Opinion: Be kind to people working in retail, including travel agents

Travel agents have a tough job ahead of them, remember to be kind. Photo / File

COMMENT:

When you click like on that post about the importance of being kind to retail staff working hard so you can make purchases in an uncertain time …

Or when you share that photo of someone visibly exhausted from re-stocking the supermarket shelves that are constantly emptied by people buying more than they need …

I think it's just as important to accept that travel agents fall into that same category, but are probably a lot less appreciated.

And it's a time like this – amid a global Covid-19 pandemic that has forced borders to close around the world – they're likely to be in demand more than ever.

Travel agents are who some of you might go and see to help plan your holiday, and if you have, they can help fix anything that goes wrong with your trip no matter the point of where you are in that trip, or where you are in the world.

They'll be re-routing flights, postponing and cancelling bookings, making insurance claims and talking with emotional, panicking, scared, confused and even angry customers through their Covid-19 crisis.

Right now, they have a tough job ahead of them.

As someone who worked as a travel agent for a year there are a few misconceptions some people have around the role of a travel agent, flights and even costs.

A travel agent can help their customers with just about any travel query. If you booked online, through another agent from another company, or with someone other than them, over the phone, they can't help you.

If you've cancelled a paid flight or have a credit from a flight that didn't pan out, it is the airline that holds your credit, not your agent.

If you need to change your flight details for some reason, there is a change fee and the final price you pay will depend on the flights available on your new flight. There is no set price, and yes, it can change within minutes.

More often than not, a travel agent telling you this is not trying to be difficult or rip you off. And right now as they deal with Covid-19's travel issues, I feel for them.

Some of them will be stressing out themselves, trying to ensure as minimal despair as possible for travellers, some will have been verbally attacked by a worried traveller or family member, and some may have lost a customer to the deadly virus.

They're probably spending most of their days dealing with travel plans halted by coronavirus and they'll be facing a reality that includes people avoiding travel. As a profession that relies on commission from new bookings to survive, these travel agents will have their own personal fears in this time as well.

They're individual staff, more often than not, running their own business within a company but I guarantee there aren't many people who think of them this way.

The next time you visit a travel agent demanding they fix a flight you booked under the wrong information, want to change your booking, or come across anyone just doing their job in general, just remember the importance of being a decent human.