L-R: Melanie Whyte in Venice and Penny Stansfield in the Aegean
A client required urgent assistance following a tragic holiday accident involving their child over the New Year period, and unfortunately their personal travel manager was in Europe and temporarily without Amadeus access.
So personal travel manager (PTM) Penny Stansfield, representative for Beaumaris in Victoria, used the TravelManagers Facebook page to reach out to fellow personal travel managers to assist.
Although Stansfield had a number of emergency contact options available to her, she is an active social media user, so Facebook was a logical place to start.
“I have always been an active user of Facebook having networked issues or problem solved on various hubs and social networks. The personal travel manager family is a natural extension of that approach and I was confident this was the quickest and most direct way I could rapidly locate someone on a public holiday,” said Stansfield.
“I knew at least one personal travel manager would be actively online regardless of the time, who could look into searching for some flights and fares for my client.”
It took only four minutes for fellow personal travel manager Melanie Whyte, representative for Devonport in Tasmania, to answer Stansfield’s request for help.
“I felt absolutely devastated for the family and knew that if I was in the same position, I would want someone to help me,” said Whyte.
That the situation occurred on a public holiday, with restricted access to airline personnel, made Whyte’s job a little harder.
“The client had received prior advice via relatives there were no seats available for two weeks who also been quoted an exorbitant fare. Consequently I checked every online option possible for the client, called airlines, waitlisted seats with the whole process taking me around four hours. My first contact with the client was late Saturday afternoon and in twelve hours he was able to board a direct connecting flight for a much lower fare.”
Whyte said TravelManagers’ technology, with full access to the integrated booking and accounts systems 24/7, was critical.
“Our network communication is excellent and having unrestricted access to the booking and other related systems at all times made it possible to facilitate this urgent booking even though it was not my own.”
TravelManagers uses technology to its fullest extent and claims the personal travel manager model, with its blend of online presence and personal service, is the future of the travel industry.
“Emergencies, natural disasters, flight cancellations, accidents and illnesses do not always happen conveniently between 9am and 5pm as this tragic situation shows. The ability to work anytime, day or night on any booking truly shows that TravelManagers really offers a superior level of personal service and flexibility to all clients,” said executive general manager Michael Gazal.
Gazal said the quick thinking Facebook initiative and Whyte’s instantaneous willingness to assist resonates with the company’s values.
“We actively encourage this type of peer community support both from a business and social point of view. Melanie and Penny certainly deliver on TravelManagers’ philosophy of providing personal, consistent and exceptional client service. This example shows our personal travel managers really care about their clients and will go above and beyond no matter what the circumstances.”
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