Jonathan Klein, owner Now, Voyager travel agency - San Francisco Chronicle

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In 1984, Jonathan Klein opened Now, Voyager, a Castro district travel agency, with his business partner Peter Greene. Unlike most travel agencies, it's survived - largely because it found a core market in the gay community.

Klein, 59, grew up in Massachusetts and Bethesda, Md., and moved to San Francisco in the mid-'70s. He shares an 1889 Castro district flat with two roommates.

There were many moments over the last 15 years that I was afraid I wasn't going to be able to keep the business going. I was so reluctant to close down because I had no idea what I would do other than this.

But now, having managed to survive, we're one of the few travel agencies left, and business has done nothing but improve the last couple of years. We're not booming - the economy is affecting us just the way it is everybody - but we are not declining anymore.

It's a little bit of a balancing act because almost everything that we do can be booked online. But what we found is: The more complicated a trip gets, the more time it takes somebody to try to work on it online.

People come to us with what I call "Internet backlash." They've spent hours and hours trying to figure a particular trip out and they finally throw up their hands and look around for a travel agent. A lot of them find us on Yelp.

There are two things that would make my business just take off like crazy. One would be if Americans started getting as much vacation time as most Europeans do. And the other would be if the dollar would finally get stronger relative to the euro.

People have been getting such major sticker shock these days about travel to Europe. Although, unfortunately, it's not just Europe. Australia used to be a bargain destination, but the Australian dollar is now stronger than the American dollar.

Free flights and other perks used to be a big part of the job. Back in the old days, not only were we getting commissions from airlines, we were getting free tickets from them. Often, I would just flit around on free tickets that I got. That's completely disappeared. There's no such thing as an airlines sales rep to travel agents anymore.

At this point, the best perks I get are the gay cruises with RSVP Vacations or Atlantis Events. We sell a lot of those. So when there's extra space on one or another of them, I often get to go.

The best part of my job is helping people to have as great a trip as they possibly can. The thing I hate the most about it is the lack of control. I have to deal with these airlines and their stupid rules, and I don't have any control over that kind of stuff. So, as much as possible, we try to beat them at their own game.

We're adversaries. We have to know the way to get around their rules when possible, or at least know how to manipulate things to reduce the impact of their rules. It's become a cat-and-mouse game.

We took our business name, Now, Voyager, from the 1942 Bette Davis movie. I'd seen it and I realized - in addition to the name and the fact that it's Bette Davis - that the theme is how travel can transform your life.

Those people who love the movie just gush over our name. We've had people bring us "Now, Voyager" or Bette Davis memorabilia.

When I was in Paris I met someone who worked at the American Embassy. When Bette Davis died in France (in 1989) her passport came across his desk. She had pasted a younger photo of herself over the current photo, so he made photocopies of both. He gave me one set.

This article appeared on page E - 2 of the San Francisco Chronicle