Up, up and away! It’s time for another episode of Travel Agent to the Rescue. This week we have Phoebe Hicks from STA Travel, who came to the rescue to save her client just in time…
Not all airfares are created equal.
Sure, they may look the same on the surface, but dig a little deeper, and what you may find is multiple and lengthy stopovers – some of which may require a visa…
Take it away Phoebe!
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Last month I called one of my clients to follow-up and see if he still needed help booking his flights to Europe.
He told me he actually just found something really cheap online, and was about to book it in when I called.
As we have a price beat guarantee at STA Travel, I asked him to email it through to me so I could see if I could beat the price.
When I had a look at the flights, I was able to get them cheaper!
However, the flights he wanted to book were with China Southern. These flights had two stopovers in China in each direction, meaning that on his Australian Passport he would need a visa (just the consulate fee alone is $140).
The client was completely unaware that he would need a Chinese visa to take this fare, so if he’d booked the flights and turned up at the airport, he would have been denied boarding and most likely would have had to buy a brand new ticket.
Ouch!
So I found him flights on our exclusive STA Travel blue ticket – with Etihad – that had far better connection times, and, here’s the kicker, was even cheaper too!
**
Thanks for that Phoebe. Awesome work!
This type of scenario happened all the time during my own days of consulting at Student Flights in Melbourne.
I can’t tell you how many times I had to explain to people that what may look cheap on the surface was actually much more expensive and time-consuming once you dug a little deeper.
But of course, as Travel Agents, you already knew this, didn’t you now?
Check out some of our other Travel Agent to the Rescue stories, including Ben from Flight Centre, Sean from STA Travel, and Ez from Student Flights,
**Do you have any of your own stories of how you saved the day as a Travel Agent? Email shaun@karryon.com.au and I’ll give you the praise you rightfully deserve.