Triangle Travel managing director Rob Kenton was informed of the situation at 5am by Typically Holidays managing director, Daniel Broccoli.
"I thought, something’s gone wrong here," Kenton told TTG. "The clients were already on the way to the airport, so we didn’t ring them until we got it sorted.
"We managed to get them on the next available flight to Rome, which left 10 minutes after the cancelled flight to Pisa, then arranged them to get the train from Rome to Florence, and then we had a driver waiting for them in Florence to take them to where they were staying in Tuscany. That was all done by 5.30am."
On arrival at Heathrow at around 5.45am, Kenton told his clients – two women travelling to the European country for a wedding on Saturday (2 July) – their flight had been cancelled and to instead head to the Rome check-in desk. The pair are due to arrive in Italy only two hours after their original touch-down time.
"It’s not when you see the problem come in you think: ’right this is about our worth and this is about us’, it’s just instinct to help and get it sorted," Kenton added.
"Those clients are regular clients of ours and we don’t want them having that stress. The more and more stress there is, the more people are going to want to stop travelling. So if we can be there on the end of the phone, get it all sorted for them and take the responsibility for them, we will get it sorted."
Kenton praised Broccoli and Typically Holidays for their swift action in contacting him and raising the issue, as well as "going above and beyond" to resolve the situation.
"Honestly, fair play to them," Kenton said. "Obviously he’s going to be out of pocket a bit because his driver will have to pick them up from Florence rather than Pisa and he’s had to buy new train tickets for them, but he was on the phone to me at 5am in the morning.
"From an agent’s point of view, dealing with those tour operators that are responsible and on the ball, that’s the most important bit. If I was dealing with a big mainstream company, I wouldn’t have been able to do anything as they wouldn’t open till 9am."
