By Les-Lee Roland

Welcome to the Flips and Flops column. We are able to do what we do here because of your input and information. If you want a supplier or a res agent or DSM to get special recognition, let us know. If there is something amiss with a company’s policies or actions, share them with us, as well. Let us know which booking engines and Web pages are hits and which are misses! E-Mail your suggestions to packagedeals@comcast.net.

Most agents always spell out their client’s names to the res agent. Then why are so many confirmations and documents coming through with misspellings? I personally had four errors on a recent insurance confirmation, including the name of my agency and my city, along with the name of the client. With many apologies from the supervisor, a new certificate was sent. You guessed it, another wrong name. If everything has to be so precise from our end, res agents had better get it right the first time. FLOP!
A big FLIP to the Travel Channel. Agents should take the time to watch some of the shows. The destinations sell themselves. I am watching a show on Maui right now as I am typing this, and I am daydreaming about going there. Ho, hum, back to the keyboard.
A FLOP to the talk shows coverage of the missing bridegroom off of a cruise ship. News is important, if it’s accurate. But some of the suppositions with media-hungry experts who just repeat themselves, with no new evidence, hurt the cruise industry rather than helping to solve a mystery.
But toss a coin, and a FLIP to Frieda at MSC cruises. She had the task of calling me to tell me that two of my clients had disappeared off their cruise just a few days into their 11-day Caribbean trip. She had received an E-mail from the purser who said the couple left a message requesting that the four pieces of luggage in their cabin be sent COD to their home in Florida. But no message about where they were or why they left the ship. Frieda and I tossed around some theories. We especially chuckled about the possibility that they were in the witness protection program, and someone recognized them, so they got off in either Granada or Barbados, with just the resort clothes on their backs. I was waiting for Larry King and CNN to call about an interview, maybe along with a mystery writer and a psychic.
A few days later, the clients called me. The wife had become seriously ill (nothing at all due to the cruise), went to a local clinic — arranged by the ship’s doctor — and had to have emergency surgery. In order to airlift her and her hubby to a nearby hospital, there was no room for luggage, thus the message to send everything home. Frieda arranged to have an agent board the ship, when it returned to Florida, take the luggage through customs, store the bags in a bonded warehouse and arrange for shipping them to the clients. She worked overtime to handle everything and keep me apprised of every detail.
What did the clients say? Were they appreciative? They had declined the insurance I always offer, but they felt that the cruise line should give them a free cruise, pay the $110 shipping fee, and didn’t want to call Frieda, because she didn’t have a tollfree number. This on top of having to pay for airline tickets from Grenada to Florida after the surgery. Guess it’s not a far cry from something being life threatening one day, and life demanding the next.
A big FLIP to Karina at Spirit Airlines. She has scripted the most humorous instructive pieces for her onboard speech. The attention grabbing script introducing the pilots and talking about seat belts and emergency exits brings chuckles to even the most white knuckled passengers. And it continues with her landing reminders.
I know that Spirit is only available in certain markets, so I invite everyone to come to Florida or Detroit to try to connect with Karina. What she does shows the love of her job, and not corporate dictates. Southwest sings “Happy Birthday,” American and United offer lotteries. Delta’s soon-to-be defunct Song had a trivia question. Northwest...well they are traditional. Boring.
Oh well, back to mundane business. No more daydreaming about Hawaii and my possible 15 minutes of fame.