Gamble saves agent thousands

AN AGENCY was saved tens
of thousands of rands when
a client travelled on a ticket
with one letter omitted from
his name.
Earlier this year Rudy
Botha was consulting at a
Joburg-based agency when
he booked four businessclass
tickets on United
Airlines to the US at
R52 000 each. Tickets
were emailed to the client at
the time but neither
Rudy nor the client picked
up that one letter had
been omitted from one of
the passenger’s names.
A week before travel, the
client checked his ticket and
noticed the error.
The airline advised the
agency that a new ticket
had to be booked at the
current available fare and
that the old ticket, with the
incorrect name, needed to
be submitted for a refund.
Full cancellation penalties
would apply. However, when
they priced a business-class
fare for the same travel
dates the cost of the ticket
had increased to R112 000.
This meant that the agency
needed to pay in R60 000
more for the new ticket
before cancellation penalties
for the original ticket were
taken into account.
After much consideration,
the agency decided to advise
the client to travel on the
original ticket despite the
error, hoping that the airline
would not pick up on it at
check-in. Rudy speculates
that if the client had been
stopped, rerouting him could
have incurred even greater
costs.
However, in the end, checkin
boarded the client using
the incorrect ticket and he
travelled to the States and
back without incident.
Rudy says most agencies
do not have the resources
to take on the liability
involved in issuing tickets
and an insurance that
covers agencies against the
possibility of incurring ADMs
and other airline penalties is
needed.
While airlines have been
communicating about
tightening up in date change
procedures for the last few
years, in practice they will
often unofficially waive these
policies if an agent appeals
to the right person.