A luxury agent who saved a high-value booking for a fellow Travel Counsellor says she’d “do it again” in a heartbeat.
Alayna Carter dropped everything after receiving a call from Ginny Scott – whom she had never met – asking a simple question: “Can you please pop round to help my colleague’s client?”
Scott, covering for another Travel Counsellor at the time, had been in the process of booking a Ponant voyage for an older customer when disaster struck.
The Leicestershire-based client, a woman in her eighties, was struggling to make the online payment for the £17,000 cruise due to difficulties with her banking app.
The “blow the budget” sailing around Iceland was planned for herself and her daughter, and with its July departure fast approaching, there was no time to waste.
“I sent the client the link to make the payment and then, there was just silence,” Ginny told TTG. “An hour and a half later, she rang me and said, ‘I can’t do it. It keeps whirring around.’”
In another scenario, Ginny would have suggested the client try again later – or wait until a family member could assist her.
The booking was for a £17,000 sailing with Ponant
However, due to the last-minute nature of the booking, the transfer had to be confirmed by 5pm. If the client wasn’t able to make the payment, then someone else would need to complete it on her behalf.
But with Ginny nearly three hours away in Colchester, it simply wasn’t possible for her to visit the client in person.
It was then that she remembered Travel Counsellors’ database of 1700 UK advisors. She quickly typed in the client’s address to find her nearest TC, and up popped Alayna Carter.
“It was luck by geography,” Ginny said. “I rang Alayna and the first thing I said was, ‘Say no if you don’t want to do this, but I have a customer who is struggling with the payment portal. What are the chances of you popping around?’”
Though surprised by the request, Alayna agreed to help almost straight away.
“I know how frustrating technology can be from seeing it with my own parents, so I wanted to do what I could to support,” she told TTG.
With a couple hours’ until school pick-up, Alayna was confident she’d have plenty of time to sort out the transaction. She hopped in her car and made the 10-minute drive over to the client’s home, under the impression the issue would be easy to resolve.
But more than an hour later, the payment still hadn’t gone through.
“It turned out to be a really complicated situation because the client couldn’t remember the pin code for her banking app, which was needed for her bank to approve the payment on the MyTC app,” Alayna explained. “When we eventually got through to the bank, it took a long time to sort out.”
Following a tedious back-and-forth with a customer service advisor, the payment was finally accepted, bringing immense relief to both Alayna and her client.
“I was so pleased I did it,” Alayna said. “I know there’s nothing worse than going around in circles with tech that stops you from being able to book that dream trip.”
As for Ginny, she remains entirely grateful to Alayna for her steadfast determination to support another Travel Counsellor.
“Alayna didn't know me, Sarah [the Travel Counsellor whom Ginny was covering] or the client, but she stepped up. We couldn’t have done it without her.”
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