The Brexit debates were coming to a close and we were super busy booking lots of amazing adventures and holidays for people all across the world when the C word entered our radar.
C for Coronavirus, a nasty virus affecting mainly China with some Asian destinations being affected. Despite the initial news reports we felt pretty confident the impact would be minimal.
In early February clients who were in Asia enjoying a special celebration trip called the mobile as we were heading to the theatre for a night out in London, one of them was sick and unable to make their flight the next morning from Phuket to Bangkok – alarm bells rang, perhaps our client had been affected by this virus, as the first point of call for our clients half way across the world our immediate advice was to call a doctor and whilst this was taking place we were jumping on the problem of the flights due to depart in the next 12 hours, we managed to enjoy Mary Poppins with a lingering fear that something more serious might be unfolding.
Fortunately this was not the case and a poorly tummy was diagnosed, the flight was duly changed, transfers rearranged and the clients stayed put for another night until they felt well enough to travel. The client could concentrate on the situation of their health and we took care of everything else – all part of the service we offer! The clients returned home from an otherwise amazing trip advising us that the C word was unspoken in Thailand and they enjoyed a fabulous trip and actually couldn’t understand what all the fuss in the UK media.
On the 5th February more clients were due to depart on a trip to Vietnam, the client was so anxious about travelling with the media news reports about the virus, that at 5pm the night before departure they decided they just could not travel, thanks to the expert support and help from one of our suppliers we managed to change the clients holiday to a later departure with no cost, even at such late notice. We spent most of the 4th February liaising with the client throughout our team meeting in London trying to support them with such a difficult decision.
About the same time the Diamond Princess cruise ship was quarantined off the coast Japan with an outbreak of the virus, this set alarm bells ringing across Asia and many countries stopped allowing cruise ships to dock in their ports for fear of the virus – we had arranged a fabulous month long honeymoon around Asia – a trip of a lifetime for more clients departing 28 February, this itinerary you guessed involved a cruise. The clients were naturally reluctant to travel on a cruise so we set about trying to recreate half of the itinerary avoiding the cruise element but having to utilize the flights confirmed as we could not amend the flights. As there was no Foreign Office advise not to travel the clients were not entitled to change or get a refund at this stage. We spent an afternoon creating a new honeymoon and the clients left happy looking forward to honeymoon version two!
Our clients due to travel to Japan on a once in a lifetime adventure in March to enjoy the cherry blossom naturally felt concerned as more news unfolded, so again, whilst the Foreign Office advice did not advise against travel to Japan, we considered the options as the clients were at threat of losing a huge amount of money, should they have chosen not to travel. Again we persuaded our partner to allow them to change the trip to 2021 which meant only the flight element was non refundable and there was the opportunity to make an insurance claim so the client was happy as they were reluctant to travel and with such an amazing trip its really important for us that our clients are looking forward to their adventures not fearing what is ahead.
Our honeymoon couple flew off on the 28th February and we were optimistic they would have an amazing month away and it started so well …. we could have had no idea what was to unfold in just a matter of weeks …
By mid March things were not looking good, reports from our clients in Asia who were checking in with us almost daily were positive, they were having the time of their lives and enjoying every minute of their trip and didn’t want to come home .. they headed off to the Borneo jungle to spend time with wildlife and headed back to their island resort for a week of total relaxation where we considered they would be super safe, an island escape, no crowds no people pure bliss from the chaos of the C word in the outside world.
Our team pooled together and we created a work in progress spreadsheet with all clients, we shared regular real time updates on a group chat, all being aware of every client as there became a real threat that one of us could get sick and we had to ensure every client would be taken care of regardless of the individual with whom they booked.
We regularly keep up to date with Foreign Office updates as this governs whether clients can travel so its important to keep on top of all the relevant information, however on 13th March things started to take a turn for the worse, the updates were coming in thick and fast and the Foreign Office was advising against travel to multiple countries. One night we received 96 updates, sleep was minimal and due to time differences around the world we had to be up through the night to communicate with our clients overseas.
Our honeymoon clients were enjoying a cocktail and sending photos of their beautiful island in Borneo as we were getting increasingly worried about the updates in the media this end, as it became obvious things were getting much worse. Within minutes of the cocktail photo being received our clients were advised that the guest amenities on their remote island in Borneo were closing down, they were confined to their room and if they left the island by boat they could not return. We had to try and get these clients back … and then we realized the gravity of the situation – we rang the tour operator who were incredibly unprepared for what lay ahead, they should have repatriated those clients immediately however they refused, they refused as they had hundreds of thousands of people all over the world and they just could not repatriate everyone – the battle began to get our clients home, the clients were trying to contact their insurance company at £2.50 per minute for support from them and literally in front of our eyes the world came to a standstill.
To cut a long story short we eventually got the clients home 2 days later and we drove to collect them from Heathrow as we could not even get them flights back to Stansted – the airlines had hiked up all prices as people were desperate to get home – it was like a battlefield and we fought hard for our clients. We had clients still due to fly out to other countries unaffected like Mauritius and Cuba, they flew off wondering whether they would manage to enjoy their trip in full but with no Foreign Office advice against travel they went with our phone number on speed dial for 24 hour support.
On the 22nd March there were further dramas as our clients in Cuba saw that the world was heading towards all flights being grounded, when you actually sit and consider this scenario it sounds like a movie rather than real life. Their return flight with Virgin was cancelled and their Tour Operator was not being as helpful as they could, between ourselves, a good contact in the industry and an agent in India who helped us overcome some ticketing rules due to a time restriction alongside a mad dash to the airport with literally 10 minutes to pack and a 1.5 hour taxi journey we got the clients on to the last two seats of a Virgin flight scheduled to fly that night.
However the stress was only just beginning as we then had to deal with all those clients due to travel. The Travel Industry turned into a battlefield, no one knew how to react to this unprecedented shut down of the whole world. Clients wanted money back from their holidays and in ordinary times this would be refunded within 14 days. Airlines, hotels, holiday companies, no-one could deal with the gravity of the situation, we acted quickly, our experience allows us to know the rules, have the right contacts and get the best outcomes for our clients and we are pleased with the level of service we offered. We worked 24/7 to reassure our clients, to cancel, change, negotiate, argue, hold on the phone for hours and fight hard for our clients so none were left out of pocket or with a scenario that wasn’t right for them. We kept in contact and gave our expert advice on how to approach each of their individual scenarios, as no two people felt the same about what to do next. Our role became counsellor versus risk assessor trying to reassure and encourage, support and negotiate and where possible bending the rules where we could for the benefit of our clients.
We were regularly receiving pleas of help from people who had not booked with us, who had booked online and had no way to communicate with the company with whom they booked – the online companies and many high street travel agents switched off the phones and customers were left in the ‘twilight zone’. Whilst we are always keen to help it would be unfair to our precious clients who deserve our time and attention and we hope those that pressed that online booking button have learnt the value of a great Travel Agent throughout this.
It’s now the end of May over 2 months after the full lockdown – our income is at a standstill and we are daily refunding clients, which also means refunding our salary for work we have done over the last 12 months. In many cases refunds have actually cost us money, we have no income for the foreseeable future but throughout the whole time in the forefront of our minds has been our clients – and this will always be the case, wherever we find ourselves the support for our valuable clients will be unwavering and we truly believe the support we see from them, when they recommend us will be worth our blood sweat and tears – yes tears, there were some along the way. Upon reflection when we thought the impact of 9/11 and the Volcanic Ash were as bad as it could get we never could have predicted that the whole world would one day stop flying and all the countries would close their borders.
We continue to liaise with our clients due to travel later this year, many have changed to 2021 and are looking forward to when they can travel again.
Whilst it has been an incredibly tough few months in our first year of trading it allowed us to demonstrate our difference and we launched Our Promise to You.
