We speak with Sean Baldwin from STA Travel today on this week’s Travel Agent to the Rescue. His story highlights that yes, sometimes the airlines just get it plain wrong…
Take it away Sean…
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This story is literally hot off the press and all unfolded in the middle of last week.
Over the past year, I’ve been helping a lovely family book their dream “round the world” trip through Europe, North America, South America and finishing things off big in Antarctica.
Being quite envious of their journey, I was living vicariously through them by following Instagram updates along the way.
Let’s fast forward to last week when the passengers were reaching the pinnacle of their journey – Antarctica.
Wednesday morning started off like any other day – catching up on emails that were sent overnight, coffee, reading messages from airlines – that’s when that week in February changed forever.
I couldn’t believe my eyes – cancelled segments for the remainder of the passengers’ journey because of a no-show for their flights to Ushuaia.
“Surely that can’t be the case” I thought to myself.
I frantically raced for my phone to open Instagram to see if there were any clues to this mystery that had been posted.
Everything seemed to be going as planned.
Beautiful photos of glaciers in Patagonia.
Plenty of travel-worthy hashtags.
Everything that would suggest a picture perfect trip.
It was pretty evident there was absolutely no way in the world the passengers missed their flights to Ushuaia.
I contacted the airlines reservations line straight away and began to explain that there must have been some sort of mistake.
“Nope – the passengers were definitely a no-show for the flight. There is nothing we can do about the rest of the ticket.”
My heart sank.
The airline was absolutely adamant that the passengers were not on the flight and that the remainder of the ticket was now invalid.
I was dead set on proving the airline wrong – I knew they were on that flight.
My attempts to get in touch with the passengers failed, as suspected, they were set to be in the middle of the Drake Passage.
Next, I tried to get in touch with G Adventures, who were operating the expedition, in hope that they would have more information that would help me solve this conundrum.
They were able to advise that the passengers were definitely on the cruise and were able to get me in contact with the passengers via satellite telephone.
Turns out, the passengers were definitely on that flight and I now knew I had a fight with an airline to prepare for.
I asked the passengers to compile as much evidence as possible, boarding passes, baggage tags or anything that would prove that they were on the flight.
Two days later and after countless phone calls between reservations staff and airlines representatives, the airline folded. We could reissue the ticket free of charge due to an airline error upon check-in. Sean 1, Airline 0.
Long story short, airlines seldom make mistakes, but they do happen.
If it wasn’t for catching it in advance, the situation could have ended very differently. It really illustrates the importance of not only “building” trips for customers but building relationships with them as well.
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Thanks Sean.
What I like best about this story is Sean’s resourcefulness. He turned to the clients’ Instagram account (which also shows how comfortable his clients were with him) to dig a little deeper and uncover the truth of the situation. Awesome work there Sean.
Have you read how Lorie from Travel Counsellors saved the day for one of her clients, yet?
Or about how Ez from Student Flights helped one of his clients get through a sticky situation?
