Can this Trip be Saved / Managing your Travel Business / Travel Selling 101
by John Hawks

Can this Trip be Saved

The Case of the Delayed Bride

Question: You've booked your best clients' daughter and her brand-new husband on an extremely luxurious, no-expenses-spared honeymoon cruise in the South Pacific. Now, it's late afternoon on the embarkation day -- and the blushing bride calls you in a panic from the airport, where the couple's connection flight to the cruise port just arrived four hours late! She and her husband have less than 30 minutes to claim their luggage and transfer to the port before the ship is scheduled to sail. What happens if they miss the ship?

Answer: The short-and-sweet answer (if they didn't purchase travel insurance) is that your clients may be out of luck.

The fine print in airline ticket terms generally says an airline has no responsibility for additional damages that might result from a flight delay or cancellation. That means your clients can't sue the airline or ask it to go to extra lengths to help them if the late flight means they've missed their honeymoon cruise (or an important business meeting or a graduation ceremony, for that matter).

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