Industry HQ

Share this article

Flight Centre Agents Rush To Rescue The World At Sydney International Airport

A massive shout out to the team at Flight Centre Sydney International Airport who came to the rescue today to help the world get home in truly uncertain times.

A massive shout out to the team at Flight Centre Sydney International Airport who came to the rescue today to help the world get home in truly uncertain times.

We’re used to having busy days working in the travel industry, but the current times we live in are something else.

Kudos to The Flight Centre team out at Sydney International Airport who turned up for work at 6am this morning to face a queue already so long that security had to step in to put up barriers for crowd control.

Due to the impending travel bans about to kick in for Australia, New Zealand and countries all over the world, people were desperate to rush home to loved ones.

Most in the queue hadn’t booked through Flight Centre with Travel Consultant Nicole Henwood saying “people had given up getting through on the phones to any airlines or online sites to change their bookings, so they just walked into our store for new tickets”.

After opening the doors at 6am and witnessing a rush of the likes only the Boxing Day sales could beat, extra team members were quickly drafted in including those on their day off to deal with the seemingly never-ending line.

FC-SYD-Airport

Asked how many people the team attended to, Nicole said:

“I have literally no idea how many people we served today as it was absolute mayhem. Even with airport security setting up an airline-style check-in for us. We assisted passengers in getting home to places including Mexico, Germany, USA and Canada. We also had many passengers denied by Air New Zealand and Fiji Airways as sadly they could no longer transit via those countries”.

Nicole Henwood, Travel Consultant

“We’ve also been taking many calls from over the world where Australians are trying to find flights to come back home.”

When asked about the mood of the customers today, Nicole says that the “general attitude from people has been very appreciative of any help we can give them”.

“They’re so thankful when we can find them a route and a flight they can take to get home. I think it gives customers peace of mind knowing that we’re there in front of them and have all the correct information rather than them looking online and getting misled by confusing information.

“Some are frustrated and have given up trying to change their bookings and are just hoping they can get some kind of compensation from the airlines when they get home, and the rush has died down.”

FC-SYD-Airport

The Flight Centre International Airport Sydney store is open every day of the year from 6am to 9:30pm with Nicole saying: “most of us have been working 13+ hour days and on our days off. My manager left the office at 1:30am the other night”.

Even one of the team’s mum popped in today to give caring hugs and support the team through such a stressful time.

FC-SYD-Airport

Is there any better feeling than helping other people?

It’s another fantastic example of #togetherintravel and the people of our awesome industry going above and beyond to help.

To all of you legends today including Ronan, Sandra, Josh, Nicole, Kobi, Erika, Tam, Roxanne, Justin, Roxy, Dan, Alex, Annelise and Marree – A huge well done from all of us at Karryon!

 

Join our Together in travel initiative

together

Got a story or great initiative to share too? Get involved by sending us a story, video, or a photo and telling us what you’re up to and how you are working through this challenging time.

Got tips and tricks to share, learnings and successes you have had? Lovely feedback from clients? We want to hear about it.

Use the #togetherintravel hashtag in your social media and share away to start a wave of goodwill.

Email us at editor@karryon.com.au or DM us on FacebookInstagram or LinkedIn.