A relatively new TC myself I was lucky not to have too many of my own clients stranded. However, I ended up coming to the rescue of a young family with a 19-month old baby who had booked themselves a low-cost flight and accommodation in Lanzarote online.

The husband of the family books all his Business Travel with the company my partner (Robert) works for. On Sunday afternoon Robert received a text from his client for the number of their 24-hour service, as he wanted to speak to them about getting home on trains via France. When he phoned 24-hours, (who, as a rule, do not touch low-cost bookings) he was told that they were unable to assist because he was on a personal holiday which he had booked himself. I told Robert to give him my number and 10 minutes later I was speaking to the client.

He had managed to book himself and his family a flight to Madrid and two nights hotel accommodation, but obviously, being a busy businessman, needed to get home as soon as possible.

I worked tirelessly during the next four days to get him several travel options, which was not too easy with Eurostar’s system going all over the place, a train strike in France and no one-way car rentals across the border from Spain either, but I kept in touch with the family by email, text messages and phone calls and eventually managed to get them home safely on an Air Europa flight into Gatwick on the Thursday.

They were so happy to be home and to have been looked after by someone who did not care that they had initially made their own travel arrangements online, but was willing to assist regardless of that fact.

Paula Emmenegger, Travel Agent County Antrim