I am one who firmly believes having the right people around you makes life far easier because you just don't know what challenges lie ahead. In the previous business I was involved in we did so much travelling and we had our own in house travel agent who took care of any travel arrangements.
I had heard of horror stories with guys being trapped on the other side of the world only for her to step in and fix the problem. I needed her assistance back in 2015 when I arrived at Johannesburg airport to find my flight had been cancelled due to the inward bound flight having turned around the day before. There was a bomb scare which crated chaos on the Johannesburg side because now you had the equivalent of 2 full plane loads looking for seats elsewhere.
The Air France counter was telling people to go home and come back tomorrow which was not a good sign because I also received a text message stating I was rebooked on a flight 3 days later. This was disastrous because I had plans and everything would now be totally screwed. I had my first Rugby World Cup game 2 days away and the ticket price alone meant I could not miss this as it was more expensive than the flight.
I phoned the travel agent and she got to work getting me on stand by for the next flight out leaving in 2 hours. This was with Swiss Air and I still had a chance with British Airways and KLM. British Airways came back as full so they were no good so it was now up to Swiss Air and KLM which is better than fighting with people at the check in desk.
I was taken to Swiss Air boarding with all my luggage and stood behind the onboarding counter. Things were looking up for a short period of time as many people were late but unfortunately the flight crew were also late due to congestion on the roads which meant every passenger made it. I was taken back underneath the airport via a network of passageways directly to the check in counters.
KLM had accepted me on their flight and whilst I was busy checking in I could still see the people fighting over at Air France. That would have been me if I had not known someone who could use their knowledge to fix the problems. You just never know when you are going to need help and you hope you never have to, but at least you do have aback up plan.
To this day I remain in contact with this lady as she is a friend more than an ex work colleague. Nothing is too much trouble and with my overseas trip coming up I know whatever happens I have her in the corner. I have tried over the years for her to set up a travel website where she could sell tickets, but more importantly be in the corner for all her clients. If I travelled regularly I would be happy just to pay $10 monthly even if I never used her services, but I know they are there if required.
