ADVICE FOR THE "DO IT YOURSELF" TRAVELLER!
Once you experience what it takes to "jump through the hoops" of doing it yourself you may find yourself having second thoughts about ever doing it again!
THE CAR RENTAL BLUES!
Here's an example of someone who decided that he would handle his car rental for his company trip. Thinking he could do it better himself, this is what ended up happening! He dropped his car in a different city and the car rental company billed his company for over $850! This happened because this gentlemen never thought to check to see if there was a "drop off" charge for leaving his car in a different location from the original location in which he rented the car! By the way, his company was not very happy about paying $850 for his car rental expense. They advised him to never do it himself again and always use our services for all of his future travel needs!
VOLCANO INTERRUPTION!
When the Volcano erupted in Iceland we had many stranded passengers. Our office was able to re-route all of them within 24 hours including a couple stranded in Europe. However, one person wasn't as fortunate and here's the story: We had two men who had met after 20 years on Facebook. They decided to rekindle their friendship by taking a trip to Egypt together. When they each booked their flights (one from Canada one from the US) The US client booked the whole package including flight through us. Even with all the problems created by the volcano we had him off to Egypt arriving about 36 hours late. Although his friend booked his flight online we still helped him by using our resources to find him a flight. We found one that was available and would allow us to work out the tour portion of his trip with no problem! When he eventually was able to contact the online company he booked his flight with they refused to make the change to the airline we had found. In the end the two friends finally met in the airport (in Egypt) 2 weeks later! Unfortunately, one was arriving while the other was departing!, ...not to mention that both had to pay single supplements as they had previously been able to book the tour on a double basis.
My brother-in-law booked himself and my nephew on a trip to Italy online and had to cancel my nephew due to an emergency. When my brother-in-law arrived to take the flight he discovered he had cancelled his own ticket not my nephews and as he was already at the airport had to pay over $5,000 for the last minute ticket. In addition he could not get a refund for my nephews ticket and had paid a cancellation fee for his own he had cancelled in error. In the end the whole affair cost him over $8,000 for an economy ticket from Vancouver to Rome return.
MISSED CONNECTION DISASTER!
Another client decided to book a very complicated flight with multiple segments online. The booking went fine until the first flight was delayed by several hours meaning he missed his connection. The airline re-routed him on another airline but as a result of him not taking the original connecting flight the computer automatically cancelled all his subsequent flights. He called our office in a panic as the online company refused to do anything to assist him (indicating as he was already in transit he would have to deal with the airline directly). It took our office 2 days arguing with the airline and the online company on behalf of the client to get his flights reinstated... By the way, we did this at no cost to this client even though we had not booked the flights.
OOPS! WHAT DAY IS THIS?
One of our regular clients decided to book a quick domestic business flight himself online. He turned up at the airport for his flight and the airline had no record of his booking. On further investigation it was discovered he had actually booked the flight for the following day. The airline gave him a one year credit to use the flight, but he swears he'll always use us in future!
A VERY HAPPY ENDING!
We had a client who was a female US soldier serving in Iraq who planned a Xmas trip for herself and her family in the US. However, she was first going to take a trip to Egypt on her own and then meet with her family from the US in Germany to attend an Xmas Market Tour. Then a big problem arouse when she missed her initial flight to Kuwait out of Baghdad due to tensions at the airport. We were aware she had missed the flight (as she hadn't arrived) but had no contact from her so it was not until she called the next day from Kuwait indicating she was rebooked onto the same flight a day late did we fully know about her situation.
Her situation was that she was on a Nile Cruise with no phone access when our Egypt Office called to check her flight from Cairo to Germany only to find that as a result of her missing her original flight the airline had cancelled all her subsequent flights even though she had rebooked the following day. Our Egypt office could not get anywhere with the airline in Egypt so for 2 days we worked through our Canadian office to reinstate all her original flights. Her family in the US was aware of the problem as we had notified them in case there were any more delays. The US soldier herself was not aware there had been any problems with the flights until her family told her what had happened and what we had done to reinstate them... Not only was the lady amazed and grateful but our staff received a huge gift basket as a thank you in appreciation.
The point is, we at Action Travel (because of our experience and knowledge) know what rental companies to use, flights to book, as well as, the proper hotel reservations to make in order for you to have a pleasant, efficient and cost effective business trip or leisure travel experience! We understand how enticing it is to "do it yourself" however, in the end, most individuals find that they didn't save money, it cost money!... and time too!
Let us work with you to plan your travel needs. We guarantee you'll be glad you did!
Mailing
Address - 203 11951 Hammersmith Way,
Richmond, BC, V7A 5H9
BC License 1896
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