Poor customer service delivery by airlines has seen travel agents taking to OpenJaw and WhatsApp to voice their frustrations. The majority say they’ve never experienced so many delays and flight cancellations, and it appears that many airlines are not equipped to handle the fall-out when agents or clients need assistance with changing their tickets.
One agent, who preferred to remain anonymous, says airlines are not updating GDS PNRs when flights are cancelled or delayed. She told Travel News that the practice seemed to have become the norm.
“Travel agents had to regroup and get on their feet again very quickly post-COVID, and we still seem to be the ones mopping up the mess and assisting clients even when they have booked flights directly with the airlines. Since COVID, it seems that airlines are communicating less and less with agents via the PNR. Bookings aren’t updated and flights are continuously delayed, rescheduled or outright cancelled. It’s impossible to get assistance from many airline reservation desks and most reps just don’t answer their phones because they just do not have enough staff to manage the influx,” she says.
Another Durban-based agent believes that airlines are actively trying to deal directly with travellers and cut out agents completely.
“I’ve had many clients who receive an SMS from the airline saying that a flight has been delayed or cancelled, and because the details haven’t come through on the GDS, I then look like an idiot when my client phones to find out what’s going on! Clients who booked directly with airlines are also reaching out to agents because the airlines don’t respond to them at all when a notification of a change is sent and flights need to be changed. Refunds have also become questionable. When it comes to cancellations and delays and airlines seem less inclined to refund tickets – even when refunds are requested due to an airline rescheduling,” says the agent.
She says she’s had to resort to putting in her own email address and the client’s mobile number when booking flights in the hope that at least she or the client will receive updates.
Annelie Scheepers, a consultant at Sure Maritime Travel, feels that, although agents are working behind the scenes to assist their clients, airlines are seriously dropping the ball.
“There are airlines that won’t change or reschedule a client’s booking or do upgrades on promo rates if they booked through their travel agent. Airfares offered on websites are consistently much lower than GDS fares and from airlines that aren’t participating in NDC in South Africa.”
A clearly frustrated Scheepers believes the relationship between agents and airlines has never been worse. “We’re selling their air tickets and yet animosity prevails. It is affecting travellers negatively and airlines are getting a bad reputation for this nonsense.”
A recent letter to UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak signed by the Association of Independent Tour Operators and online travel agents Love Holidays, On the Beach and Thomas Cook, calls for recourse to curb the issue. It says airlines that break the law by not helping customers when flights are delayed or cancelled should be fined.
“While some of these issues are outside airlines’ control, they are routinely failing what’s in their control: to uphold their customers’ legal rights to rerouting and refunds, and provide clear and timely passenger information,” says the letter.
In response, the UK’s Department of Transport has said it will give the Civil Aviation Authority the power to fine airlines but did not indicate when this will take effect.
