the gift of christmas

How does an airport-closing snowstorm in Colorado affect me when I live in California and have no plans to travel east for the holidays? Well, I'm a travel consultant (actually quite new in the industry ... just seven months now), and I have clients whose travel plans included Denver.

The phone call came at 7 p.m. Thursday night. I hadn't even eaten dinner yet! One client was already at the family's condo near the ski slopes. Her tree was trimmed and the home was decorated for the holidays, awaiting the rest of the family. Her husband and daughters had managed to change their canceled flights to Saturday. But United had just canceled the next-day flights for her two sons who were scheduled to fly in from the east coast.

This mother called with a plea that anyone can understand. All she wanted for Christmas was for her whole family to be together. She couldn't get through to United on the phone. Nothing seemed to be working. Could I help?

Let me pause the story with a true confession. I really don't do air, and I'm not alone. Sabre is a beast of a program, and it's very easy to make a simple but expensive mistake booking with Sabre, so I don't even try. I book air travel for my clients, when they need me to do it, the same way you do ... through the airlines' web sites.

However, I know enough Sabre to punch in the codes to see what flights are available and how many seats are open in what classes of service. Armed with that information, I went to Continental's website and secured two reservations (they had different return dates) for her sons. The first reservation went through without a hitch. The second reservation ... well, apparently someone had bought the same seat just moments before I clicked the button.

That's what was happening Thursday night. Flights to Denver were being bought quicker than the computers could keep up with the itinerary. Option after option failed to produce an itinerary that I could book. Finally I entered a one-way search for WAS-DEN on orbitz, and after a few misses, scored a nonstop flight for the second son! (He'll be happy; the only remaining seat was in first class).

How can I explain this seat suddenly appearing? Probably passengers were holding multiple reservations, and someone released this seat when something less expensive became available for them.

So after a couple of hours of really stressful work, I had saved Christmas! My client's whole family would be together. And what did I charge for my services? It was my gift. (My general manager will shudder to read this!) It was my pleasure to be able to give my clients ... the gift of Christmas.

travel agent consultant airline airport closing United Continental Denver snowstorm Christmas gift family together Sabre orbitz ski slopes tree