Lessons to be learned from the disruption
Monday 3rd May 2010
After a tense week which saw tens of thousands of people stranded overseas we are delighted to report that all our clients managed to return home safely and with the minimum of delay. We felt it was our duty to help those who were prevented from returning as scheduled and as a result we provided (and paid for) hotel accommodation and meals for those who were inconvenienced. As it turns out, our clients suffered just minor delays since our partners overseas ensured that seats were procured on the earliest possible flights home (we had a group in Beirut at the time) and consequently those who travelled with us felt that they were being kept up to date and weren’t being abandoned.
Are there lessons to be learned? Without presuming to blow our own trumpet too much, it is worth pointing out that those groups who adopted the DIY approach to arranging trips were left and high and dry with no-one to turn to. Our clients received the full backup which they’ve come to expect and comments from returning travellers emphasise this. The legal wrangles will continue, and most insurance companies have managed to find opt-out clauses so that they don’t suffer financially. We took the simple view that it was our duty to look after our clients, and this is precisely what we did.
