Well, this is it, we are officially in February 2024 and dare I say it, at some points in January I never thought we’d actually get here!
We agents will have no doubt spent most days pulling our hair out throughout this, our Peak sales period. But our February payslips will be positively bulging at the seams with incentives a plenty after a successful January. I can’t wait to see my belter!
So, what will my personal ‘highlights’ of this January be you ask? Well let’s start a list. All good agents love a list. Here’s is my top 10.
#1 Sitting on hold for what feels like an eternity to Mainstreet for Barbara off Facebook who needs all the flight times for that USA multi-centre deal I just posted before booking.
#2 Getting said flight times and letting Mainstreet off the phone for Barbara to say the dates are no good and she doesn’t like the hotels (for the ridiculously low price). She now fancies a cruise to Hawaii and what have they got instead?
#3 Spending hours on the phone on a busy Saturday to a patient soul at Jet2holidays Assisted Travel, trying to request out for an adapted room, only for the customer to speak to the hotel direct just after and be told it was a ‘no’ and if they’d booked direct or with any other tour operator it would be a yes… “They just don’t have the contract!”
#4 Learning to count again trying to navigate Gold Medal’s labyrinth of a call centre menu. How many numbers do I need to press just to speak to a real person? “5, 6, 7, 8,” I hear you say? And yes, the guy off X Factor does get more annoying each time I ring.
#5 Repeatedly saying: “Yes your myJet2 discount is already applied to that price, you don’t get another £60pp off.”
#6 “No you can’t use 4 x Rain Cheques on one booking!”
#7 “And you can’t even use one anyway as your ‘little darling’ has a free child place, Karen.
#8 Arguing with ‘Mo’ at Marella Cruises that my customer’s Cruise Boarding Pass certainly won’t be found on the TUI Airways check-in site. He’s still insistent, his years of travel experience shining through…
#9 Having to tell a customer to book with bargain basement Holiday Hypermarket as I refused to discount a further £609 off the TUI direct price. “Agent friendly,” they said…
#10 Doubling our Peaks performance year-on-year and being asked to go on a lovely fam.
God, I love travel!