If Only has closed its office to focus on repatriating customers and setting up staff at home, following the announcement of strict curbs to tackle the coronavirus outbreak.
Product and distribution director Gordon McCreadie (pictured), said: “We will only be taking urgent calls today (March 24), relating to passengers overseas.
“We need to ensure both the safety of our staff and the continuity of our customer service.
“Today, our team will be focusing on the urgent repatriation of customers currently still abroad, so we would ask our travel agent partners only to get in touch today for urgent issues, by emailing info@ifonly.net or leaving a message on our normal reservations number.
“We will also be using the temporary closure of our phone lines to allow time to migrate our systems, enabling all members of staff to work from home, as per government advice.
“From tomorrow (March 25), all calls will be redirected to our incredible reservations team working remotely and it is business as usual.
More: Coronavirus: Latest news and updates
“I’d like to take this opportunity to thank all of our valued travel agent partners and suppliers for their understanding and support at this time, and the wonderful team at If Only for all of their hard work and efforts over the past month.”
Urgent queries for today should be sent via email to info@ifonly.net with the subject line ‘URGENT’, to be actioned with a call back from a member of the team as soon as possible.
If calling, agents should use the standard reservations number – 0141 955 4000 – and leave a message.
From tomorrow, If Only will be open for enquiries as usual.
The luxury tour operator asks for agent partners’ patience, “since transactions may take slightly longer than usual amid these unprecedented circumstances”.
Enquiries out of hours can be directed to the operator’s dedicated out-of-hours team.
The If Only marketing team is providing agents with offers for late 2020 and 2021, with the message ‘Rebook Your holiday. Reconnect the world’.