01/18/2022
This was written by a fellow Travel Advisor.. long, but pretty much sums up TA life at this time!! I have been a Travel Agent since 1988 and I have sure seen many things in my career but nothing like the last 2 years. Please be patient with your Travel Agents.
Dear Friends and Hopeful Travelers:
I’d like to give some gratitude and appreciation to all my fellow travel advisors and colleagues.
For anyone that is not in our industry it’s hard to explain what it’s been like for us in the past two years, but I hope this letter might give you a little insight.
Our beloved industry has changed in ways I couldn’t imagine in my worst nightmare. If someone asked me today what my “job description” is I don’t think I could come up with words to describe it. Maybe something like “I try to get people from Point A to Point B without getting kicked off a plane, quarantined, or worse yet hospitalized in a foreign country”. Or “I basically work for free helping people book and rebook trips that will probably never happen”.
Yes there is a bit of sarcasm here but not too far from the truth.
Travel B.C.
–Before Covid - the old process…
• A Client calls
• Qualify the client by listening, determining budgets, timeline, type of trip etc.
• Research and more research – find the perfect fit for an amazing vacation
• Create and present a few proposals and decide on a destination and plan.
• Air is booked
• Hotels and/or Cruises booked
• Tours booked
• Transfers booked
• Destination specialist/tour operator booked
• Dining reservations and special experiences booked, shore excursions booked
• Travel Insurance booked (rarely did we ever open a claim for anyone)
• Personalized travel itineraries and travel Apps created
• All Ground personnel in place (tour guides, drivers etc.)
• Client takes the trip and has the time of their life
And …After the trip –The Travel Advisor actually gets paid a commission from all vendors. Yes, that’s how most of us get paid.
Travel A.C.
–After Covid...the new process
• Qualify the client by listening to their fear level, determining if they are vaccinated or not
• Research and more research – find a country that is open and hope it doesn’t close before they leave
• Create proposals for travel and a 5-page instruction list for Covid Protocols for each country and expect it to change 5 times before they actually travel
• Hope the clients follows said protocols so they don’t get turned away at the airport for not having the correct convoluted paperwork
• Guide them thru QR codes process, forms and more forms, testing to go and testing to come home (PCR? Antigen? 24 hours? 72 hours?), What? Health declaration forms, Green passes, Vaccination cards etc.
• Book the Air, then change and reissue the ticket multiple times because the airline cancelled the route, Call airline and remain on hold for up to 4 hours.
• Reissue ticket again or refund ticket and lose your commission.
• Trip is cancelled because CDC makes some unsubstantiated claim
• Trip gets cancelled because clients fear level is on media overload
• Trip is cancelled because client tests positive the day before they leave
• Trip is cancelled because the destination is closed with no plans of reopening anytime soon
• Tours booked/cancelled/rebooked/cancelled again – holding future credits for clients that hope to travel in 2023 or 2024. Nope - Still haven’t been paid.
• Hotels/Cruises booked – Hotels/cruises cancelled. Rebooked, cancelled, rebooked. Future cruise credits good for two years from now - Maybe they will cruise in 2024 and then I will get paid
• Transfers are booked, then unbooked – cancelled, rebooked, cancelled, drivers hurting, not getting paid.
• Destination specialist/tour operator booked- cancelled – rebooked – cancelled – Future travel credits with vendors in countries that might not open for a year or more. Still not paid.
• Travel Insurance booked, dates moved multiple times – Find insurance that pays to evacuate a client who tests positive, find insurance that covers quarantines for up to 2 weeks.
• Personalized travel itineraries and travel Apps created – cancelled and redone, cancelled, redone. Looking on sadly at all the itineraries I worked so hard to create – all cancelled.
If you are traveling anytime soon please show your travel advisor some appreciation. We are so much more than that. We are the ones behind the scenes looking out for you, making sure you are safe and well-taken care of to the best of our ability. Our vast knowledge, skills and commitment are needed now more than ever. Send a bottle of wine, send some flowers or just some words of encouragement. We could really use the support.
We remain hopeful that someday, in the not too distant future, we will be back to those amazing “B.C. Travel Days”.
