It takes a special kind of someone to come to the aid of their clients on New Year’s Eve and turn a disastrous situation around with the help of on-site ground operators.
Kate McLean, a franchisee from MTA Travel, recently had to deal with a situation that highlighted the importance of booking with a Travel Agent, especially when things go pear-shaped…
Kate had some clients over New Year’s Eve who found themselves in a rather disastrous situation.
The hotel they were staying at in Dubai – The Address, Downtown – caught alight on New Year’s Eve and destroyed all of their luggage, passports, jewellery, souvenirs, Christmas presents – everything.
After running for their lives down 12 flights of stairs, and after being pushed and trampled upon in the frantic stampede to evacuate the building which fire destroyed in minutes, Kate’s clients were in a spot of bother indeed.
Kate received frantic calls and emails not long after the tragedy in order to help locate her clients, and she managed to find a message from them on Facebook of all places!
The Address, Downtown in Dubai
Thankfully, as MTA Travel have Virtuoso suppliers all over the world – such as on-sites Cox and Kings in Dubai – her clients were greeted and instantly re-accommodated, consoled and hand-held all the way from processing brand new passports, exits visas, police reports plus printed copies of new e-tickets over the following three days.
Also, at Kate’s specific request, her clients were given size six girl’s shoes (as the daughter in the family was in slippers at the time), phone chargers and toiletries – all over the New Year’s long weekend when everything was closed.
For Kate, the moral of this story is that had they booked online, or with any other agent without an on-site ground operator, they’d still be stranded and would be for weeks and that’s without question.
“Importantly too, we offer exclusive to our clientele, our Zero Flight Risk™ which is a 100% guarantee* that any client purchasing travel products and services through an MTA member, can rest assured the company will reimburse their funds in the event of any approved travel intermediary or end supplier becoming insolvent, and being unable to deliver the product or service. Without a travel agent… you’re on your own.”
Kate McLean, MTA Travel.
Great work Kate!
Check out some of our other Travel Agent to the Rescue stories, here, here and here.