What a week and a half!

I couldn’t believe it when I realised that my large group of 47 passengers were going to be stranded in Khartoum. The group were in Sudan to monitor the country’s elections and some had already experienced emergency flights out of trouble spots in Sudan….so the last thing anyone would want is to be now stuck in Khartoum of all places!

For the first few days I did not leave my desk at all day until late evening after contacting the group organisers to start to re book flights. This was a logistical nightmare as most flights were already full because of the elections. Once it became apparent that their stay was going to be extended by 7 and 10 days, we started to look for alternative ways home to the UK.

A friend,Tony who was with the group contacted me and he volunteered to liaise with me to arrange alternative flights for individuals who really wanted to get home. After many calls and emails backwards and forwards; advising and suggesting routes home where I found flights, I was able to book some to fly out of Khartoum. 6 flew out on 20^th April to Istanbul. 3 stayed there for 2 nights and were going to fly to Madrid to make their way home from there, but as things improved I managed to get 3 seats on home from Istanbul and they flew home on 22nd.

Another flew onto Athens…hoping to catch up with his wife, but then flew to Rome!…No joy there, so I booked him to Barcelona where he joined up with Tony who had flown onto Barcelona from Istanbul. Travel Counsellor Di Oliver had put a message up that a friend had booked a coach to drive from Barcelona to UK and there were seats left. We managed to get these two guys onto it!…They arrived home yesterday morning…very pleased to be home after their epic journey!

Another lady who I had also booked Istanbul then to Barcelona…she was going to Malaga to stay and wait there. When the e mail came through about places onboard Celebrity Eclipse from Bilbao to Southampton for Travel Counsellors customers. A quick call at 10pm to Istanbul to ask her if she would like me to get her on it …Yes! I booked a flight to Bilbao for her and a night in Barcelona. The hotel printed out her e-tickets and cruise details for her. The lady texted me when Eclipse set sail….extremely happy !!

From the remaining group 29 have stuck it out in Khartoum and thankfully 9 are flying home today 23^rd and the last 20 on 26^th April.

I could not have done any of this without the constant support of the Head office IATA team and British Midland groups who were so helpful.

It is such a relief now to know they are all on the way home!….I cannot imagined what would have happened if this extraordinary event had been prolonged

I am absolutely shattered but also feeling a little proud of myself too and hopefully gained some new customers!

Now back to all those enquiries that had been put on hold for a week!

Sue Clutterbuck, Travel Agent Surrey