A regular customer comes in with her daughter who’s looking to take her two sons away to Turkey.
I’ve never met the daughter before but instantly dislike her as she keeps interrupting me, telling me how well travelled she is and has been ‘looking online’.
It’s only the fact her mum books so much with me I let her get away with it.
The issue is she’s divorced and her kids are with their dad for a week in Portugal and would land back the same day the Turkey holiday departs with six hours between them landing and departing.
I tell her this isn’t a good idea as if there are any delays, she will have an issue. But Miss Know-It-All knows best and assures me she did this last year without any problems.
A holiday is found, all the information is printed out and she’s going to look it over and come in and book.
She comes back in alright – on the day they are meant to fly out.
Flights are in meltdown and she rushes into the office clutching a printout from a well-known online agency. She’d decided to book the exact holiday I found for her departing tonight with them but now the kids are stuck in Portugal for five more days and can I help her?
I suggest she calls her online agent as only they can help. I’m informed she’s called them non-stop, but can’t get through, and when she does, she gets cut off.
I offer to see what I can do, knowing I’m doing nothing, but her parents being good customers, I know this will get me Brownie points.
I tell her I have five clients that we managed to get back from holiday with only a two-hour delay. This detail is not true but added to annoy her even more.
After 10 minutes of frantically typing and a quick glance at Skyscanner, I tell her there’s nothing flying in for the next two days.
She has the nerve to ask me if I can call the online agent and get the kids on the flight in two days. Sadly, I inform her I can’t, using that old saviour for travel agents: “Data protection.”
I can’t help, but point out that, had she booked with me, this wouldn’t have been a problem.
Accepting defeat, off she goes.
A couple of hours later, her mum calls in with two bottles of wine to thank me for trying to help.
Result!
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The post Tales from the Secret Agent: The one about the panicked mum appeared first on Travel Gossip.
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I’ve never met the daughter before but instantly dislike her as she keeps interrupting me, telling me how well travelled she is and has been ‘looking online’.
It’s only the fact her mum books so much with me I let her get away with it.
The issue is she’s divorced and her kids are with their dad for a week in Portugal and would land back the same day the Turkey holiday departs with six hours between them landing and departing.
I tell her this isn’t a good idea as if there are any delays, she will have an issue. But Miss Know-It-All knows best and assures me she did this last year without any problems.
A holiday is found, all the information is printed out and she’s going to look it over and come in and book.
She comes back in alright – on the day they are meant to fly out.
Flights are in meltdown and she rushes into the office clutching a printout from a well-known online agency. She’d decided to book the exact holiday I found for her departing tonight with them but now the kids are stuck in Portugal for five more days and can I help her?
I suggest she calls her online agent as only they can help. I’m informed she’s called them non-stop, but can’t get through, and when she does, she gets cut off.
I offer to see what I can do, knowing I’m doing nothing, but her parents being good customers, I know this will get me Brownie points.
I tell her I have five clients that we managed to get back from holiday with only a two-hour delay. This detail is not true but added to annoy her even more.
After 10 minutes of frantically typing and a quick glance at Skyscanner, I tell her there’s nothing flying in for the next two days.
She has the nerve to ask me if I can call the online agent and get the kids on the flight in two days. Sadly, I inform her I can’t, using that old saviour for travel agents: “Data protection.”
I can’t help, but point out that, had she booked with me, this wouldn’t have been a problem.
Accepting defeat, off she goes.
A couple of hours later, her mum calls in with two bottles of wine to thank me for trying to help.
Result!
Read more Secret Agent tales here.
The post Tales from the Secret Agent: The one about the panicked mum appeared first on Travel Gossip.
Continue reading...
