Local Travel agents choose to be brokers, over redundancy

Sierra O’Donnell and Jo McDonnell were both Flight Centre sales consultants working out of the shop in Whanganui – Sierra for the past 6 years and Jo for 12 years. Both loved their jobs, travelling themselves and especially Flight Centre as a company to work for.

However, the Whanganui Flight Centre shop was one of the 23 stores Flight Centre closed down as a result of Covid’s impact on overseas travel. (Twenty-three stores have remained open). The four staff were offered redundancy but Sierra and Jo approached the company and suggested they become Flight Centre brokers. They had to qualify and they did and now they work from home.

There are advantages they say. “It provides flexibility for both us and the clients. We can meet up in their homes or in a café. Over the years we built up some amazing relationships and customers have shown, not only loyalty, but also a positive response to using them for their now domestic travel arrangements.”

As they are still part of Flight Centre they are able to benefit from Flight Centre’s negotiation power and to pass on the benefits. While they are ‘consultants contracted to Flight Centre’ they are independent agents and can offer everything from internal flights, bus and train travel as well as organising holiday packages, especially for families but also for sports and community organisations. As Jo says, “We will take away some of the pressure from you.”

As most of us, they are “hopeful of travel bubbles to Australia and the Cook Island opening soon. That will help get us through next year.” Apart from that there are still customers wanting to transfer overseas credits to domestic travel and Sierra and Jo can continue helping with that. Sierra says, “It is better for us to chase refunds rather than phoning an 0800 number and waiting in line for someone to respond.”

They point out “There are also changes in insurance arrangements with some companies offering Covid cancellation cover which includes something happening up to seven days prior to your trip.”

They add, “We are local girls. This is our livelihood. We will look after our customers.”

You can contact them as follows:
Sierra – sierra.odonnell.nz@flightcentre.co.nz
Jo – jo.mcdonnell.nz@flightcentre.co.nz

You can also contact them through their Facebook page; Wanganui Flight Centre Travel Brokers.

River City Press 12/11/20