Is South Africa ready? This week will see the start of the onslaught one will come to know and expect in SA with what is associated with the Fifa World Cup 2010! 04 Dec is when the draw will take place on who plays who and where. This means that people who are interested in coming will make their plans in earnest now as they have a better idea on dates and locations of their matches. So are all your ducks in row which ever side on of the fence you are sitting on. This week will see the final tweeks that need to be done to facilitate the opening of the booking flood gates for 2010. Get ready – regardless of what has been said on price gauging or our level of preparation or the lack their of the time has come to put all these fears, concerns and homework that has been done to the true test!
Here is a new website from imperial – it is a breeze to use with it’s nifty ajax auto complete fields. The website is fast – the rates are fair and the site very convenient. As with most internet sites and facilities cash is not accepted: Credit cards are the only acceptable form of payment for online bookings
Here is the write up from imperial:
Imperial Chauffeur Drive knows that as a discerning traveller you require an effortless and exclusive travel experience that meets all your safety requirements. This is why we have created a superior service that offers you driven solutions and caters to your appreciation of style, luxury & elegance as well as ensuring your complete security whether you are travelling for business or leisure.
Inflexibility costing you money? The main aim of the article is with the airlines, is their inflexibility and inability to handle and deal with isolated instances from a business and a clients perspective, this is after all your bread and butter on the business side and your clients over and above more important than that. Let me ask a question to both travel agents and to clients? How many times have you booked a ticket to find that you need to reroute or do a date change and the rules on the ticket are so rigid taht this is not feasible. In fact often it is better to cancel the ticket and by a new one. Here are some examples I have encountered in the past few weeks:
- Johannesburg to Miami one way via Atlanta on Delta – the client need to do a reroute ie fly to Houston – reroute was permitted however as there was no availability to book JNB-ATL-Houston , there was however availability if I booked Atlanta Houston – so what I needed was for the married segments to be broken so I could use JHB to Atlanta and the new portion to Houston – ie collect the reissue fee and keep the passenger on Delta – well nope the could not assist – only option – cancel ticket and sell on a carrier that could assist for that date and routing.
- Kulula Lumpur return in Business class – client needed to fly a day earlier and the only option was to reroute via Singapore – keep the validating carrier as Air Malaysia and reissue the ticket with the change fee. This is a R40 000 ticket. Response from Air Malaysia – No – no reroute prior to departure! No problem hand ticket in for a refund and sell the ticket on Singapore airways. So now you get R1000 cancellation fee instead of a R40 000 booking.
These are just two recent examples I have encountered which leads me to raise the question is your own inflexibility costing you money?
There is a terminal change for Air France in the UK:
Please note as of today, 24 November 2009, Air France co-locates with all the Skyteam Carriers operating out of London Heathrow Terminal 4. All Air France flights to and from London Heathrow LHR will now operate from LHR Terminal 4. The Skyteam co-location at London LHR Terminal 4 includes dedicated Skyteam Check-in areas
Delays coming up in the UK visa sections – plan ahead now!
Dear all
Please note that the Visa Section of the British High Commission in Pretoria will be having a new IT system installed between 27 November and 4 December 2009. This is likely to mean that there may be some delays in the processing of UK visa applications during this period. The Visa Application Centres will still be able to accept applications during this period and will not be affected, but the Visa Section will not be able to accept the direct submission of any applications between 27 November and 3 December.
If you, or any of your customers, are planning to travel during or shortly after this period you should consider submitting your application early, preferably by 20 November, in order to avoid possible disruption to your travel plans.
Please circulate this message within your teams and to your customers.
Yours sincerely
Chris Feist
This topic has been covered before however this week on the adm’s side bore fruit to a prime example on how ADM,s can lack reason. Some back ground: A client flew to Dar es salaam in business class. Now while he was there he needed to change the return portion of his trip, there was no availability in business class however there was a seat in economy class. So we down graded the ticket to get the guy home. Well needless to say that we received an ADM, here are relies verbatim from AuditExtra:
On further investigation, we find that as per penalty rule for farebasis CRTP states that changes permitted rebooking permitted subject to the applicable booking class being available. If the booking class is not available upgraded to the next higher available fare and charge the upgrade fee only. As the same was not adhered to, ADM was issued.
Ok here is more elaboration from ourside:
Thanks for your reply but can you please please explain to me were could we have upgraded to as the flight don’t have a first class compartment and C is the highest booking class for this sector. So if the business class was fully booked there is nothing higher to upgrade to.
WED 15JUL09 DAR ES SALAA/JOHANNESBURG *SA
1 DAR JNB 0725 1010 SA 189 C2 J2 Z1 DC Y6 B6 M6 K6 H6 S6#738B E – (This is just an example to proof booking class hierarchy on SAA and not true availability of flights concerned)
So back to square one SAA got full business class revenue for carrying the passenger in economy class.
This ADM was received in June 2009. Audit Extra take on average – 6 weeks to reply to a dispute so this has been back and forth since then. Is it just me or does their reasoning actual lack sense what so ever? It seems that they are “robots” and have lost reasoning and the human touch, in addition they have forgotten to *put their client first* – effectively in the above they are saying the client could not travel on that date! Come on lets get serious!
This can vary depending on the airline, some do not accept unaccompanied minors and others do, some charge a permium for them and others do not, some charge service fees and others do not. Some rules of thumb when doing a booking for an unaccompanied minor:
- Have all the details ready: Name and surname of the person dropping off the UM (unaccompanied minor) and the person collecting them.
- They will need a birth certificate or an acceptable form of ID to fly domestically and a passport for international travel.
- Reservations for Unaccompanied minors cannot be booked online. (This is for SAA and many other carriers so all ways check with the carrier prior to making online bookings!)
In a nut shell a UM is a child who will be flying alone – ie travelling without a parent or guardian. What happens with a UM after checkin: They are escorted to their seat on the correct plane, while on the plane they will be checked on regularly by the cabin staff. On arrival at the destination they are collected by the ground staff and escorted to the UM collections point in the arrivals hall.
UM is a generally between the ages of 5 and 11 – this can differ between airlines. After this age the travellers are adults and pay full adult fare. They are able to travel by themselves however we do recommend that you order a MAAS for them – a meet and assist. This is where someone will walk them to the plane and on arrival assist them from the plane to the arrivals hall.
Note that this does vary from airline to airline and should be checked and clarified with the airline you intend using to fly your UM or Young Passenger.
Searching around for self catering accommodation over the December period is really proving to be trying. This picture tells a thousand stories – the little X’s mean sold out:
Click on the image above to see the page I am referring to. If you are like me and have left it fare to late then visit this brilliant website:
They have a great tool where you are able to view what palces are still available for which dates:
Ok further to a previous post on ADM’s the question has been raised:
How long does an airline have to send you an ADM:
Well the answer is: 18 Months for an ADM after the last date of travel on a ticket however they do have up to 4 years from date of last travel to invoice you.
When an ADM is raised it is deducted off BSP and intern from the agency account immediately – it is then the agencies responsibility to fight the ADM to try and get an ACM (Agency Credit memo) ie: have the money put back into the agency account. Now on this note lets elaborate on another side of ADM’s – the refund – if you put in for a refund of the ticket the refund is checked and credited to your account – you in turn refund the client, now if there was an error in the refund from the airline they send an ADM for the over payment and again deduct it immediately from your account. So even though you have paid the client back you can be responsible for any incorrect refund submissions. Interesting – hectic responsibility especially when most agencies make between 7 and 10% on the nett fare.
It has dawned on my how clients shop for travel and really lets delve into it for a minute and learn how we can shop smarter. You see there is really no point what so ever to get 5 quotes for Le Cannonier for Beachcomber from 5 different travel agencies for example, the rates will generally be the same unless the agent adds on a service fee, on top of the commission they are earning from Beachcomber. By doing this not only are you wasting your time you are wasting the time of the 5 travel agents in addition to Beachcomber who has to do the same quote 5 times.
Shop smart – ask for options, ask what the service fee is for the travel agency for which you are dealing, do you want self catering or do you want 5 star. Be specific ask the right questions, this foes for you the client and you the travel agennt – engage the travel agent or client which ever side of the desk you are sitting.
Another example is for the clients and the travel agents, if you want to compare the indirect options to the direct otions then ask – also do make the decision for the client that there is only a R100 or so price difference between in direct and direct so you will go ahead and only quote direct. Give the client the options and the choice, with the onslaught of the internet and the world of choice your client and you the traveller are getting used to it, so in a way you should really expect and request it if need be.
Be upfront with the agency and the client – advise what your service fees are, if the client is not happy with them then so be it – work this out before you spend hours formulating packages and quotes only to find out the client is not happy paying a service fee! Again both sides of the desk – shop smarter in travel….