This week on Travel Agent to the Rescue we speak with Lorie Raymundo from Travel Counsellors whose smart thinking and compassion helped her client at a very difficult time.
Take it away Lorie…
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I recently had a referral call me to book a flight home to the Philippines for his wife.
His wife’s brother had just passed away, and she didn’t have a passport/visa.
The client needed some help in sorting this all out, and that’s where I came in.
I happen to have a contact at the Philippine Immigration consulate, so I gave them a heads up on the situation so they could see them urgently.
The original flight they were going to book online was with Royal Brunei, and although it was cheap, it would mean they would have to stay over night in Brunei.
So I rang the client and advised them of this, and then also suggested an alternative: for $100 more they would get a direct flight which would save them from having to pay for accommodation and getting to and from the airport in Brunei.
In fact, if you added in the hotel and transport in Brunei, their “cheap” flight ended up costing more than the direct flight I wanted to book for them – something that could have been easily overlooked!
(Just another reason why booking with a travel agent is so much better than booking online!)
Lorie Raymundo from Travel Counsellors
Anyway, after booking the client’s flights and taking out a travel insurance policy for her (I managed to get all this done within all the same day) I hand delivered her travel documents to the client.
Although we had never met before I felt for her in this particularly stressful time.
When she opened the door and asked who I was, I told her that I was her travel agent, gave her my condolences, and told her I was there with all her travel documents – all prepared and ready to go.
Just looking at her, I could see a sigh of relief on her face that this was all sorted for her.
I received a very thankful phone call from her husband the next day saying how grateful he was for the service I provided.
Just to take that bit of stress off them, especially at this difficult time, was nothing was too hard for me.
Anyway, he thanked me for my professionalism, and he literally said that I “saved the day!”
The client ended up having a seamless trip home, and I received a thank-you from her too when she got back.
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Well done Lorie!
