Agents Divided on Supplier Air Woes
Andrew Sheivachman, www.travelmarketreport.com
Relying on supplier-booked air can be a boon for travel agents who don’t have time to waste on one of the least profitable portions of the travel sale.
But cruise and tour operators’ air departments sometimes fall short, according to agents. Botched ticketing and weak customer service have some agents reconsidering the benefits of booking air through suppliers.
A chief complaint is the long call hold times that agents experience when trying to get through to suppliers’ air-booking departments. It’s “a prevailing issue,” said Brandy Burriesci, Sea Blue Cruise and Travel, a Cruise Planners agency in Boerne, Texas.
“Unfortunately all too often, I’m sitting on hold for 30 to 45 minutes just to begin speaking with a reservation agent.”
Poorly trained staff
Scott Pinheiro, president of Santa Cruz Travel in Santa Cruz, Calif., said inexperienced staff in supplier air departments is his biggest gripe.
“Having worked on GDS’ for 20+ years myself, a seasoned travel professional can run circles around these air department personnel.
“It’s frustrating for us because it’s lost time dealing with inaccurate information and loss of control. Time is money in taking care of the client,” said Pinheiro.
Other agents complained of staff who were unable to answer their questions or unable to fulfill their air-booking requests without the help of a manager.
One said she’d known supplier air departments to make “terrible mistakes” and that she often ran into a language barrier, which made things “terribly challenging.”
Worst of the worst
Pinheiro said the quality of suppliers’ air booking services varies from supplier to supplier, but is especially weak at mass market cruise lines.
“At the mass market cruise lines – Carnival, Holland, Princess, etc. – it’s not even worth speaking with their air departments,” said Pinheiro.
But upscale lines like Crystal, Regent and Silversea will often provide you with a capable representative, he said. FULL STORY