half of the agency locations in the U.S. have disappeared.

"When I joined Milne, I got some good advice from my parents" says Milne President, Scott Milne:

1. Never get so "experienced" that you look at new ideas presented by people in the company through a filter of why they won't work versus whether they are worth a try.

2. My parents realized over twenty years ago that we needed to be part of a bigger company to provide our clients optimal services and products. This led to our affiliation with American Express in 1991- and has been a key driver of our growth and success.

3. As a multi-generational family business, I believe one of the smart things my parents did was the structure they created with the new generation – selling a small branch office to their son and having separate P+L's and success incubators vs. bringing family on as an employee. Although we were two companies from the beginning, we marketed to clients and negotiated with suppliers as though we were one company. Not only has this propelled entrepreneurial thinking on all sides, it's been a great strategy for the personal /family side of our family business too-One of the last words from my dad when he handed my young wife and I the keys to our new business back in the '80's was something along the lines of "you now owe us XX dollars, if it doesn't work out and you can't pay it back, that isn't the end of the world……..but, don't ask for any more money☺." We knew the rules from day one.

Milne Travel's approach to customers is much the same. Marion's philosophy-clients need to know we care, before they care what we know continues to guide Milne Travel in all areas of the business.

Today, Milne Travel is well positioned to be successful in the Worlds' largest industry - Travel. The company continues to grow in many areas and has made careful investments in people and new technologies to keep it that way.

Milne's recent acquisition of Hewins Travel in Portland Maine brings a wealth of new talent and client diversity to the company, and makes Milne Travel one of the largest employers of business travel counselors in the state of Maine.

New out of state business clients that the company hopes to bring on board in early 2012 has the potential of adding up to twenty new Vermont based jobs to the company.

Milne Travel is the largest American Express Travel Agency in the Northeastern United States with a business mix of half individual vacation and personal travel, and half travel management for corporations.

Milne also operates a small regional tour company, and is the largest season ticket holder of Boston Red Sox tickets, operating a full motor coach to every home game.

Milne Travel's charitable fundraising division assists hundreds of non-profits and charitable organizations raise hundreds of thousands of dollars each year.

For assistance with travel, please call or visit your closest Milne Travel office.

Locations: