National Travel Agent Day: staff nominate colleagues who’ve gone the extra mile

Agents have been nominating colleagues who have gone over and above the call of duty during coronavirus as part of today’s National Travel Agent Day.

NTAD organiser Intrepid Travel  is offering a holiday for two in a competition launched as part of the inaugural event.

Among examples of agents who’ve gone the extra mile are Joan Jones, from Once in a Lifetime Holidays, who drove all the way to Heathrow to collect her clients from the airport when they had to arrange repatriation flights back to the UK at the beginning of the pandemic and no-one was able to pick them up.

Colleague Louise Rush said: "She was their travel agent and taxi driver all in one. She even stopped on the way to pick up for drinks and treats for them. That’s service."

Hays Travel agent Helen Rollaston went the extra mile for an elderly gentleman who uses a mobility scooter and who booked a solo trip to Las Vegas. It was his late wife’s dying wish that he should go. Helen didn’t give up finding an operator that would accommodate all his health requirements in resort, including his desire to go to the Grand Canyon. His flight was cancelled twice and the third flight took off from a different airport. He had no way of getting there, so Helen took him.

Manager Hayley Annie Tinnion, who nominated her, said: "This isn’t just a holiday this is gentleman’s dream, his late wife’s last dying wish and Helen is making sure he has the most amazing memorable experience and that’s what a travel agent should be recognised for.

"To watch someone truly invest her own time in customers journey makes me in awe of her. I want to thank her for the the true compassion she shows this elderly gentleman every time he comes to our store. He gets so upset about his late wife when he talks about her and Helen just always sits and listens to him and has become so involved in his journey."

Another Hays Travel agent, Aaron Petty, was nominated by several colleagues.

One, Kath McDonald. She said: "Aaron also has three foster siblings, so juggling helping his mum with the little ones, working on a government contract and juggling the day job, Aaron’s customers have still had exactly the same service if they went into branch. He’s not stopped booking and juggling things. Hats off to him. He only started his travel journey a few years ago, but his knowledge and what he does for his clients going above and beyond is fantastic."

Many agents are offering support to others, despite being ‘rivals’.

Mair Jones, Partner at Bordessa Holidays in West Wales nominated Leighann Layla Morgan from Shrewsbury-based Opulent Travel Lounge. Mair said: "She’s had a hard start to 2020 with the floods destroying her beautiful new shop and then hit with Covid. She’s had some horrible customers abusing her but she has always remained positive and passionate about travel. In the last few months, she has supported many other agents, especially myself, messaging me constantly when I lost my father. Despite what’s happening to herself and her business she’s still thinking of others and I think she deserves this amazing opportunity to get that something back."

Others include Amanda Baylis for being a ‘shoulder to cry on, a pick me up, a counsellor, a tea maker, cleaner, the calm in the storm’; Adriana Patchton, who managed to sort out a £300 return flight back to the UK from Greece after the client was quoted £1,500, via Norway and Hazel Simpson of Limavady Travel, who set up her own business after being made redundant in 2013 and took on some of her former colleagues and who has ‘single handedly kept the office going’ over the past few months.

Zina Bencheikh, Intrepid’s EMEA Managing Director, said: "We’ve been blown away by the response from agents to our Morocco competition. I’ve loved reading about the amazing ways in which agents have gone far beyond the call of duty for their clients. National Travel Agent Day is set to be a great opportunity for the industry to give agents the recognition they deserve."

The prize is two places on our new Morocco Retreat with flights supplied by the Morocco National Tourism Office.

The winner will be announced on the Intrepid Loves Agents Facebook page and Travel Gossip at the end of NTAD today.

By Lisa James, Deputy Editor (UK)