So far we've had great feedback from agents about their own staff as well as suppliers, saying that in the most people have gone the extra mile to help out during this crisis. How do you think the industry has performed?
We opened on Sunday a Member of staff who was supposed to be going on holiday (and was cancelled) came in to help. All my staff offer to work to help if needed. This shows what a strong commitment staff have to the Industry.
Well what a week. What else can be thrown at us in the Travel industry.
As a travel agent that would be described as some as "old fashioned" because we book in the traditional manner, ie as an agent we book with a tour operator, we do not dynamically package, or try and become a tour operator ouselves this week went without a hitch. The tour operators we fantastic , allowing us time to speak to an assist the clients, we were not running around like chickens minus heads trying to re-protect, re-negotiate etc. That pressure was with our tour operator partners, whom I say were extremely professional and helpful. ! Hats off to Western & Oriental and Club Med , just to mention two.
I think the events of the last week, go to show if we all stick to our traditional roles, the customer is well protected and served. ! Hopefully this will be the begining of the end of dynamic packaging, and clients to trying to piece there own holiday together to save a £5. !!!!
All professional travel agents, should be shouting loudly about our expertise and professionalism and dedication to our clients.
Totally agree, it sometimes needs a major situation like this to prove how good we really are at out jobs. I really feel for those who have tight cashflow problems caused by this, where the bloody hell is Mr Brown now. If we were in the farming business I can assure you that action would have been taken and yet another subsidy would have been put in place and an urgent financial rescue package available. But why is it that the travel industry keeps getting kicked in the teeth by the government, when then need more funds they slap yet another tax on our clients which we get blamed for. With all the revenue from these crazy taxes and fees, why are the government not getting involved immediately and helping out ?
We have been on the case since the volcano kicked off and had nothing but praise for our actions and updates to clients all over the world and I feel that the industry could not afford a campaign of this level to show how good we really are when the going gets tough. Those choosing low cost and doing things independently on the cheap (as they don't want to see us earn a crust ,) have been inconvenienced the most, those who book with a good travel agent and tour operator have been updated and kept in 'the loop'.
Well done to the likes of Thompson as well, I feel they scored big time, (and that's coming from an independent tour operator.) Lets hope the punters learn this time and that the next government (God help us if it's Mr Brown,) takes this industry seriously and realises how important we are and that we also (like farmers and bankers) need support and action. The only positive thing to come out of this for Labour is that it has stopped illegal immigrants getting over the past week.
So lets hope that's it and we can sit down this weekend and have a damn good drink, but not Volvic water !
Sheikh Calvie
Have A Nice Stay Travel
....just a thought. The EU rules concerning duty of care apply to EU airlines only. This is surely grossly unfair. If other worldwide airlines wish to fly in and out of the EU, and carry EU passengers then surely they should be made to abide by the same rules, or they should be banned from flying into the EU. Come on government time to level the playing the field and give the consumer some proper protection. !
In my opinion, its pretty apparent that the industry really came into its own during the Ash crisis. I was pretty lucky having only just opened my company and none of my first lot of clients were affected. I have heard horror stories about the way Easyjet treated their passengers when trying to change flights or obtain refunds. My parents were affected and every time they went to change their flights, the flights they needed were never available - they were only available to new people wantign to book easyjet flights! I did some research to see how many people were having problems with Easyjet over the Ash Disruption - seems my parents were not alone:
http://www.customerservicescoreboard.com/EasyJet
I had planned to Market our packages using Easyjet and other low cost airlines - i don't think I'll take the risk now.
Hi expressionstravel,
Thanks for your post. Here's what easyJet had to say:
easyJet spokesman Andrew McConnell, said: “Since the airspace re-opened, the airline has worked tirelessly to support over 200,000 stranded passengers across Europe. To assist our passengers the airline paid for over 100,000 hotel stays; operated over 20 rescue flights to hotspot destinations, and strengthened seating capacity on many flights by operating larger aircraft.
To get people home as quickly as possible, we set up a standby waiting list at airports once flights were up and running. To keep passengers informed we have been regularly updating our website, proactively sending out 1/2 million emails, 1/4 millions text messages and communicating via social media websites.
Due to the sheer volume of passengers affected our call centre was inundated, and although we tripled the number of staff unfortunately some people had difficulty get through. We thank expressiontravel for their feedback."
Emily
And here we go again...
As an example, my husband was due to fly to Boston with BA on Tuesday on business. He swapped his Tuesday flight to Monday at cost to the company, in order to secure a flight because he definitely wanted to make sure he flew, rather than hang on to find out whether it would be cancelled last minute because of the strike.
Now the Monday flight is in doubt because of ash! He was due to fly on from Boston to LA, returning to the UK on a BA flight. However, he's tied in to BA for the return leg, so could cost up to £1,000 more to fly to the US with another airline. It's just one person's scenario, but it shows what a headache the whole situation has become.
The combination of ash and a strike must be costing businesses and travellers thousands and thousands of pounds!