Well has the volcanic ash taken the vital media coverage the politicians needed or has it helped them? I was considering how our lives have changed so much in the last century. Some of you may be aware that my Father if alive today would have been 100 years old. Obviously when he was a young man the world was different a place and we would not have encountered the issues we have faced because of aviation and volcanic ash.
Interesting to me (sorry if you are media) but it seemed to me that the media were desperate for someone to blame and to be culpable. We had a member of staff that was due to go to a family wedding. Obviously travellers are moving for a numerous number of reasons: going for business, to see family, for a special family occasion, a sad family occasion, travelling for medical treatment, returning home and of course holidays. So many disappointed people many that have not been able to leave their country and many that are stranded overseas.
The country was going to suffer freight loss – goods transported to the UK by air: fruit, flowers, foodstuffs etc, which would have impinged on our day to day life even greater.
As the industry I represent is tourism I am going to focus on that. Immediately we all have to work through a crisis plan. Our major priority was looking after clients who were and yes some still are stranded overseas who were due home earlier. We have had an amazing team at Bales supporting this and worked with hoteliers and our overseas representative offices called ground agents to ensure that all clients were looked after and we secured accommodation. Of course everything you would expect from a good tour operator! Understandably the airlines are asking us to rebook our clients on next available flights rather than they manage the process. This is not always as easy as it sounds as for many airlines they have a back log of passengers waiting to fly home and not enough aircraft and crew to be able to achieve speedily as lots of clients would wish. Of course when you think that if there is a daily schedule with a full compliment of passengers and that was stopped for 6 days there are more passengers than aircraft in every location. Putting this all into perspective I think we have to be delighted that there were such measures taken to ensure the safety of the flying public – and of course the crews.
I am so proud to be in an industry where we have all worked as our priority towards putting customers first. I know that many in our industry have worked 24/7 to do this and I am so sorry if you have not experienced this with whoever you travelled, but please do not brand the industry wrongly as this would be unjust and unfair – as the overwhelming vast majority have put the customers’ welfare and safety first.
It is unusual for me not to be light hearted or add humour but sometimes our business is too serous and right now my life is about ensuring that each and everyone of you that are travelling with us are overseas are safe and get home as soon as possible.
I continue to achieve this so must go – and speak soon
Mandy
About Mandy Nickerson
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Mandy endeavours to share her travel experiences (where she will 'tell it like it is') and also detail the latest exciting projects that she is involved in.
Mandy welcomes your feedback - please feel free to submit your thoughts, queries, comments and theories below. 
My wife and I have recently returned from a very enjoyable holiday with Bales in Cairo and on the Oberoi Philae cruising the Nile. We consider our selves very lucky to have returned without delay on the first Egypt Air flight from Cairo to Heathrow following the volcanic ash cloud.
It is therefore surprising that we will think very carefully before booking again with Bales. Our expectations were that Bales as a leader in tailor made holidays would be highly experienced in managing problems and would offer a high level of support to its clients. During our cruise we received no information on the developing situation and were forced on three occasions to phone the emergency number in the UK for news. This was manned efficiently but not pro actively. We were left in no doubt that Bales would rely on the small print in the booking conditions and that although promises were made to find us hotel accommodation it would be at our cost.
On our arrival in Cairo for our final evening our ground agent was still unsure on the flight situation for the next day and more worryingly said that hotel availability in Cairo was now a problem.
We were lucky to return home without problem.
Your blog does not fairly portray what your guests were experiencing.
Dear Mr Banwell
Thank you for your message left on our web site, regarding your recent holiday with us to Egypt.
We were naturally concerned to hear that you were not entirely happy with the information we provided to you during the volcanic ash crisis. Unfortunately we were not in a position to provide a definite assurance that airspace would reopen in time for your return flight, as it was impossible to predict when this would be the case. We had however asked our agents to provisionally book your rooms for an extended stay in Cairo if this proved necessary, so I was sorry to hear that you were given to believe that this might be a problem. It is correct that you were advised that you would have to initially cover the cost of this extra accommodation and we would then assist in reclaiming this on your return, either from the airline or through your insurance company. Indeed, many airlines are only accepting claims from the passenger travelling and this was in accordance with the guidelines provided by ABTA.
In the final instance our primacy focus had to be to repatriate the many clients we had stranded around the world and to those whose holidays we were unable to operate, rather than on clients like yourselves whose holiday were going ahead as planned. We did however respond to all calls received both at our office and on our emergency phone and gave as much information as we felt able to in what was after all an unprecedented and ever changing situation. I hope you will understand our position in this matter and I am sorry that an otherwise enjoyable holiday was marred in this way.
Kind regards
Mandy
Dear Mandy,
Thanks for your response. It is good to see that you are not afraid to post critical comments on the blog.
In return I would like to make two points
1. We were told by the emergency duty officer that all additional costs of accommodation and food had to be paid by ourselves and reclaimed from our insurers. No offer of help to recover cost was made
2. I do not understand why you failed to communicate regular updates to your clients. The booking process included a detailed fact find on contact phone numbers and email contacts. Many people now travel with mobile phones and lap tops. A simple daily text or email to clients updating the situation would be easy to do and save the cost of us phoning you.
I hope you take these points on board and take a more proactive attitude to clients worries
Regards
Peter Banwell
Dear Mr Banwell
Thank you for your prompt reply in response to our correspondence regarding the volcanic ash crisis.
With regard to the extra costs clients incurred, we hope you will appreciate that it was difficult for us to provide definite advice on this point as both the airlines and insurance companies were constantly reviewing their polices once it became apparent that the crisis might be ongoing. We did offer to help those clients with their claims who were stranded at the time and have done so since their return, but we would not necessarily have suggested this to clients whose holidays were unaffected.
We will consider your suggestion of communicating to our clients through mobile phones, although the recent crisis demonstrated that not all of our clients have mobiles and some do not work all of the time while they are away. We could then face a situation whereby some clients are receiving information whilst others are not, which is not ideal.
We continue to review our crisis policies and I am sure you and other readers will appreciate the volcanic ash crisis was the first and therefore unprecendented crisis we have to deal with of this magnitude and the impact it had both on stranded passengers and those who were due to travel.
I believe testamont to the support we gave and they way we have dealt with this is the number of thank you and congratulatory letters we have received on the way we dealt with the pasengers who were either stranded or could not commence their holiday.We have thought about posting these on our web site but of course some clients prefer to deal with us on a private basis.
We continue to review all our policies and will certainly take your points on board when upating the policy.
Thank you for taking the time to post your comments
Kind Regards
Mandy