Suppliers can sometimes make simple mistakes but why should we pay the price? Asks Spear Travels’ Kim Kent
I have been in the travel industry for 45 years and one of the things that really frustrates me is when tour operators make mistakes – and expect us to pay for them!
I appreciate we are all human and mistakes happen, but recently we had a situation where the tour operator managed to cancel the flight upgrade on one of our bookings. The error was not picked up until 10 days before departure, when we received the accommodation voucher but nothing for the flight. When we looked online, we noticed the flight was in economy and not as we had booked or indeed been invoiced for.
I appreciate we are all human and mistakes happen, but recently we had a situation where the tour operator managed to cancel a flight upgrade
After speaking to the operations department to see what had happened, they eventually admitted it was their fault. They explained that back in September, when there had been a small schedule change, a staff member from a different department who was helping them out managed to change the class of travel. I am not sure how this is even possible given that it should just have been a simple schedule change?
Resolution impasse
At this point, we were 10 days away from departure. The flight class originally booked was full, and the only availability was in premium economy, which is more expensive. I didn’t feel bad about asking the operator to pay the upgrade as they had admitted it was their fault. But getting an answer straight away was impossible as they had to ask a manager, which took a long time. Eventually, they did come back to us to say they couldn’t do anything about it and a small refund was all they were able to offer.
I didn’t feel bad about asking the operator to pay the upgrade as they had admitted it was their fault
As we were getting closer to departure and the client hadn’t been informed while we had tried to sort it out, I offered to go 50:50 with them. This wasn’t really fair on us but I wanted to keep the client happy and try to solve the problem. But they refused and just offered the refund again. I felt this was very unreasonable, as we were only talking about a small sum of money. Our client was very tall and really needed the extra space on his flight to South Africa.
Matter of principle
In disbelief at this decision, I decided to try asking my retail manager for their advice. It was now a matter of principle. We had already asked our representative, but of course she had to go to her manager, and I felt we were going round in circles. After several days of going back and forth, we were still no further forward.
With the support of my team, we escalated it to director level and within 24 hours we received an email saying the booking had been upgraded
It was very frustrating but I wasn’t going to give up now. With the support of my team, we escalated it to director level – and within 24 hours we received an email saying the booking had been upgraded. With it came an apology of sorts, although this implied the airline was to blame, which was not the case.
My point here is that if we had made the mistake, we would have had to pay for it, no questions asked. We are very grateful that we eventually got the outcome for our client that we wanted, but we had to jump through several hoops to get a positive result. It was all very time-consuming and unnecessary, and less than ideal when we’re so busy.
Passport to panic
A last-minute booking to Switzerland for seven passengers had been on the go for several days when the family eventually decided to commit to the expensive ski booking and paid in full.
In a panic, the client managed to get an appointment the next day at the passport office, with no guarantee they would get one in time
We went through the checklist with the client and everything was confirmed as fine, so we booked the trip. However, on further inspection by the client, they discovered that one of the children’s passports did not have enough validity. In a panic, the client managed to get an appointment the next day at the passport office, with no guarantee they would get one in time. Would you pay £12,000 for a holiday without checking everything first?
More: Advantage dismay as passport deadline remains at 10 weeks