Two agents have bagged a bumper booking of nearly £174,000 – the biggest Kent agency Go Travel has ever made.
Linda Parsons (pictured left) and Gemma Furneau (pictured right), who work at the agency’s Chislehurst branch, teamed up to secure the Cunard booking, in one of Queen Mary 2’s top suites on its 99-night 2020 World Cruise for a 71-year-old businessman and his wife.
Parsons said: “I will probably never book something like that again in my lifetime. You hear about people making these bookings, but you never know them.”
She and colleague Furneau split their individual commission and were both were sent bathrobes by Cunard as a thank you.
The customer had been talking to Furneau about the cruise, which will depart from Southampton, for months. It’s a relationship the agent had been nurturing, having booked the businessman on his first cruise 14 years ago.
Furneau was not in the branch when he wanted to confirm, so Parsons stepped in to secure the massive booking.
Initially, the customer’s favoured room – the Queen’s Grill Duplex Suite – had been available only to the US market. But with the help of Travel 2’s Cruise Plus team, Parsons was able to reserve it. Without the agent’s help, the customer would have had to join the cruise in New York a week earlier to secure the room.
“It was a fantastic opportunity for my customer,” said Furneau.
“It gave me a lot of satisfaction.”
Parsons added: “I’m hoping we get some more bookings off the back of this.”
Go Travel director Mike Roberts said: “It’s the biggest booking, value-wise, that we have had in 20 years – and is all down to Gemma and Linda’s good work. It was a real team effort.”
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