Our Five Minutes with… this month is with our Out of Hours Manager, Lorraine Frain.
How did you get your current role?
I’ve been in travel all my working life except when I had children and ran a pub for a few years. I joined Meon as a business travel training consultant, training people how to use online booking tools -we had three new starters this year who had never worked in travel. Then my current position became available. I like to take on different roles and have different goals to aim for, plus I’m a night owl which comes in handy as the team starts at 5pm and we’re available at weekends too.
What does the job involve?
I like to think we give common sense in a world where sense is not always common. Generally, it’s helping clients out of certain situations like flight cancellations. The other day, a client called us from his seat saying his flight had gone tech and was now cancelled. We had him rebooked within an hour. He arrived at his destination as the rescheduled flight he would have otherwise caught was just leaving.
What are the advantages of having an in-house team?
We have all the tools at our fingertips. We also know our clients and we know their travel policies together with all the contact details they would ever need. We don’t ask that exhausting list of questions because we already have all the information captured, a complete email trail and, all the travel details at our fingertips. Plus, because we are familiar we have all the personal and business contacts and direct access to everything they might need.
Is your role all about rebookings?
No, we also assist clients in making new reservations. We have clients dealing with us around the world. It could be they are travelling on business and need to book their next trip; they like to know they can contact us any time and it will get actioned, they do not need to wait.
How do you cope with the hours?
Running a pub prepares you for late nights, I only need around four hours’ sleep a night. If I have six hours at the weekend, that’s a really, really good night – 6am is a lie-in, happy days! The shifts are split so nobody gets exhausted as you have to be on your A-game with all the time in the world to dedicate to one of our clients who may well be displaced and overloaded themselves.
Any weird requests?
We are a helpdesk with access to concierge services so weird requests are infrequent however, we did get a call from an Uber driver the other day trying to deliver a meal to a client’s hotel room. The guest wasn’t answering his phone and his food was getting cold!
What advice would you give to travellers?
Firstly, check your itinerary before your travel. Even people booking on their own company’s platform often book their colloquial name which doesn’t match their passport. Secondly, before you get to the airport check the flight is operating and not delayed, and plan your parking or give your flight number to your taxi driver. It’s not uncommon to receive a call asking for directions to ‘the South Terminal at Heathrow!’ Lastly, check your documents, make sure for example, that your passport isn’t about to expire – we’ve had this come up a couple of times with the new EU rules.
