DonTopaz

This board has seen plenty of discussions about the advantages of using agents located near home, using agents in Africa, and using no agents at all. On my recent trip to Botswana, I found a major benefit of using a local (Botswana) agent.

I booked my trip through The Booking Company in Maun, which is run by Ernest and his assistant, Elizabeth. I’d chosen The Booking Company over other agents, including a US-based agent that I’d used on multiple occasions, because (1)they had been recommended by a trusted member of this board, and (2)they broke down the pricing for me by camp/transfer/private vehicle. They booked my Air Botswana flights between Jo’burg and Maun, 4-night stays at Nxai Pan and Little Kwara camps, and air transfers between the camps. This was not a complex trip, Elizabeth (and her predecessor, Steffi) was easy to work with and handled my requests promptly.

Everything was fine until my flight to Johannesburg was delayed by an hour in Frankfurt. Before the delay, I had only a 2-hour connection in Jo’burg to my Air Botswana flight (Joburg-Gabarone-Maun), so a 1-hour delay was serious business. From Frankfurt, I e-mailed The Booking Company to let them know that I might misconnect, asking them to let me know of contingency arrangements.

In Jo’burg, I did make the connection to Gabarone – Lufthansa had arranged to meet me on arrival, and they sprinted me through the transit area in good time. But the real problem was in Gabarone. The Gabarone-to-Maun flight was first delayed by 2.5 hours, and the already-delayed flight had to return to Gabarone after 10 mins because of a mechanical problem. By the time I got to Maun it was 8pm, and clearly impossible to fly to Nxai Pan that day.

Turns out that Ernest had been following my progress all along. He had been in touch with Air Botswana to alert them of my delayed arrival in Jo’burg, and he arranged for VIP treatment during the delay in Gabarone. (Air Botswana invited me to their lounge during the wait – the air-con lounge with comfortable seating was a very welcome alternative, especially as I had already been travelling for 36 hours from Boston, to the grim waiting room at Gabarone Airport.) Ernest also ensured that Air Botswana would arrange for my transfers and overnight accommodations in Maun.

In retrospect, a Botswana-based agent was extremely helpful in this instance. When potential and then actual travel disruptions happened, The Booking Company did a terrific job of helping to mitigate an unfortunate situation. The personal relationships that Ernest had developed with local travel providers proved invaluable to me, and his availability (including being in the same time zone) was equally helpful. I'm sure that things would have worked out eventually if I'd arranged everything for myself, or if I'd used a non-Botswana-based agent, but using the agent local almost surely minimized the stress and aggravation

spassvogel

Very good response by your Botswana travel agent.
I would not having expected more.

The "rescue" procedure you are describing is not just restricted to domestic agents.

A very good consultant would do exactly the same - from Europe to Botswana.

Resumee:

It's not depending on the location where the TA is working from - it's the TA/TO's understanding of service!

Statement based on experiences.

SV

Femi

You describe the advantage of using not just a local agent, but an excellent local agent. A rare find, and always nice to read about them.

napamatt_2

Rizzuto - it can't be true, an Air Bots plane had mechanical issues.

DonTopaz

napamatt, you saw right through my ruse.

cary999

thanks, interesting

regards - tom

HariS

Lovely report, Thank You.

Sorry about the delays with Air Bots. FWIW, I had a 4 hour delay on Emirates out of JNB.

atravelynn

Thank you so much. Your misfortune with travel delays gives a nice glimpse into how the agent handled things. To me that's what is really important--that an agent steps up when things go wrong. The Booking Company came through for you. Hope you had a nice trip once you did arrive. Thanks for sharing your experience.

LAleslie

Hmmm, food for thought next time. Thanks. Now that I'm fast approaching senility, these airline lounges become more and more important when your dealing with long transit times and delays. At least you didn't have to come home early this time.