NO!

No is the hardest word to say to a customer when you are trying to give them the best service you can but in some circumstances it may be the only answer.

Recently a man was branded as a terrorist whilst visiting America due to an error on his ESTA visa completed by his Travel Agent on his behalf.

Click to read more of this story.

Former Cop Marked As Terrorist By Local Travel Agent

Customers often ask if we can complete online check-in information and book aircraft seats for them and although strictly speaking this should be done by the customer some do struggle with systems and it can be very frustrating so it is often easier for us to do this on their behalf to make sure it is all complete and they do not get any delays with their tickets.

Esta Visas and other electronic online visas are another issue entirely but again many customers ask that we complete them on their behalf but we are human and it is very easy to click a wrong box or miss out a letter on a name so I try to politely decline and say No they will have to do them for themselves.

If your agent does agree to help then please be courteous and patient whilst they ask you all the relevant questions. It is vital you listen carefully so the right information is put on the application. Often customers will interrupt or say that bit does not matter etc but it does and this is where mistakes are easily made.  I have had customers say they have no middle name when they do and afterwards they say they did not think it mattered or they were not really listening.

Things are not always straight forward and I had a customer recently who had tried 8 times to submit the application and it was not taking her to the next screen to pay the fee.  I even went through it step by step with her on the phone and ended up having to do it myself and it went straight through so it may have been a system error on her side but I was happy to resolve this for them.

I am meticulous when checking the details but as I have said mistakes are so easy to make.

So next time an agent says NO!  Do not try to bully them, Force them or guilt them into doing it. They may not feel confident doing this for you and after all you don’t want any errors so spare a thought when they politely try to advise you they cannot do something for you and have a go at doing it yourself.

TOP TIPS

Complete it when you are not in a hurry. Take your time. Read everything carefully and follow the instructions.

Just make sure if you are sending for a visa online that you go to the official website as there are lots of pop up sites which will charge you a fee on top of the Visa Charge. EG: an ESTA Visa for the USA is $14 but there are sites out there that will charge you anything up to $85 for the same thing so if you were a family of 4 it would cost you $284 extra to book on this site = £195 extra approximately.

So just be a bit savvy when you look.