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Dear Traveller, Please Go Easy On Us: Love, Your Travel Agent

Times are tough right now with heightened anxiety and raw emotions at play for everyone. Sadly, recent weeks have seen agents and reservations staff on the receiving end of increasingly disappointing customer behaviour. And now they are merely asking for a little more kindness and consideration.

Times are tough right now with heightened anxiety and raw emotions at play for everyone. Sadly, recent weeks have seen agents and reservations staff on the receiving end of increasingly disappointing customer behaviour. And now they are merely asking for a little more kindness and consideration.

Despite the countless recent rescue stories of agents going above and beyond to help travellers all over the world get home or change their plans aginst all the odds, there are still a small minority of travellers who are making life difficult for agents to do their work.

We received this heartfelt letter from an agent who wanted to share her frustrations with the industry anonymously.

This agent’s hopes are, that at the very least her thoughts might echo the sentiment of others and bring some comfort to everyone else in the same boat.

Read on.

letter-writing

Dear All,

Firstly I would like to say, from the bottom of my heart, that I am sorry.

I am sorry that you have a child overseas who desperately needs to come home.

I am sorry that your family are in Italy and you need to get there immediately.

I am sorry that restrictions are coming into place within 48 hours and you need to get on a flight right now.

I am sorry that there aren’t seats for you and six members of your family that are heading to the airport expecting a flight to be ready for you.

I am sorry that you had to cancel your wedding, or equally, as such, I am sorry that you now can’t go to your friend’s wedding.

I am genuinely sorry.

But, I just want you to please take a minute to think about why this is happening.

Think perhaps, for a moment about all of the people around the world who are also desperate, or devastated, or suffering.

This is a worldwide pandemic, and no-one saw it coming.

The airlines especially did not see it coming, but they are the ones that are doing their best to help in a situation that is destroying everyone’s business.

Sadly they cannot give you and every one next to you a full refund because it simply isn’t possible.

Please think about how much goes into cancelling your booking and try to understand that we’re not here to make your life harder.

In fact, up until a few weeks ago, we loved going to work every day and helping you book your dream holiday, or honeymoon, or destination wedding and we loved nothing more than helping you travel around the world.

Working in travel is such a beautiful environment to work in when almost everyone is happy and wants to travel the world. For us, that’s the best feeling ever.

Right now though, everyone from sole-traders who can no longer remain in business, up to the massive conglomerates that can no longer trade due to the new laws and restrictions is trying to find ways to still be here to help you in the future.

KARRYON-Qantas-Learning-Hub-Future-Planet-Globe

As this is a pandemic, the airline has a duty to their loyal passengers, and they are all trying to do the right thing.

They are giving you future hope, that when this is over, you will have money already there waiting for you to be able to book your next adventure overseas.

Please remember that whenever you book a flight, there is always an inherent risk.

How many times do you hear about someone booking a flight and then one of their family members gets sick?

Or you book a one-way flight to move somewhere and then you meet someone who you fall in love with and decide not to go? Or you book a trip well in advance, but then you fall pregnant and can’t travel?

These are unforeseen things that happen in life and most of the time and in that case, no-one questions the airline fare rules. You see them, you accept them, you move on.

Yet at a time of a global crisis, the true nature of humans comes out.

I work for a company who is getting between 200 to 1000 emails alone A DAY regarding flight cancellations.

Every single person feels that they are the most important. And every single person has their own story of why.

Some of the people understand, thank us for our time and graciously accept the offer that their airline has in place.

Yet there are some people out there who feel so entitled, selfish, rude and generally ignorant of the world outside their own.

They feel that they are entitled to a full refund, and there are plenty of “reasons why” that we are given.

“I didn’t cancel my flight, they did, so I will have my full refund”,

“This a force majeure event and as such we are entitled to a refund”,

“I am too worried to travel, and as there is a travel ban I am entitled to a full refund”,

“We can’t go to my friend’s wedding as the borders are closed, so we are entitled to a full refund”,

“YOU need to give us our F$%^*# money back because there are no flights”,

“I called numerous times between midnight, and 5 am, and no-one answered so I just went ahead and bought another ticket so now I expect a full refund of my original ticket”,

And the demands continue to roll in…

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Yes, these are extraordinary times, but the thing that upsets me, daily, are the people that don’t think for one second to consider the bigger picture here.

The people that send emails solely with their bank account details and a message saying “please forward the full refund to this bank account”.

The people who continue to verbally abuse us, telling us that we are greedy, that we are taking advantage of the vulnerable or that we are ridiculous.

Or some, who have gone so far as threatening taking to social media and “A Current Affair” to report our “unethical practice” and complaining that we are taking too long to respond.

Please know that the people that you are abusing have now had to work for 23 days straight, 24/7 to answer your emails, and honestly, we don’t deserve this abuse.

We are a third-party agency, and we work directly with the directives given to us by the airlines.

We are here to help you, and we realise that your situation is dire and is probably worse than everyone else’s, but please understand this.

NO-ONE has done this. There is NO-ONE to “blame” for this.

We didn’t cancel your flights. The airlines didn’t choose to cancel your flights to stop you going to a wedding; they cancelled your flights as they are unable to fly, and they also have the safety of you as their passengers as paramount importance.

Please stop being so inconsiderate of the bigger picture and realise that this has happened for your safety, and to keep you safe and alive.

So please, take your credit, wait for the wedding or trip to be booked at a later date and know that you’ll still have a great time.

Thank you in advance for your understanding and kindness.

Yours, an exhausted, self-isolated Australian travel agent.

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