You may recall the very severe weather that smashed the East Coast of the USA in early January…

We catch up with Ben Morgan for another Travel Agent the Rescue story by Shaun Basullit.

This week we hear from Ben Morgan a travel agent who leaped to his client’s rescue when the weather gods opened up their fury in the USA.

But just how did Ben save the day?

Well, you’ll have to read on to find out.

Without further ado, take it away Ben you good ol’ superhero you!

Over the Christmas/New Year period I had two families travel all over the USA on their dream holiday which they had planned and saved years for with 11 people in total.

We had planned every intricate detail of this trip, right down to tip off times for the NBA games they would attend. Yep, I had helped them source tickets to sold out Christmas Day games through our preferred supplier agreements.

While travelling through no less than eight US states, the dream holiday was going along beautifully thanks to all the handy hints and tips I had provided from my many visits. I had been checking in with them along the way to ensure that they felt supported the whole time.

As is generally the case with any big overseas trip, something is bound to veer off course despite everyone’s best work and this was to happen at the end of their trip in San Francisco.

You may recall the very severe weather that smashed the East Coast of the USA in early January which affected the entire US domestic network.

(Editors note: It may or may not have looked something like this:)

My clients’ flight from San Francisco to Los Angeles to connect with their Brisbane flight had been delayed by eight hours meaning they would be arriving into LAX three hours after their flight to Australia had departed.

Ordinarily this would be a case of one night in LAX and then rebooking them on a flight the next day. However, early January flights to Australia are not known for their ‘wide open’ availability and you guessed it – Delta/Virgin could not get them home to Australia for 12 days.

Ouch!

As this was weather related and essentially no one’s fault, the airline and insurer weren’t interested in assisting much. The adults needed to get back to work and the children school, plus on top of this, the budget had almost run dry.

This all unfolded on a Saturday/Sunday, and as I had been monitoring my emails (as I tend to do all the time) I immediately called them and put their mind at ease that I would get a solution.

I booked them in to a LAX airport hotel for a night as I contacted VA and DL for assistance. Sadly this was not readily forthcoming as they simply had no seats. I spoke to supervisors, operations managers, you name it.

Through good luck and good fortune, I monitored all flights from LAX to SYD and BNE for a period of about 12hrs every 30 minutes, and after I was able to get five seats another two popped in and then another four giving me my 11 seats.

I knew this would be a chance as more and more people from the East Coast failed to get across to the West Coast due to weather.

What was looking like a 12 day delay turned in to a 24 hour stopover with a Dave & Busters Hollywood experience that they still talk about today.

There was no additional cost to the client, with VA even paying for the accommodation and reissuing the tickets FOC. The clients – as you can imagine – were almost in tears with their gratitude, and since this time I’m now booking the entire company’s travel portfolio.

What a great story.

When you think about it, Travel Agents can match, and often beat, the prices that are available online. So when you get this extra level of service, basically for FREE, how could you not book with a Travel Agent?