We have recently experienced Thomson and British Airways rediscovering the importance of selling through travel agents – perhaps we should now turn our attention to Virgin.
This week we sold a Virgin Sun Holiday for departure within seven days and Virgin refused to send tickets without payment on our company credit card. We explained that as we are both ABTAmembers they could not withhold tickets, but eventually we paid up to prevent a ticket-on-departuresituation for our clients.
The following day we required a quote for six passengers to Florida. Kuoni America, Key to America and Virgin Florida were contacted and the best package/costing was with Virgin. We spent considerable time upgrading the car to a suitable size and advising on the accommodation details.
The following day we telephoned the client only to be informed that he had booked direct as we had obviously attempted to overcharge him by almost £1,000. We telephoned the directnumber on the back of the brochure. It appears its staff are able to offer 20% reductions on friends, family and anyone they please.
Our client is the general manager of a local company and many of his staff are clients. No doubt his staff will now qualify as friends and receive similar reductions. We were asked if we could match or improve on the cost – we will when commission levels reach 32.5%!
Iain McGregor
Director
West Sussex Travel Worldchoice
Pulborough
West Sussex