Travel program managers can proactively prepare their travelers for weather disruptions, says Tracy Maier, a senior vice president of BCD Travel in North America. Here are a few of her top tips for educating and communicating with travelers.
Put weather warnings on your TMC portal or your company’s intranet as soon as possible, then advise travelers and travel arrangers to go online to make bookings that aren’t happening within the next 72 hours. That way, travelers who are en route or have immediate travel plans affected by the storm can get agents’ full attention. At BCD Travel, we extend agents’ business hours during extreme weather disruptions.
Put weather warnings on your TMC portal or your company’s intranet as soon as possible, then advise travelers and travel arrangers to go online to make bookings that aren’t happening within the next 72 hours. That way, travelers who are en route or have immediate travel plans affected by the storm can get agents’ full attention. At BCD Travel, we extend agents’ business hours during extreme weather disruptions.- If there’s a chance for extreme weather, advise affected travelers not to check in 24 hours in advance. Once a traveler has checked in, some carriers do not allow TMCs to access the record to make changes. Plus, if travelers check in closer to departure time, they and the airlines will have more accurate weather information.
- Explain the waiver process to travelers. Airlines issue waivers to allow TMCs to make changes to travelers’ reservations. But there are still times when an airline may block TMC access to the traveler’s reservation. For example, if a waiver is used once and bad weather causes a need for a second change, the TMC may have to contact the airline for a second waiver code. That can greatly extend the time it takes to solve a travelers’ flight problems.
- Encourage travelers to keep traveler profiles up to date with accurate contact information, including mobile numbers. Send out messages requesting profile updates regularly, not just when bad weather is on the way. Also, encourage travelers to download BCD Travel’s free TripSource app, which provides alerts and notifications related to weather, flight delays and other kinds of trip disruptions.
- Warn travelers that weather disruptions can have an effect on flights originating in cities where the weather is fine. Their airplane could be stuck in a city that has been affected by weather.
- Some airlines provide a special customer service phone number for elite travelers. If your program hasn’t implemented BCD Travel’s Disruption Services, using that elite traveler number could save time when lines are busy. On a similar note, elite travelers can try heading to the airline’s club lounge for assistance.
- Hope for sunny skies. We do!
